optics review (for the 15-22)

[mikehoncho]

thought i'd start a review thread for all the optics that guys are putting on their 15-22s. if you've got something that hasn't been reviewed in depth so far (like the NC Star Mark III), post it here for all to find easily.

i'll get the ball rolling...

ADCO mirage tactical 3MOA red dot with cantilever mount

$130. out of the box i was very impressed. the dot seemed more crisp than the NCstar (reviewed below) i had on the rifle. i mounted it on the rifle and to my dismay i could not co-witness with my BUIS. the mount puts the optic at the perfect height BUT this mount is not level. there wasn't near enough elevation adjustment to bring the dot down to the front sight. i temporarily "fixed" the problem with 4 small pieces of electrical tape to shim the rear of the mount and tip the front of the optic down a bit. worked fine after that. i called adco and the CS rep i spoke with was very pleasant. he said they sell a lot of these and have never heard of this issue. he offered to send me a new one if i shipped mine to them and then paid for the shipping on the new model. i wasn't interested in spending $20 for shipping so i passed. the electrical tape shim was working like a champ. i removed this optic and mounted on my AR without the electrical tape shim and the issue was the same as on the 15-22. i then put it back on the 15-22 with the shim and mounted my new primary arms 3x magnifier (review below) behind it. the dot through the magnifier was horribly distorted on the lowest brightness setting. useless on higher settings. i will be sending the adco back to midway usa for a refund.

NCstar DLB140R

$65. this is a dual red dot/laser optic. it comes with a very hand quick detach (QD) mount that co-witnesses perfectly with my irons. first impressions are good for a $65 dollar optic. the laser and red dot have separate windage/elevation. the laser is useless in daylight conditions. would probably be fine at an indoor range but i only shoot outdoors so it won't get much use by me. the dot is 4MOA and seems pretty crisp. 5 brightness settings and it's pretty easy to see the dot in sunlight. holds zero pretty darn good when removing and replacing with the QD mount. when mounted in front of the magnifier the dot seems pretty decent. there is some starburst effect but not bad. the dot is probably about 1.5 inches at 25 yards including the starburst. overall i'm pretty happy with this optic.

Primary arms 3x magnifier, generation 3, flip to side mount

$140. really fast shipping via usps. very easy to mount and easy to flip to side. when flipped to side it is totally out of the way of the ejection port. optical quality is fine for what it is. eye relief is short but since there is no parallax you don't need a full view, find your red dot and fire away. i don't think i'd mount this on a .223 where there is a bit of recoil but on a .22lr i don't mind getting my eye 1-2 inches from the magnifier (i prefer to shoot nose to charging handle anyway). this little 3x works! i saw my groups at 25 yards tighten up and i was able to put more rounds on target rapid fire than with the plain red dot. the biggest issue with this magnifier is that you need a high quality red dot for optimal performance. if your dot isn't a true dot the starburst will make it difficult to put on small targets. i would assume the 3x would work better behind an aimpoint or eotech vs. a clone. overall, i'm happy with the magnifier and until i find a better solution for me, i'm sticking with it.

 

[emmandpeashooter]

I have one more thing to ask too. Please include pics of the view through the optic and the price range they can be had for.

 

[Brett248Vista]

NcStar Ultimate ONE Sighting System

This is a kit which is composed of the Mark III Tactical 3x9 Power 42mm Objective Tactical Scope with QD Mount, DDAB Red Dot Sight and a Picatinny Rail Mount for the Red Dot Optic.


$169.00 shipped from RRages.com


I have not had any range time with the optic yet, but I am impressed with the initial build quality and the sight picture on both the Red Dot and the Scope. The Scope it's self is a variable 3 to 9 Power with a 42mm Objective, has Bullet Drop Compensation from 100 to 500 yards with a 50 Grain .223 Round and has Dual Reticule Illumination (Red/Green) with three brightness levels for each color. When reticule illumination is off, the reticule is black and you can get the reticule in numerous different types, I went for Mil Dot. 2MOA for the red dot and it's very crisp and parallax corrected to 40 yards. There are no options for brightness on the Red Dot nor any other reticule patterns just 2 MOA round.

 

[yes]

