I have or have had many, many RDS. Most of them will have a blurry dot at least under some circumstances. I think Trijicon RMR has the most consistent, clear dot but you pay for it. I don't have a prism but I understand they are more consistently crisp. Primary Arms has been at the forefront of selling them.

 

I have the Primary Arms on my turkey gun. After doing my research the prism optic was the best for my application.

 

Which model and reticle do you have? I’ve been strongly considering one for my turkey shotgun. I held off since all of the reticles I saw were geared towards ballistics for rifles.

 

I have one of the uber tiny Primary Arms 1X prism sights on a rifle. I actually like a lot. The eye box is very forgiving. It’s very clear, looks great at night or during the day, auto on/off feature and when the batteries run out it’s the same as a scope. I’m a fan.

 

I have very mild uncorrected astigmatism because my contacts leave just a touch.

The Trijicon options are some of the best I've used for dot/reticle crispness. I have an ACOG, RMR, RCR, and an RMR HD. They are all good, and expensive.

The actual best I've used and much more affordable is the C-More that came installed on a pistol I purchased. They are a little big, but on a hunting rifle it wouldn't be large. You can also get them in a multitude of dot sizes and can even switch the dot size with different diodes.

Railway Series

The Railway series has a standard rail base pre-installed to allow the sight to be attached to most Weaver or Picatinny rail mounts or receivers. This sight can mount to just about anything with a rail mount installed including shotguns, rifles, handguns, revolvers, crossbows, paint ball guns...

cmore.com

The only thing I don't care for on the C-More is that it needs to be turned on/off. I've killed a lot of batteries leaving it on. The batteries are kind of expensive and they are not as common as 1632 or 2032.

 

Tread carefully with 1x prism scopes. The promise is that they're like a red dot but with a sharper, more precise reticle. But that's only kind of true.

I have mild astigmatism and red dots look rough to me. They can even change shape a little while I'm looking at them! But 1x prism scopes don't really help. Yes the reticle is perfectly sharp, but the rest of the image is pretty bad. They're never truly 1x, there's always some distortion. And for me that makes them unusable. I have to concentrate to see one target image. Often I see 2 and I can't tell which one is real.

Another thing about the Primary Arms 1x scopes with the chevron reticle: it's too small to really work the way you would think. When you look at pictures of the reticle, it looks like you can use the tip of the chevron. In fact even if you look through one in a shop you'll think the same thing. But in practice the chevron is tiny and it's much harder to use the point precisely on real targets. It might be different for some people but many people end up using the whole chevron as a worse red dot.

Personally I just stick with red dots for 1x. Focusing on the target helps to keep them looking clear enough.

 

I have the Primary Arms 1X and 3X. The 1x eye box is more forgiving than the 3X. No astigmatism problems.

 

I have a 1X Vortex prism scope on my AR. Very small dot, works whether battery is hot or not. The dot and ring is black if no power, choice of red or green with power. battery drains when turned off. Not affected by astigmatism. A prism that doesn't go dead when off would be a good thing.

 

The bit about sharper reticles in prisms is because if you have some astigmatism red dots end up more star shaped. It seems some red dots are more effected by this especially if they have kind of a blurry dot. Prisms don't have this effect as they have an etched reticle. The drawback is like a regular scope a more restricted eye box.

I have some astigmatism, and a Vortex red/green dot on a PCC. It works well enough for me. Vortex prisms are good. While less costly than an ACOG they aren't cheap. Primary arms and Holosun gets lots of talk, but I've no experience with those.

 

I bought a primary arms prism for my lever action revel thinking it would be the perfect optic for that gun. I was bad wrong.. with the prism mounted on the rail as far back as it would go I could only see about a fourth of the sight picture.. I guess the prism optics are made to be up close and personal to.. nice optic.. just doesn't work on a standard length of pull on a regular rifle..

 

Prism sights have an eye box like a regular magnifying rifle scope. Now you know!

They tend to work on AR’s well, but most other guns will be difficult unless they have a rail that extends rearward more than “normal”, or a very short length of pull.

