CVLife is known for producing basic budget scopes. Some would derisively call them airsoft grade. Recently, they’ve upgraded their product line with more feature-rich optics. The Bear Swift is a 1-10×28 LPVO with a wide 34mm tube for an impressive 80 MOA range of adjustment. The box includes the scope with flip-up lens caps, 2 button batteries, and an offset mount. The mount is basic with unmatched rings and lacking recoil lugs but they are marked with their recommended torq settings for its screws. The scope costs just under $200 on Amazon https://amzn.to/3FcbDl6 which puts it in the same price tier as a Montstrum Panzer. The Vortex Crossfire is also the same price but it is only a 1-4x SFP.
The scope appeared nicely designed and constructed. Better than most expect for a budget scope. It has resettable, locking turrets that are tactile positive with loud and distinct clicks. Its illumination knob has 5 brightness settings in red and green with an off in-between each color half. The magnification right turned smoothly and comes with a very short screwed in throw lever.
The scope has a First Focal Plane (FFP) reticle that appears to be a copy of the Vortex Razor HD. The reticle is very thin and hard to see at 1x but unlike the Razor HD, the illumination of the Bear Swift is only average in red and not daylight bright. It’s green brightness is rather dim. At 10x the reticle is much more usable but like many 1-10x FFP, the eyebox is tight and unforgiving.
Optically, the scope exhibited a slight image distortion and wasn’t the flattest image at 1x. But the glass had good clarity and sharpness and reduced chromatic aberration. The initial sample I received from CVLife had a small optical defect. The reticle was parallax focused at 100 yards and exhibited a slight 1/2 shift at 100 yards. Despite this parallax shift, I was able to stay on target during live-fire testing, and the scope retained zero after 50 rounds of .556. I sent photos and a short video to CVLife to explain this issue, and they quickly sent me a replacement without defect.
The Bear Swift’s features and glass clarity make it a good value for a $200 scope, putting it on par with the Monstrum Panzer series and better than most entry-level FFP LPVOs from bigger-name brands. If CVLife could improve its weak reticle illumination and the overly thin 1x reticle design, this would be an amazing budget scope.
EZShoot is a budget brand that looks it. Their new LPVO doesn’t even have a name, it’s just called their “1-6×24 LPVO”. When it arrived, it came in a generic black cardboard box without branding or identifying markings or printing.
Inside was a decent-looking LPVO with a dimple pattern on the turrets that reminded me of Discovery Optics or SIG. The turrets were nice with clear audible and tactile clicks and no slop between clicks. It included a metal throw lever and a cantilever mount. The latter was budget quality.
Looking through the scope, it was obvious where compromises were made. The image exhibited noticeable edge distortion, creating a fish-eye-like effect at 1x. At 6x the image was not tack sharp (despite my efforts to adjust the diopter) with chromatic aberration. Thankfully, it has a good tactical reticle design that offers daylight-bright illumination.
Despite its lackluster optical qualities, it has decent turrets and an appealing price. The total package comes in at around $100, give or take. While there are certainly better budget LPVOs like the Monstrum Banshee of CVLife Eagle Talon, they cost about 50% more. Or get one free. This June, I’ll be giving away an EZShot 1-6×24 to a lucky winner of my Moondog Go contest. Enter to win (ends May 31, 2025): https://moondogindustries.com/may2025ezshootcontest/
Vector reached out to me and asked me to test out a scope. I chose a second focal plane Continental 1-6×24 LPVO. Vector Optics is a Chinese scope brand not very well known in the US. Their top-tier products utilize German Schott glass, which is typically only found in premium European scopes. This pricy glass is probably why Vector named their top-tier scope line Continental.
The Contiental 1-6×24 is a SFP LPVO that comes in a box with a few extra accessories and an unusual spare turret with only a number 0 and no other markings for shooters who only want to return to 0 after adjusting it. Oddly, it does not include a throw lever, but the magnification ring turns easily without it. The box includes a set of scope rings, though a cantilever mount would have been a better choice given the scope’s 4-inch eye relief.
The overall build quality appears superior to typical “budget” Chinese brands like CVLife and Monstrum. Fit and finish remind me more of Athlon, Burris, or Zeiss. The scope comes in a choice of a circle-dot etched reticle or a fiber optic reticle. And the scope is relatively light at 18oz.
The Schott glass provided a bright, clear, and sharp image that was color accurate and had minimal chromatic aberration at high power. Its reticle’s central donut of death offers daylight bright illumination and a combination of MIL windage stadia and BDC vertical stadia; it’s the kind of reticle I prefer.
The scope has a street price around $400 is not budget, but it is half the price of comparable HD glass LPVO’s made by Riton, SIG, and Vortex. This is the first Vector Optics scope I have had an opportunity to test, but if this is indicative of their product quality, I hope to get a chance to test their other scopes.