I have the Primary Arms Gen. III T-1 Clone with kill flash. The sight was 79.00. The optional riser mount was 29.00. I think it was 114.00 shipped. Up front I will say it is a very nice unit. I have one of the Gen. II sights without the kill flash and it too has been great.
Dot: The dot is 5 moa and it is perfectly round to my eyes. The brightness settings are good. While the highest setting (11) is not super bright and I have seen brighter, it has proven perfectly adequate for full sunligh days. Since I shoot three nights a week at an indoor range, more important to me is the fact that the lower settings are dim enough to let me tailor the dot for indoor lighting in just about any condition. This prevents coronas and flared out dots in dim light and greatly improves the usefulness of the sight for my purposes.
Adjustments: The reostat dial is pretty stiff and gives a good tactile feel when rotating it to the various brightness settings. It has never moved once set. The windage and elevation adjustments also have a decent feel. You can feel the clicks but they are not as sharp as some other sights and I have at times had to go back and forth a little to make sure I had stopped on the detent and not over shot it when making an adjustment. The adjustments seem to track well and the sight zeroed to the gun extremely easily.
Battery: The sight takes the 2032 coin style lithium batteries. It uses one. I don't know what the battery life is yet.
Mount: have both the standard low mount and the riser quick detach mount. I have not used the standard mount. The riser mount works great. It is not made fora lot of on and off but it does work as designed and locked down very tightly. It gives a good lower 3rd cowitness with either the factory sights or the MBUS sights and in fact works a little better with the factory irons in terms of sight picture.
Lense covers: The sight comes with bikini covers, rubber. They work but I would not mind something better and will be on the look out for something else.
Kill flash: It looks mad cool. From any decent distance you do not see the red diode from the front of the unit so it works. In the frontal pic, the "dot" you see is the flash from the camera, not the dot in the sight. By comparison, my Gen II without kill flash does show the red diode from the front. Does it matter? No. But like I said, it looks cool and you do faintly see the bees wax waffle pattern from the rear when using the sight, which is also cool.
Quality: The unit appears well made and robust. The anodizing appears uniform and of good quality. The adjustment turrets have rubber o-ring seals as does the battery compartment.
I like it. www.primaryarms.com

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I have the Primary Arms Gen. III T-1 Clone with kill flash. The sight was 79.00. The optional riser mount was 29.00. I think it was 114.00 shipped. Up front I will say it is a very nice unit. I have one of the Gen. II sights without the kill flash and it too has been great.
Dot: The dot is 5 moa and it is perfectly round to my eyes. The brightness settings are good. While the highest setting (11) is not super bright and I have seen brighter, it has proven perfectly adequate for full sunligh days. Since I shoot three nights a week at an indoor range, more important to me is the fact that the lower settings are dim enough to let me tailor the dot for indoor lighting in just about any condition. This prevents coronas and flared out dots in dim light and greatly improves the usefulness of the sight for my purposes.
Adjustments: The reostat dial is pretty stiff and gives a good tactile feel when rotating it to the various brightness settings. It has never moved once set. The windage and elevation adjustments also have a decent feel. You can feel the clicks but they are not as sharp as some other sights and I have at times had to go back and forth a little to make sure I had stopped on the detent and not over shot it when making an adjustment. The adjustments seem to track well and the sight zeroed to the gun extremely easily.
Battery: The sight takes the 2032 coin style lithium batteries. It uses one. I don't know what the battery life is yet.
Mount: have both the standard low mount and the riser quick detach mount. I have not used the standard mount. The riser mount works great. It is not made fora lot of on and off but it does work as designed and locked down very tightly. It gives a good lower 3rd cowitness with either the factory sights or the MBUS sights and in fact works a little better with the factory irons in terms of sight picture.
Lense covers: The sight comes with bikini covers, rubber. They work but I would not mind something better and will be on the look out for something else.
Kill flash: It looks mad cool. From any decent distance you do not see the red diode from the front of the unit so it works. In the frontal pic, the "dot" you see is the flash from the camera, not the dot in the sight. By comparison, my Gen II without kill flash does show the red diode from the front. Does it matter? No. But like I said, it looks cool and you do faintly see the bees wax waffle pattern from the rear when using the sight, which is also cool.
Quality: The unit appears well made and robust. The anodizing appears uniform and of good quality. The adjustment turrets have rubber o-ring seals as does the battery compartment.
I like it. For Optics Accessories & More

Thanks for the review. I've been waiting for the Gen3 to get back in stock for a while. They just came in at PA. I ordered one this morning. The price for the Gen3 has gone to 99 with kill flash since you got yours. Looks like the same unit but they are now advertising 4MOA instead of 5.

 

[Angel]

I ordered one too!
I am presently using an old weaver k2.5 scope I bought out of miscellaneous box for $10 at a gunshow. Works great but I wanted a red dot. Heard great things about this one. I have about 1,000 rounds through my rifle and it gets better with each trip to the range. I hate the trigger though. Too heavy to wring out the accuracy potential of the rifle.

 

[BELT_FED]

I ordered one too!
I am presently using an old weaver k2.5 scope I bought out of miscellaneous box for $10 at a gunshow. Works great but I wanted a red dot. Heard great things about this one. I have about 1,000 rounds through my rifle and it gets better with each trip to the range. I hate the trigger though. Too heavy to wring out the accuracy potential of the rifle.

try the j&p enterprices spring kit for 10 bucks ...big difference

 

[BeginingOfTheEnd]

try the j&p enterprices spring kit for 10 bucks ...big difference

Looking at the web sight. I think the one to get is the first on in their list of spring sets? Product # JPS3.5. Is that correct?

 

[emmandpeashooter]

Kill flash: It looks mad cool. From any decent distance you do not see the red diode from the front of the unit so it works. In the frontal pic, the "dot" you see is the flash from the camera, not the dot in the sight.

Isn't the point of the flash kill to keep the sight picture clear in the event of nearby flashes (explosions)? I seriously doubt that I'd be worried about anyone spotting the red diode inside my gun sight. If he did it would probably be the last thing he saw.

