At first blush, the reflex sight MidTen sent me looked like every other knock off of the Ultraflex PanAV. But taking a closer look, it lacks a rotary illumination and battery turret. Because this reflex sight is USB-C rechargeable. The reflex design traces its roots to competition optics from the late 1980’s. It’s not a combat optic, lacking ruggedness, lens protection, or weather proofing. The MidTen’s build quality looks budget and a bit outdated but it has modern updates that set it apart even from more recent designs.
This MidTen has a 4 reticle dial at the rear of the unit: dot, circle-dot, cross-dot, (no size for the dot is listed by the maker but my eye estimate looks like a fat 6 MOA). Arrow buttons on the left side control 5-levels of illumination. The center button manually turns the unit on and off; keeping it pressed cycles between red and green color. The unit automatically goes into sleep mode after 4 minutes of inactivity. Motion reactivates the unit which remembers its last brightness setting and color selected.
Testing the unit on my Ruger 10/22 TD, I went through a 250 round bulk box of 22LR and the unit held zero. While the MidTen build quality is unrefined but solid. The MidTen has shake-awake, a rechargeable power supply, and a price point lower than any other motion activated reflex.
Clint Eastwood’s first leading role was in “A Fist Full of Dollars“. Not many people know this, but that Western was a remake of the Japanese film, “Yojimbo” by Akira Kurosawa. Even fewer realize that Kurosawa was inspired to write his samurai film, by his love of American Westerns.
All this came to mind when I opened up the Midas LE Gen2 box sent me by Athlon. I was struck by how much the LE looked like a giant micro red dot. I realize that RMRs (Ruggedized Miniaturized Reflex-sight) are themselves shrunk down reflex sights. Like the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns: the original was great, the copy was just as good and different enough to be its worth it.
The LE has a reticle that can be changed from a 2MOA red dot, a 65MOA circle-cross, or combined. Activation, brightness, and reticle are controlled by two function buttons on the left-hand side of the LE. Pressing both button simultaneously changes the reticle. The unit has motion activation (aka Shake Awake) and Athlon claims the LE can run for up to 50,000hrs in medium intensity off its CR2032 battery.
The LE was designed as a rifle top red dot. Despite its giant RMR appearance, the LE only a little bit wider than a typical tube-style red dot and about the same weight; it’s smaller than an EOTech X. It offers a nicely designed locking QD Picatinny mount and relatively low profile sitting less than 1.5″ above your rail.
Everyone who tested it remarked on how light it felt on the rifle and how easy it was to sight in. The large reticle and its wide field of view made it easy and fast shooting, thanks to its massive 26x35mm objective lens. Its rare for me to test an optic and then have those who tried it asked me later for links so that they could order one themselves! If Athlon ever roll out an LE Gen 3, I hope they offer a green illumination option and add a 25MOA circle reticle.
The Fastfire4 is the multi-reticle red dot in the Burris Fastfire family. It is feather light at under 2oz with a doctor/vortex footprint. It has a unique set of features designed for 3-gun, action shooting, and mounting on shotguns for bird and clays.
The Fastfire4 has an oversized objective window allowing for a more forgiving field of view for action shooters in unusual shooting positions. While small and light, Burris managed to fit in ambient light sensor. When placed in auto-brightness mode, the Fastfire4 will automatically dim and brighten to compensate for lighting conditions. The Fastfire4 offers 4 different reticle options which can be cycled by pressing the button on the right side of the optic: A 3MOA precision dot, an 11MOA dot, and two 50MOA circle dots, one with a horizon line, which Burris calls a wing-dot reticle. I think the latter reticle looks more like a Pokeball. The horizontal line is presumably for shotgun users, who might use it as a guide for their shot spread.
I prefer multi-reticle red dots in Falling Plates matches. I like to switch between a precision dot and a circle dot reticle at different target distances or stages. Large circle reticles allow me to bracket my steel targets for faster follow up shots.
Burris also included a plastic hood which can be fitted to the rear of the reflex sight, converting it into a closed emitter red dot. This allows the red dot to be resistant to rain and dirt that can plague reflex sights. Anybody who’s struggled to wipe off the wet inside of a reflex sight, will know how useless they can become in the rain. This hood can be especially useful when mounting this sight on a shotgun.
