Red dot

[BobWalters]

Looking for the best budget red dot sight to put on my budget AR just for light range use no HD use. 100% of my shooting will be outside with no shade cover over my head so shooting will be in sunlight or cloud cover if that makes a difference in your vote as I want something with decent clarity and a dot that will get bright enough to see without getting washed or fuzzy. Looking to stay below $200. Don’t wanna spend a lot as this is a budget AR anyway and I only put like 1,000 rounds per year through it so not interested in the higher dollar stuff as I wouldn’t use it enough to warrant it.

 

[lantern2814]

Going by your priorities and want of low cost it is VERY hard to beat the Bushnell. That's my vote as my next choice is $150. That's $105 to spend on a handguard ect.

 

[BobWalters]

I would like to have an upgraded handguard for sure! While I want low cost I also want good value and something reliable as well.

 

[jmhyer]

I'm also going with the Bushnell for your stated purpose. I have one and it has done just fine. For my more SD and hunting-purposed firearms, I have a couple of the Romeo 5s and I absolutely love them.

 

[BobWalters]

The way things look to me So far with what’s in the poll options the three PA dots come either with no mounts or absolute only. I prefer lower 1/3 so I’d need to buy mounts for them which two of them PA recommended a $30 mount so that would push those two from $89 and $150 up to $120 and $180 total cost. The other one they recommended a $25 cantilever mount so that would push it from $130 to $155 total. Basically it would put the PA sights up to vortex / sig / Holosun prices. The bushnell comes best I can tell with no mounts at all. It’s $45 as is so ya know $10-$30 for a mount would push it up to say $60ish. To my understanding the vortex sights, sig, and Holosun all come including a lower 1/3 cowitness mount.

For warranty info the cheaper PA is 1 year, other two is lifetime. Bushnell is 1 year. Vortex are all VIP lifetime. The sig says it’s 5 year electronic components but lifetime for electro-optics’s so kinda vague. Holosun’s are 3 year illumination system, 5 year on the optical glass, and lifetime for the rest of it.

 

[pete2]

I do have a Bushnell TRS25, and a couple Ultradots . The Ultradots aren't cheap and they are on my target pistols. The TRS was a lot less money, had it on an AR, worked fine, even in bright sunlight, I have one on a 10/22 and it's been great. I also have a Vortex prism scope on an AR now, I like it, cost about 200.00, They also have a 3X prism, for more money of course. The prism is usable even without power, the dot and circle are black without power, red or green with power. I think I gave about 75.00 for the TRS with the riser for the AR.

 

[Dfariswheel]

I voted for the Bushnell TRS-25, which I have owned for a few years.
I bought it from Amazon for less then $80.
It gets great reviews and has stood up very well on my Colt M4.
It still has the original battery and is still running fine, given that I haven't really had it on all that much.

BUT **********
My older TRS has the Bushnell name on the side in a gold-tan color lettering.
The new TRS has the lettering in White.

Apparently the new TRS is NOT as good as the older version.
Buyers report that if you move your head, as the dot approaches the side of the tube, the dot just disappears. So you have to keep your head in just the right position and not move or the dot will disappear.
The old TRS LED lamp is mounted at the 4:00 O'clock position in the rear of the tube.
Apparently the new White letter version moved the lamp to the 6:00 O'clock position.
For some reason this may be why the dot disappears if you move your head.

With the old version you can move your head as much as you want and the dot stays visible until you move your head off the rifle.
NOTE that Bushnell may have fixed this problem on the latest White lettered vesion.

If you look on the Amazon page and look down to the "Often bought with" list, you'll find several inexpensive mounts for the TRS.
I bought the medium size and it gave me the desired absolute witness.
These mounts are cheap, but it works and that's about all you can ask.
It might not be up to heavy combat, but then I doubt the TRS is either.
For what I wanted the TRS and the mount work as well as I could ask.

On the Amazon page the LED lamp position is discussed about being visible in the lower right side of the tube on the White letter old version.
It's not distracting and I noticed an oddity...... If I position the sight forward on the M4 rail I notice the small lump of the lamp.
If I position the sight on the rear of the receiver rail I don't see the lump of the LED.

 

[BobWalters]

I voted for the Bushnell TRS-25, which I have owned for a few years.
I bought it from Amazon for less then $80.
It gets great reviews and has stood up very well on my Colt M4.
It still has the original battery and is still running fine, given that I haven't really had it on all that much.

BUT **********
My older TRS has the Bushnell name on the side in a gold-tan color lettering.
The new TRS has the lettering in White.

Apparently the new TRS is NOT as good as the older version.
Buyers report that if you move your head, as the dot approaches the side of the tube, the dot just disappears. So you have to keep your head in just the right position and not move or the dot will disappear.
The old TRS LED lamp is mounted at the 4:00 O'clock position in the rear of the tube.
Apparently the new White letter version moved the lamp to the 6:00 O'clock position.
For some reason this may be why the dot disappears if you move your head.

With the old version you can move your head as much as you want and the dot stays visible until you move your head off the rifle.
NOTE that Bushnell may have fixed this problem on the latest White lettered vesion.

If you look on the Amazon page and look down to the "Often bought with" list, you'll find several inexpensive mounts for the TRS.
I bought the medium size and it gave me the desired absolute witness.
These mounts are cheap, but it works and that's about all you can ask.
It might not be up to heavy combat, but then I doubt the TRS is either.
For what I wanted the TRS and the mount work as well as I could ask.

On the Amazon page the LED lamp position is discussed about being visible in the lower right side of the tube on the White letter old version.
It's not distracting and I noticed an oddity...... If I position the sight forward on the M4 rail I notice the small lump of the lamp.
If I position the sight on the rear of the receiver rail I don't see the lump of the LED.

So most likely avoid the bushnell unless I can find a older model?

 

[BobWalters]

What’s the opinion on warranties for these things? Important or not important?

 

[BobWalters]

Alright after much debating, reading through this post and others on the forum, reading various review websites through google searches, speaking with a primary arms employee on another forum, taking the poll results into account, looking over the offered warranties for each option, and adding up all my amazon gift cards I ended up purchasing the Primary Arms advanced 30mm red dot and the Primary Arms PAHICANT high cantilever lower 1/3 mount. $154.98 out the door amazon prime shipping to my house. I wanna thank everyone here for your time and patience with my many questions and posts it was greatly appreciated! I was finally narrowed down at the end of the day to the vortex SPARC 2, vortex crossfire, the PA 30mm advanced, and the Sig. PA won based on some reviews I saw comparing it side by side to the Aimpoint Pro and seeing pictures of the glass / dot clarity in the comparison plus it’s lifetime warranty and decent price I just went with it. Thank you again to everyone for the help!