 

[Evile]

I just ordered a Primary Arms Multi-Reticle Red Dot Sight with the 3x magnifier was $179 with the AR high cant mounts because its going on my AR15. But as for my 15-22 i am using BARSKA 1x30 IR M-16 Electro Sight Riflescope which works really good for the .22 heres what it looks like on the rifle

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Aimpoint Killflash

Aimpoint Killflash Filter Rifle Scope Lens Cover ARD - MidwayUSA

"Unique honeycombed design offers anti-glint and anti-glare that can be used to cut the glare that interferes with sighting and to aid in camouflaging your optics. Aimpoint's Lens Filter is designed to mount to your Red Dot by fitting inside an Aimpoint Flip-Up Lens Cover (sold separately)."

----------------

Does not matter what it does cuz I know my 15-22 needs it all

 

[Brett248Vista]

Isn't the point of the flash kill to keep the sight picture clear in the event of nearby flashes (explosions)? I seriously doubt that I'd be worried about anyone spotting the red diode inside my gun sight. If he did it would probably be the last thing he saw.

No that's not it's use at all..

The Killflash's purpose is to eliminate scope glint so that another sniper can not spot your position by the "flash" or glint of your objective lens.

 

[BELT_FED]

No that's not it's use at all..

The Killflash's purpose is to eliminate scope glint so that another sniper can not spot your position by the "flash" or glint of your objective lens.

this is correct... snipers use them to keep their scopes from reflecting light back tthe enemy and giving away there position...

 

[emmandpeashooter]

Tasco BKRD30

I got this on a whim at Wallyworld. It was about 40.00 I believe they can be found for cheaper and it also looks like several other brands have a very similar if not the same product with a different name. It is a 30mm optic with a 11 way adjustable red dot. I use it indoors to sight in at 16 yards and have my poi about 1.5 inches low which gets me very flat from 36 to 75 yards using Federal bulk. I can set the dot very low brightness for indoor or low light and it will get bright enough for full sunlight and outdoor use. Battery life is good. It was left on low for at least 12hours once over night on accident and it still has not gone dead in 6 or more hours of use. It features a 5 moa dot. If you are not happy with the dot size you can move the sight forward to visually shrink it. I was not comfortable with the low mount height the Tasco it provided so I'm also using the 1" riser from pro mag. I'm not happy with the riser but, it works. I would spend some extra and get a quick release riser if I were to do it again. This set up provides you with a lower 1/3 co-witness but, I didn't like looking around/through the rear sight so I took mine off and will at some point get a flip up rear. The additional height also keeps me from seeing a mile of rail in front of the scope and brings the optic to a good height for my eye without stooping my neck forward.

 

[emmandpeashooter]

this is correct... snipers use them to keep their scopes from reflecting light back tthe enemy and giving away there position...

Glad we could all get this one cleared up. I was sure it wasn't to conceal a red dot.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I got this on a whim at Wallyworld. It was about 40.00 I believe they can be found for cheaper and it also looks like several other brands have a very similar if not the same product with a different name. It is a 30mm optic with a 11 way adjustable red dot. I use it indoors to sight in at 16 yards and have my poi about 1.5 inches low which gets me very flat from 36 to 75 yards using Federal bulk. I can set the dot very low brightness for indoor or low light and it will get bright enough for full sunlight and outdoor use. It features a 5 moa dot. If you are not happy with the dot size you can move the sight forward to visually shrink it. I was not comfortable with the low mount height the Tasco it provided so I'm also using the 1" riser from pro mag. I'm not happy with the riser but, it works. I would spend some extra and get a quick release riser if I were to do it again. This set up provides you with a lower 1/3 co-witness but, I didn't like looking around/through the rear sight so I took mine off and will at some point get a flip up rear.

I have two of those. They work great. With a 3/4'' riser it will co-witness in the lower 1/3 of glass. I'm guessing the 1'' riser must have the rear sight at the very bottom barely able to see through the aperture, right?

 

[emmandpeashooter]

I have two of those. They work great. With a 3/4'' riser it will co-witness in the lower 1/3 of glass. I'm guessing the 1'' riser must have the rear sight at the very bottom barely able to see through the aperture, right?

You can get a good picture through it and I can see through if I wanted to. It sounds like a 1/2" will get you the ACW. I figure the zombie squirrels won't pose such a threat that I can't go hand to hand and keep them off if the battery fails.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

s

You can get a good picture through it and I can see through if I wanted to. It sounds like a 1/2" will get you the ACW. I figure the zombie squirrels won't pose such a threat that I can't go hand to hand and keep them off if the battery fails.

LOL!

You might consider a killflash.... otherwise you may give away your position to those pesky zombie squirrels. They're circling my bunker now.... hope my k-f arrives soon.

 

[Evile]

I bought the Tasco BKRD30 worked really great but I replaced it with the barska my GF bought me for christmas

 

[Brett248Vista]

LOL!

You might consider a killflash.... otherwise you may give away your position to those pesky zombie squirrels. They're circling my bunker now.... hope my k-f arrives soon.

The only way to kill the Zombie Squirrels is to aim for their Nuts!