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The Arken EP8 is one of the best FFP LPVOs I’ve tested. So, I was very eager to get my hands on the LH6 when I first heard that Arken was releasing a 1-6×24 LPVO in second focal plane (SFP). I prefer SFP LPVOs because their reticle doesn’t change shape with magnification, and I find 1-6x LPVOs to have more forgiving eye boxes than higher power models.
In physical appearance and build quality, the LH6 is nearly identical to the EP8. The LH6 even shares the same KL-Box reticle that incorporates a ranging ladder into the BDC hold-over markings, making it one of the fastest optics to shoot. Unfortunately, while this design works for the FFP EP8, I find the design to be a bit too busy and cluttered for a 1x LVPO.
I still like the KL-Box reticle, but I suggest Arken simplify it for the LH6. They could remove all of the numbers from one side because they are duplicated on the other. And then remove every other number because people know that between 4 and 6 is the number 5. They could remove half of the L-shaped sizing stadia, and it would still be a usable ranging ladder because you can determine if the target is closer or farther if they are smaller or larger than the remaining L.
Here’s the original (left) and my suggested KL-Box Mod M (for Moondog).
When Primary Arms (PA) introduced the ACSS about 10 years ago (an evolution of the Trijicon ACOG reticle), PA quickly became the must-try LPVO. When PA introduced the 1-8×24 they set a new bar for high-power, budget LPVOs. SupersetCA, Garandthumb, MrGunsnGear reviewed it and raved about it, and I bought into the hype and I bought one.
Because so many other big Guntubers had already covered this optic, I didn’t see a need to do a review of mine. But after I started posting reviews of LPVOs from SIGs, Vortex, even Monstrum, one of the more common comments I’ve gotten is some like “You should try a Primary Arms”. So here I am 5 years after I bought mine, with a review of the PA SLx 1-8×24.
This scope doesn’t come with a lot of accessories in the package. All the magic is in the scope. It has a decent eyebox, pretty clear glass (though not edge to edge clarity), bright illumination, and one of the best SFP combat reticles available, the ACSS.
4 years ago, I had taken 1-8x off my ready rifle to put it into rack storage to make room for optics I was testing for my channel. It was sitting in storage when I pulled it out to test on camera. I discovered that it had a parallax alignment flaw causing objects to shift in position when brought into the scope’s field of view at 1x. I suspect 99% of the buying public would never notice this flaw (I didn’t when I bought it nor in the time I used it).
I contacted Primary Arms about the issue and sent them photos and they were amazing. They called me immediately and sent me a return label and inspected my scope. And this was a 100% joe-blow customer interaction. I had never reviewed their products nor had a contact at PA; to them I was just any other customer. PA confirmed what I was seeing in the scope and sent me a brand new one to replace it. I was pleased to discover this SLx had slightly better glass and illumination than my original scope: Great job PA, twice!
The PA SLx 1-8x may not have the sharpest or flattest glass (fisheye) but I still love the ACSS reticle for its fast and intuitive design. The ACSS is not really great for precision shots over 500 yrds away but honestly, that’s not what I use a LPVO for. I’m looking to engage man-sized targets from CQB distance to an 8″ plate from 150yrds. Sadly the SLx also taught me that more is not better: the trade off in higher magnification with an LPVO is a tighter eyebox at 1x.
The SLx may not be the best. It may not be the cheapest. But the SLx remains my benchmark for a solid, practical, “budget” combat optic.
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CVLife is known for making very budget gear. Not crappy junk, but very basic budget gear. The kind of quality you expect from Bass Pro branded accessories. So usable enough for range use, weekend airsoft, or the occasional hunt. I’m not too proud to run a CVlife reflex sight on my 10/22 and a bidpod on my Savage Axis, but it’s not a brand you flex.
This new LPVO surprised me because it’s feature set is actually as good or better than the entry level LPVO’s of other brands. Certainly it’s not as sharp and clear as a Leupold or Vortex LPVO with ED glass. But the image was far more distortion free at 1x than some more premium LPVO’s I’ve tested.
The reticle design reminded me of Trijiicon or the Primary Arms ACSS. The EagleTalon has a SFP Horseshoe of Death and a small chevron (the latter was a wee bit too small IMHO). The reticle was daylight bright, though barely; but still more visible than than many LPVOs I’ve tested.
The turrets are exposed and user resettable. The clicks were a bit mushy feeling but tracked accurately. The magnification was a wee bit stiff even with the included screw-in throw lever. Most notably, the unit came pre-installed with a decent cantilever offset mount (not premo but decent enough that I wouldn’t replace it).
With this optic, CVLife has shown a step up in their quality and features. It’s good enough that I plan to run this at my next falling plates rifle match. Time will tell if CVLife can climb out of their bargain-basement perception. This LPVO with the mount is a good value, and is a good step in that direction.