The Fastfire4 is not perfect. While it has a rated 26,000 runtime on a CR1632 battery, and an auto shut-off after 8-hours, it lacks motion-activation. The unit has to be manually activated before use, precluding my consideration for its use for Home Defense firearms or Concealed Carry. As a minor peeve, the front lens bulges past the frame and I often found my palm print on the lens after racking my pistol slide. This could have easily been fixed by extending the lip of the lens frame a few millimeters. And finally, the Fastfire4 isn’t cheap with a street price around $360 which makes it one of the more expensive MRDs on the market.
Despite these drawbacks, the pluses definitely outweigh the minuses for this optic, especially for action shooters. The Fastfire4’s reticle options are ideally suited for the falling plates and bullseye matches I compete in. I just wish it were cheaper and offered in RMR or MOS cut for my other pistols and mounts.
The CVLife sent me their new tube enclosed red dot sight which may or may not be named the “Eaglefeather”. That name was present in the manual but on Amazon is simply called the “3MOA/65MOA multi-reticle red dot.” “Eaglefeather” isn’t a strong name for a red dot anyway, so I’m just going to call it the “3/65” which such a better name. Even better for a concealed carry micro red dot. They really should hire me to be a brand consultant.
The 3/65 looks a lot like a SIG Romeo5 but has the advantage of a user-selectable reticle, either a 3MOA dot, a 65MOA circle/sunburst, or a combination of the two. It has motion-activation and a 50,000 runtime off a CR2032 coin battery. I comes attached to an AR co-witness height Picatinny mount and comes with a low-rise Picatinny mount should you want to run it lower to your rail.
The 3/65 is fully enclosed tube helped to make this an all weather optic for harsh outdoor conditions. On the top of the unit there are “+” and “-” buttons which control brightness. The “+” button when pressed for 2 or more seconds, cycles through the various reticle styles. In my testing, the 65MOA circle reticles bracketed an 8″ bullseye from 7 yrds, so could be useful in a 3-gun or action shooting matches. The reticle’s adjustments are under Holosun-style flat-head topped turret caps; 1MOA/click that are audible and tactile positive.
In my testing, the unit proved to hold zero even after I accidentally dropped from 5ft onto concrete. Twice. I was attempting to simulate months of range time and abuse by banging the red dot up with my ammo can. When I hit the red dot from the left side, it came off and fell onto the concrete range floor. I remounted it and began to hit it again with my ammo can repeatedly and when I hit it hard from the left side, the red dot again went flying.
I was ready to call the unit or at least a mount a complete fail when I noticed that I had accidentally installed the clamping nut backward on the Picatinny mount. When I hit the red dot from the left side, it lacked the clamping force to say on my rifle and was knocked off. I remounted the red dot to my rifle correctly this time.
Test firing onto a target from 25yrds, I examined my 5-shot groups before hitting the red dot, after dropping it twice, and after reinstalling it and hitting it again. I was shooting off a tripod so not the most most repeatable of a shooting platforms. All three groups looked about equal in size and spread.
Despite my accidentally abuse test, I was surprised that the CVLife 3/65 red dot not only survived but for a budget optic with a street price under $90, this optic performed better than anyone could expect.
The 3Tactix PRD3 is advertised as Riton’s every day cary micro red dot but has features that are far from ordinary. It offers 3 user selectable reticles: a 2MOA dot, a 50MOA circle-cross, and a combined circle-cross and dot. It has motion activation with a 50,000hr battery life. And a pull-out side battery tray. The PRD3 somehow manages to offer all of these features with a low-profile design which has a lower base than most side-tray battery red dots by its competitors.
I tested PRD3 on an RMR cut slide but found that the PRD3 still wasn’t low profile enough for me to use Glock factory iron sights. For testing, I mounted to my Glock via an MOS/RMR adapter plate. The PRD3 is the RMR footprint model of the 3Tactix red dot line and comes with a RMR to Picatinny 1913 adapter.
For those new to shooting pistol with red dots, I recommend multi-reticle red dots because new shooters often find it easier to find a bright circle reticle. That way, as the shooter becomes more proficient with presenting, they can simply press the + button and transition to shooting with the more precise 2MOA dot. Moreover, the circle-cross reticle can be used for action shooting or mounting the PDR3 to a shotgun to quickly bracket your target. The PRD3 offer a wide range of brightness, visible even in broad daylight.
The PRD3 has a street price comparable to single reticle red dots from Athlon and Vortex. So it’s a no-brainer for me to recommend getting a red dot with a choice in reticles.
