Topic: The Best Red Dot Sights in 2023 (Read 31 times)
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Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Trijicon SRO’s 26mm objective lens makes it easy to reacquire the dot during rapid shooting co*petitions.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
Looking through the Trijicon SRO is like staring out of a large picture window with mountain views. It’s a thing of beauty. The generously sized objective lens measures 26 mm in diameter making it easy to find and reacquire the dot during rapid shooting. That quality is a big part of the reason why the SRO is my top choice for co*petition.
In addition to that is the bomb-proof construction and top-notch engineering of all Trijicon’s red dot offerings.
The SRO is offered with three sized dots depending on your needs: 1 MOA, 2.5 MOA, or 5 MOA. I opted for the 2.5 MOA model, which strikes a great balance between size and precision and handles any shooting chore well.
For a larger sight, the SRO manages to sit relatively low on the slide. That makes sighting through the window that much faster and helps the sight co-witness with irons more easily.
The SRO has a tiny bit of optical distortion, but not enough to detract from the sight’s performance. In fact, with its large objective lens, the SRO handled tracking and target transitions better than any other red-dot in the test.
The ergonomics on the unit are fabulous as well. The windage and elevation adjusters have medium-sized slots that can acco*modate a regular screwdriver bit or thin coin and offer positive feedback with each click. The sight has 150 MOA of w/e travel with each click moving the sight 1 MOA. The battery tray is easy to access and doesn’t have to be removed from the pistol when putting in a new one.
It has eight brightness levels, two of which are for night vision. The sight can be set to automatically adjust brightness levels as well if you choose.
And, for those of you who want to take your guns underwater, the SRO is rated waterproof to three meters (10 feet) and has drain holes in the side of the housing.
Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Romeo Zero Elite is a wisp of a red dot, tipping the scales at a dainty .5 ounce. Its co*pact profile makes it a good choice for smaller concealed carry handguns.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
I’ve been running a Romero Zero Elite on a Glock 19 for a while now and it has stood up to some rough use and a lot of rounds.
It’s a basic unit with a 3 MOA dot with eight brightness levels. It’s also offered with a 2 MOA dot within a 32 MOA circle for those who want a larger reticle. A small button just behind the objective lens controls the unit. While unobtrusive, the button is a little hard to reach, especially if you have sausage fingers, and a bit of a pain to manipulate. If my fingers were dirty—from doing a lot of shooting, say—I had difficulty adjusting the brightness without getting a greasy smear on the inside of the objective lens. Not a deal killer by any means, but it is pesky.
Other than that, I had no co*plaints with the Romeo Zero Elite. The optical quality of the sight is pretty good. It has a metal shield you can install to give the polymer-framed unit more protection if you like. The zero is easy to adjust via the recessed windage and elevation controls that use a tiny hex key wrench.
Another thing in its favor is its affordability. It’s one of the best red dots for the money. With a CR 1632 on board, it delivers up to 20,000 hours of run time.
Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Sig Romeo1 Pro is a great all-around red-dot sight that can function well for either personal protection or co*petition/recreational shooting duties. Its generous window dimensions—28mm wide and 17mm tall—make it one of the faster red dots to shoot. It’s easy to pick up the dot on the initial gun presentation and reacquire it under recoil.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
I’ve been using a Romeo1 Pro on my Sig P320 for a couple years, and it has served me well. The housing is made of machined aluminum and has withstood daily use and abuse with only a couple scratches to show for it. The aluminum forms a bit of a lip in front of the sight’s window, so you can bang the housing against hard surfaces without touching or damaging the glass. The molded aspheric glass lens is multi-coated to reduce distortion. The optical clarity of it is very good, though the image does have a slight blue tinge, which is co*mon with many reflex sights.
On the unit’s left hand side are two buttons to pick among the Romeo1 Pro’s 12 brightness settings, two of which are for night vision. The sealed electronics on it are rated to IPX7 waterproofness, which means it can be submerged to 1 meter for 30 minutes.
The battery co*partment is located right behind the object lens and can be opened with a slot-head bit or coin. This allows the shooter to change batteries without messing with the pistol’s zero. It uses a CR 1632 and has a published run time of 20,000 hours. To conserve battery life, the unit will power down after a period of time and turn back on when moved.
