I am looking to install a reflex red dot on my semi auto handgun.....i'm looking at the Vortex Venom ($179 on Amazon), on the high end and on the low end the sightmark mini shot ($56 on Amazon)....

I would like to know, since i am not familiar with reflex red dots, what makes to Vortex better that the sightmark?....i have read all the info on there sites and can't come up with any answers.....better components?...better optical elements?....also i can't tell what the optical elements are?....glass or plastic?.....

I have read the explanation on wikipedia and somewhat understand, but i'm not a super techie type....more atari than xbox....

hopefully some people on this forum can help....thanks is advance

Bob

I don't know much about the Vortex Venom but I do have a Vortex Strike Fire II on my M&P 15 Sport and really like it.
It is easy to zero and holds the zero well, even when the mount is removed from the rifle and then replaced in the same slot.
This model has both a red or green dot depending on what you want to use at the time. Switching from one to the other also doesn't effect the zero. Overall, I believe that Vortex provides quality products for whatever the shooter's needs may be.

I just picked up a Vortex Venom from Midway. Paid more than that, bought that because Vortex has a no BS lifetime warranty on even electronic devices and no one else does. That alone is worth the money over some cheap ****** one

By the Vortex and only buy once. My friend's sightmark lasted about a week. Dot stopped working first, then the lens fell out of it. It's cheap for a reason.

Ditto on recommending Vortex.

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America First

IMHO, you need to disclose the purpose of the gun/optic combination here. If you are going to use it for self defense (or serious competition) then you shouldn't be considering a $50 optic. That said, I have several Sight Mark Mini Optics mounted on 22 handguns (for informal plinking and steel shooting.). They seem to have held up fine despite their lack of finesse in build quality.
I also run Leupold Optics on my M&P CORE where reliability and durability are paramount.

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Dave

I have an inexpensive Truglo-2 color 1 reticle about $50 at Dick's.
It's on my Victory SW22. Great for 25 yds

As wee hooker stated, mission is everything.
.22s, shotguns and PCC for speed games wear this Truglo:

Bullseye and silhouette guns get Ultradot Matchdot or Matchdot II

Just picked up a Vortex Venom I'm having mounted to my SW1911 for pins.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

I bet shooting bowling pins with the red dot equipped 1911 is big fun!

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America First

Will soon find out.
Match director throws some curves at us.
Last time I was shooting a 44 magnum weak hand.
1911 would have been more nicer for sure.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

I'm still bettin on fun. I can see after a couple runs, settling into a nice rhythm and it getting easy.

Do report back on how that goes.

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America First

Pricey dots are pricey for a few reasons.

First is warranty. Good ones have lifetime replacement--which you want if you're sticking it on a semiautomatic. There's really no harsher environment for a piece of optics to live in.

Second is dot quality. A cheap red dot will "blow up" the dot, making a large portion of its brightness range unusable. A better unit produces a cleaner dot (note that, depending on the quality of your eyes, even a good dot can still have a light corona--astigmatism sucks). I've seen some awfully big "4 MOA" dots.

Third is, like any optic, the quality of the windage and elevation adjustments. Good dots are repeatable. Bad dots are not.

Fourth is parallax. Now, if I start talking about this, I'm going to create massive amounts of thread-derailing rage. Suffice to say, no dot is "parallax free"--some are parallax free if the target is sufficiently far away, and some have parallax you can more or less ignore.