I recently reviewed the ED-AR LPVO from Discovery Optics. I even performed a drop test on it and it held zero (though it did shift after dropping, it held that shifted zero). This weekend I had an opportunity to put it through a performance test by using it as my optic in a Falling Plates Match at the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club (CPRPC).
I zero’d out the scope and it performed well. Despite the ED-AR’s middling illumination brightness, it was more then sufficient in helping see a visible aimpoint against a white metal plate and the dark grey of the backstop. Except for one ammo malfunction on my last shot in the first round, I had perfect scores all the way through.
But it all fell apart on my final round. I’d been running the scope at 1x through the first 3 rounds of the match from 30yrds, 35yrds, and 40yrds. But for the last round at 45yrds, I decided to change my magnification from 1x to 3x matching the size of the reticle round to the size of the plate at this distance. I thought that would make it easier to hit the targets. Instead it did the opposite: it made me slower and less steady.
What I failed to realize is that when I had been practicing before the match, I had the scope at 1x. I had gotten used to aiming with the reticle at that size. Moreover each round during the match had given me extra practice and experience shooting with the scope set at 1x. When I switched it to 3x, I didn’t have any practice at it. I was fighting against my muscle memory and the increased magnification made my aim more “jumpy”.
I flubbed my first string only knocking down 2 out of the 6 plates. My second string was better but I only managed 4 out of the 6. Lesson learned: don’t introduce new variables into your optic during a match, without practicing it before hand.
Instead of coming in first (had I against scored a perfect 6 as my previous two rounds). I came in 4th. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
If you would like to compete in a CPRPC monthly Falling Plates Match, you can sign up for their mailing list pistolexecutive@coyotepointrpc.org
The Athlon Helos BTR with a street price just under $400, is the most affordable LPVO that offers a side-focus parallax focus. Most LPVO’s (even Service Grade LPVOs over $2K) only offer 100-150yrds fixed focus optics. This Helos BTR was designed with the input of NRA High Power XTC “service rifle” class competition shooters.
The first sample that Athlon sent me had a very minor 1x image shift issue that most shooters would never notice unless you ran it with both eyes open. I’ve discovered image shift at 1x to be a common issue with LPVOs; I’ve even experienced this in much vaunted combat grade LPVOs from Trijicon and Vortex. I contacted Athlon, who’s excellent customer service got me a replacement quickly.
My first impression of the Helos is that of an optic in a higher price tier in terms of build and construction. It has exposed turrets are similar to high-precision turrest found on Athlon’s long range optics. The elevation turret has a one revolution zero-stop for competition. For an AR moving from the 200yrd to 600yrd target during a XTC competition, the adjustment for drop would be within it’s 23MOA rotation. Its beefier turrets also help make it a tad heavy at around 23oz.
The reticle ATSR3 SFP reticle is unique to this Athlon model offering a crosshair-with-floating dot within its circle of death. The center circle and holdover T are illuminated for day-to-dusk competitions but is not red-dot bright. Against black competition bullseyes, a brighter illumination would be welcome.
When I first got the Helos BTR, I was puzzled as to its relatively low 1-4.5x power range, which I assume comes from the heritage of NRA High Power ‘service rifle’ competitions. The current marketing trend in LPVOs to offer more-is-better with 8x, 10x, and higher magnification. I wonder why Athlon doesn’t offer a parallax focus in their 1-10 Ares ETR? Regardless, the Helos BTR is an LPVO that offers competition grade features and high quality optics at a “budget” price for an Athlon.
Discovery Optics has quietly been making high featured optics in the price tier usually considered “budget”. Discovery sent me a pre-release sample of their new ED-AR 1-8x24SFIR FFP LPVO. This is part of their top tier ED line of optics which utilize Japanese ED glass.
This is an evolution on the ED-AR 1-6×24 not just in illumination but also in the addition of a side-focus parallax adjustment knob. This feature is nearly unheard of in LPVOs. Moreover, this scope is able to focus from infinity to an unprecedented 5 yards; making this optic an option for hunting, NRL22 or precision airgun.
The overall glass quality was bright, clear and sharp. While not quite the same league as the Vortex Razor HD it come much closer than most LPVOs under $500. At launch this scope is selling for a street price of $200 on Amazon and the Discovery Optics website which makes this optic cheaper than Swampfox, Primary Arms and many other budget optics! The retail version does not include rings or a mount; I recommend mounting this on an offset mount for your AR like Discovery Optics and Monstrum QD mounts.
Like other FFP’s, the ED-AR suffers from a thin reticle at 1x. Unfortunately the ED-AR’s illuminator is typical of most LPVO’s, not quite daylight bright and only useful in low light or CQB. I would suggest Discovery offer this optic with a much thicker 1x reticle configuration similar to the Arken EP8 or the Sig TANGO MSR.
Over multiple range visits, the scope held zero. It has a lifetime warranty. With their new service office in California customer service shouldn’t be a problem. If they can keep this unit at this price point the ED-AR has the potential to change the LPVO landscape.