The sight has a whopping 100 MOA of windage and elevation travel. If you find yourself needing all that, you might want to double check and see that your pistol’s barrel isn’t bent. The sight uses two small slot-head adjusters that move the dot 1 MOA with each click.
The Romeo1 Pro is also available with a 6 MOA dot. It’s worth noting that this particular unit isn’t rated for 10mm Auto use. For that you’ll want to upgrade to Sig’s Romeo2 1x30mm enclosed emitter.
Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Trijicon RMRcc is a beautifully engineered micro red dot with best-in-class ruggedness, and a smart suite of electronic functionality. It’s an expensive, professional-grade sight designed to take you to hell and back, should the need arise.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
The Trijicon RMRcc co*es with dots that subtend either 3.25 or 6.5 MOA. For a dedicated defensive pistol, the 6.5 MOA dot would be hard to beat, though a 3.25 MOA dot makes the sight a bit more versatile for precision work.
It has eight brightness modes that can be cycled through with the generously sized buttons on either side of the aluminum housing. The top level of brightness has a retina-burning intensity that allows the sight to function well in the brightest possible conditions. The bottom two are meant for night vision gear.
The electronics allow the user to either lock in a particular brightness level, which is useful for co*petition and certain hunting scenarios, or it can operate in an automatic mode where the reticle brightness rises and dims in relation to the available ambient light.
The unit is sealed against the environment and is submersible to 20 meters (66 feet), which is one of the reasons that many armed professionals gravitate toward it and its bigger brother, the RMR Type 2. It co*es with drain holes on the side of the housing so that water drains away.
The window is a little cramped, which makes the sight a little harder to acquire (and reacquire) while shooting. That means it might not be the best pick for someone with beginner-level skills who isn’t as co*mitted to mastering the platform.
Changing the battery requires the user to remove the sight from the pistol, so checking and possibly readjusting the sight’s zero will be necessary.
The adjustments on the Trijicon RMRcc are more coarse than many other units, with each tick mark moving the point of impact 3 MOA. At 25 feet, that amounts to about ¼ inch shift per click. The slots in the windage and elevation adjusters can acco*modate standard size slot-head bits easily or even the back edge of a knife, so no special tools are needed.
This sight uses the Trijicon RMRcc mounting standard.
Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Trijicon RMR Type 2’s distinctive features set it apart from the rest of the field and justify its lofty price tag.
Pros
Cons
Product Description
After spending months testing this whole field of red-dots, I had to pick one as the winner. It’s a Sophie’s Choice scenario for sure—but rules are rules, and the Trijicon RMR Type 2 got the nod as the overall best red dot sight.
For starters it’s difficult to find anything to criticize about this sight, other than perhaps its price. But you get what you pay for, and when you slap your money down for one of these, you’re getting a hell of a unit.
The RMR sights have a couple of distinctive features co*pared to the rest of the field. One is the drain holes on either side of the housing that keep water and other debris from collecting around the emitter. The other is the curious shape of the housing, with its concave top. Both these elements hint toward the end users that Trijicon had in mind when developing the sights: serious professionals who rely on them for their lives.
The utility of the drain ports is obvious. Whether Marines are on patrol in a swamp or a Special Operations unit is using scuba gear, they want their sights to be clear and good to go at all times. The shape of the housing mitigates hard impacts and protects the glass from damage. The Trijicon RMR Type 2 is rated waterproof to 20 meters (66 feet).
There are a couple dozen different variants of the Type 2 to pick from with various mounting systems and dot sizes. It can be had with 1, 3.25, or 6.5 MOA dots. Mine, a 3.25 MOA dot, is bright and crisp. The unit has minimal optical distortion (though the glass does have a noticeable blue tinge), eight brightness settings to pick from (including two for night vision), and a four-year run time from a CR 2032 battery. If desired, the sight can be set to an automatic mode that adjusts reticle brightness based on ambient light.
If you’re looking for a pistol or small arms sight that can do it all—personal protection, concealed carry, target shooting, hunting—the RMR Type 2 is it.
Key Features
Why It Made the Cut
The Burris Fasfire 4 is the Swiss Army knife of red-dot sights.
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Cons
Product Description