The red dot, on the other hand, can be set up like a scout scope, pretty far forward, and still work.

 

I use prism sights on most of my rifles that don't have conventional scopes. Mostly primary arms 3x. I have one swampfox 5x and a element 5x. The swampfox is sturdy but a bit of a brick. I have it one Croatian vhs2 bullpup in 5.56. It is reticle specific for 55g 5.56. Still testing. With suppressor weight on the front end and optic rearward balance is ok. The element is quite a bit lighter. It also has reticle calibrated for 55g 5.56. It has other bells and whistles that I initially thought were fluff. Have changed my mind. Pretty useful. The picatinny base is adjustable for moa. 0-40. Also has adjustable parallax. 20 yards to infinity. I'm using it on an akm fb radom beryl 5.56. I like it a lot. Other akms are using primary arms prism 3x. The are proprietary 7.62x39 reticles which is useful. I use currently a proprietary 5.56 reticle p.a. 3x on steyr aug. It works very well. Also using a 1x p.a. prism one a stribog a3 9mm pcc. Yesterday at the range I ran 250 rounds of 158g subs through dead air suppressor and the hole in the target was about the size of a coke can. Works for me at 63 years old with cataracts that need to get removed. Also like that all of these optics are etched and don't need illumination unless you want it. YMMV I don't see why one wouldn't be useful for a. 22lr. I like the magnification a lot. I really need all I can get. Red dots have proven useless with my eye sight the bloom is awful. Hopefully in June after getting cataracts worked on that will improve.

 

If you see a "cluster of grapes" with a red dot the prisms are the answer.

 

But ONLY if you can get the correct eye relief on your gun and rails.

 

A few questions:

1) What are you mounting this particular optic on?

2) What is the intended use for this setup, and at what distance will you be shooting?

3) Do you have corrected vision?
When was the last time you had your vision tested?

Answer those questions, as the answers will most likely have a bearing on the right answer.

I have astigmatism in both eyes. It is corrected for with eyeglasses, which makes most red dots crisp and clean. Some RDS suffer from aberration of the dot image itself as it reflects from the back to the ocular end of the sighting window or tube.

I have found that tube style red dot sights, such as the ACOG and Ultra-dot models like the U25 and, Matchdot, and Ultradot 6 look clearer with my astigmatism than the short window/reflex style sights.

In the realm of reflex sites, I have tried a rather large number of them. On a budget, the Swampfox Sentinel, Justice & Micro RDS all provide decent optics and reliability at a very affordable price point.

The Vortex Venom & Burris FF3 also good,
excellent performance and clarity, and not too financially painful to purchase.

I have always had the best performance from Holosun RDS’. I have a couple of 407’s, and especially the 507C Green dot models.
I have several 407 in red with different size dots, and several of the 507C with different dot sizes. I especially like the “shake awake“ utility of the Holosun products, and the solar panel/light sensor that automatically adjusts the brightness of the dot based on ambient lighting conditions plus self charging to give a battery life of 50,000 hours- there’s a lot to like about that.

DrGunner

RFC Administrator & Consigliere

 

A few questions:

1) What are you mounting this particular optic on?

2) What is the intended use for this setup, and at what distance will you be shooting?

3) Do you have corrected vision?
When was the last time you had your vision tested?

Answer those questions, as the answers will most likely have a bearing on the right answer.

I have astigmatism in both eyes. It is corrected for with eyeglasses, which makes most red dots crisp and clean. Some RDS suffer from aberration of the dot image itself as it reflects from the back to the ocular end of the sighting window or tube.

I have found that tube style red dot sights, such as the ACOG and Ultradot models like the U25 and, Matchdot, and Ultradot 6.

In the realm of reflex sites, I have tried a rather large number of them. On a budget, the Swampfox Sentinel, Justice & Micro RDS all provide decent optics and reliability at a very affordable price point.

The Vortex Venom & Burris FF3 also good,
excellent performance and clarity, and not too financially painful to purchase.

