Red dot discussion. Primary Arms and Aimpoint

CZfool68

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I am admittedly NOT an optics expert. I have a little experience with scopes and some red dots.

Here is my question. How crisp/detailed is your dot? I have an Aimpoint on an AR that is perfectly crisp as virtually any brightness.

I have a Primary Ams dot on my 10/22 that seems to me more of a short squiggly line. Especially if I turn up the brightness. Now my 10/22 is a TD model so I am not yet sure how this is influencing my accuracy. Haven’t used any other optic on that rifle. At 50 yards I can pretty much group inside about a golf ball size circle.

Is this normal for less expensive red dots? Should I relegate the PA to backup duty and replace with something else?
 
Its typical. But it seems like the PA and Halosuns will soon own the RDS market. I started using M68 Aimpoints in the Army back in 1997, they cost $400+ then too.
 
My PAs and Holosun don’t have the crispest dot, they aren’t holographic or anywhere close. But what I noticed is the “blur” was often greatly exaggerated by me closing an eye or having it at an improper setting or something.

The main benefit of the PA level red dots is a high price to performance ratio. They aren’t as good as Aimpoints and the like, but they cost a third as much.


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The bushnell TRS-25 is similar to the PA red dot unless they've changed the PA in the last few years. Very inexpensive but reasonably durable and reliable. I have one of those and a Romeo5 now and I've had the PA. I don't really see much difference between any of them except the Romeo will shut itself off/on. Unless it's a complete POS, I've mostly thought that how you see the dot is more related to your eyesight (astigmatism, etc.) than anything.

The other day PA had a blem sale and I picked up their 2.5x prism sight for half price. The low magnification and horseshoe reticle shoots / handles a lot like a red dot and does away with vision issues typical with straight glass red dots. Might be worth a look.
 
I am admittedly NOT an optics expert. I have a little experience with scopes and some red dots.

Here is my question. How crisp/detailed is your dot? I have an Aimpoint on an AR that is perfectly crisp as virtually any brightness.

I have a Primary Ams dot on my 10/22 that seems to me more of a short squiggly line. Especially if I turn up the brightness. Now my 10/22 is a TD model so I am not yet sure how this is influencing my accuracy. Haven’t used any other optic on that rifle. At 50 yards I can pretty much group inside about a golf ball size circle.

Is this normal for less expensive red dots? Should I relegate the PA to backup duty and replace with something else?

The PA might have a malfunction. Take a picture of the reticle/dot: if the picture is just like it appears to your eye, it’s messed up. If it’s a crisp circle, it’s your eye ball. May want to examine one of their etched reticle options like the PA Silver series 1x20 ACSS cyclops with etched/prism reticle
 
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I have an astigmatism so they all look blurry. Aimpoint, Trijicon, PA, Holosun, Bob's red dot.....doesn't matter......
 
Not sure a prism will work as this is on a TD 10/22 with the magpul mount out on the barrel. Thinking eye relief will be an issue. I’ll play with it again next trip to the range. Last time I shot my Aimpoint it was fine. Maybe my eye’s went bad between trips to the range? That would suck.
 
Not sure a prism will work as this is on a TD 10/22 with the magpul mount out on the barrel. Thinking eye relief will be an issue. I’ll play with it again next trip to the range. Last time I shot my Aimpoint it was fine. Maybe my eye’s went bad between trips to the range? That would suck.

I have a Vortex Viper on a QD mount on mine in that application. It's still a little blurry but less so than some others I've used.
 
Not sure a prism will work as this is on a TD 10/22 with the magpul mount out on the barrel. Thinking eye relief will be an issue. I’ll play with it again next trip to the range. Last time I shot my Aimpoint it was fine. Maybe my eye’s went bad between trips to the range? That would suck.

4.7 inches of eye relief on the Spitfire 1x

not sure if you'll get more than that with anything but a straight up holosight style RDS
 
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