I have always had the best performance from Holosun RDS’. I have a couple of 407’s, and especially the 507C Green dot models.
I have several 407 in red with different size dots, and several of the 507C with different dot sizes. I especially like the “shake awake“ utility of the Holosun products, and the solar panel/light sensor that automatically adjusts the brightness of the dot based on ambient lighting conditions plus self charging to give a battery life of 50,000 hours- there’s a lot to like about that.

DrGunner

RFC Administrator & Consigliere

1) I'm mounting this optic on a 10/22 for my 13 year old. He started with a bolt action 22LR and a 2-7x32. He missed a lot of shots while he was adjusting the magnification. My old 4x32 won't zero, so I was thinking about a red dot or prism sight.

2) The intended use is hunting, mostly squirrel. We hunt a mix of fields and forest, so the shots can be as little as 10 yards, but as far as 60. Beyond that, I doubt he's hitting a squirrel with a 22LR even with lots of magnification because compensating for bullet drop gets hard.

3) His eyes are fine. Mine is corrected, but I won't use it more than occasionally.

 

Here is a discussion of red dots vs prism sights:

The eye relief of prism scopes has to be taken into account when buying and mounting.

 

On another note. I have a Bushnell TRS25 on a 10/22. Blurry red dot for me but, it's very small and it is totally useable for me. It didn't cost a lot of money.

 

I would recommend a tube red dot site like an Ultradot 25 or a Bushnell TRS 25 for that application. I might have a used one sitting around on a shelf somewhere…. I will check when I get home. If I have a spare laying around, it’s yours. Best way to test drive something, free.

 

@bsawers

Okay, I have a used but fully functional Ultradot 25, with Burris QD rings and Butler Creek flip caps. I’m pretty sure this is G2 because it has a very small dot, appears to be 2 MOA which would make it a Gen 2.

Check Your PM box

DrGunner

RFC Administrator & Consigliere

 

I just put this on my PSA AR-22 (Link is for a 135.00 deal at Midway):

Vortex Optics Spitfire Prism Scope 1x DRT Reticle Matte

So far, I really like it, especially since I wanted a Dot or Crosshair type reticle vs a chevron (it has a center dot). Have used it for 50 yard silhouette shooting and I love how clear it is. You may not need the green reticle but it's nice to have both options and, overall, I think it's an incredible value. Might even be a closeout situation.

I agree that a standard 1X red dot, while faster to acquire sight picture, requires better vision and offers a less clear sight picture than a Prism scope or LPVO at 1X.

 

I have a Ultra-Dot tube and agree with Gunner. They are very nice dot sights and used by many Bullseye shooters. Mine does not mount well on any of my semi-autos but I'll be putting it on a 4" S&W 617 when I get it. I also have a Millet tube dot sight which was recommended to me by a Bullseye shooter. It's a very crisp dot and, on top of that, is inexpensive. I have it on my 6" 617 and it has been fine through probably #1000 rds and never lost zero.

 

I sent him a Gen 2 on Burris QD rings. Nice 2MOA dot should work well for squirrel hunting.

 

Yes, I had an Ultra-dot gen 1 on a rifle and pistol. Very good devices.

 

DrGunner was nice enough to send me an Ultradot Gen2 on Burris QD rings. Arrived this week. Today, I mounted the optic on the rail that came with my son’s 10/22. Basement boresighted with the Bushnell boresighter.

We planned to shoot today, but the forecast was rain. So, we didn’t go. Well, the rain held off and we could have gone. Nothing more than a few drops just before dusk. Well, next weekend.

Sorry about the shadows. The other photos had my feet!

 

This past weekend, we had a chance to do a little shooting. Set at 11, the red dot is very visible. I am going to encourage my son to experiment with lower settings, not just for battery life but to lessen the contrast with the target and background. So far, we think it's a good set-up, but I am very curious about hunting season.

Related to that, we sat a happy raccoon walking across the field near where we parked. Normally, I would be very nervous seeing a raccoon in the middle of the day, but s/he seemed perfectly calm and happy. Hope we can find that one or another next season. My son keeps on talking about making raccoon gloves.