Athlon Optics recently sent me a Midas TSR-1 micro reflex red dot to test. It comes standard with a Picatinny mount, which got me wondering could I use this for Olympic-style shooting?
Olympic-Style shooting became a hot topic during this summer when Turkish precision shooter Yusuf Dikeç won Silver at the Paris Olympics. Usually the Gold medal winner receives all the attention but Dikeç became an internet sensation despite his 2nd place finish. The internet was captivated by his dad-bod and his “no-fucks-given” nonchalant shooting performance. Suddenly the big guntubers were asking how hard is it to shoot Olympic-Style?
Olympic-style style matches are based on International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) rules and are the traditional stance and style for target pistol sports. This style of shooting is alive and well in the USA at NRA Precision Pistol matches. NRA Precision Pistol includes categories for full sized pistol cartridges (9mm and .45cal) along with 22LR Olympic Style pistols.
Unlike Olympic/ISSF, NRA Precision Pistol allows the use of red dots. I enlisted the aid of my fellow club members, who compete in NRA Precision. My buddy brought out his Pardini 22LR (along with Hammerli and Walther) dominate the Olympics and ISSF. If you haven’t seen these 22LR pistol at your range it’s probably because they start at about $2900, so not your typical backyard plinker!
The Athlon TSR-1 is a compact 3MOA micro-reflex designed for Doctor/Noblex cut pistol slides (like the Vortex Viper). It is feather light at 2.8 oz with a thin profile ideal for concealed carry pistols. It has motion-activation, auto-off, and is rated for a 50,000hr runtime on a CR2032 battery. It comes with a Glock MOS adapter plate and Picatinny mount.
Tge Pardini has a rail cut on its receiver for optics. This rail is wide enough for a Picatinny but is shallower. The Athlon Picatinny mount just didn’t have a sharp enough cut on its clamp to sit precisely in the Pardini’s small grove. It was shootable but was not ideal.
For 22LR target pistols with a Picatinny rails like competition Ruger MkIV or My Advantage Arms Target 1911 slide, the Athlon TSR-1 sits securely and perfectly. So we discovered that whilst the TSR-1 will never grace a modern Olympic pistol, it’ll help you drive tacks into your target shooting Olympic-style American target guns.
CVLife is known for budget firearms accessories but recently, they’ve really stepped up the quality and design of their optics. The Wolfcovert 6MOA is an affordable RMR cut reflex sight available in red or green dot. It has a 20x28mm lens affording a wider field of view than typical CCW sized micro dots. The 6MOA sized dot and bright green help in acquiring and aiming the dot especially for those new to using dots on their pistols.
But this micro dot can also be paired with CVLife’s riser mount and used on a rifle, shotgun or pistol caliber carbine. CVLife offers these mounts are in 21mm, 23mm, 25mm, and 29mm heights allowing you to absolute or 1/3 co-witness your dot to your iron sights.
The WolfCovert has some premium features like motion-activation and 4-minute auto sleep to conserve battery life. The unit has a stated 50,000hr (10year) battery life. The battery chamber is accessible from the top of the unit so you don’t have to unmount it. It is built with an Trijicon RMR footprint and comes with an RMR to Picatinny and a RMR to Glock MOS adapter.
The reticle can be adjusted using a small flathead screwdriver (a flathead tool is included). The adjustment screws are faintly audible, tactical positive and distinct, with no slop. Each click is 1MOA. In my testing I discovered that the Wolfcovert I received did not hold zero. I contacted CVLife and after sending photos and details about my ammo and rifle (115gr 9mm on Sub2000) they swiftely sent me a replacement. The replacement unit held zero after a 100rnds of testing.
At SHOT Show earlier this year I got a first look at what could potentially be a game changer. Monstrum created a 2x magnifier with an exceptionally long eye relief so that it is positioned forward of your red dot or prism. This allows you a clearer field of view than a traditional magnifier but if you use a magnified prism optic, you can multiply it’s magnification by 2x and get even higher power.
A few months later, I got my hands on one. It lived up to my expectations, surprised me in some ways, and disappointed me in others. It truly magnified the target image by 2x which really made a noticeable difference in my in PID (positive identification) of my targets at ranges beyond 50yrds.
I’ve not been a fan of traditional red dot magnifiers because of they block too much my peripheral vision, especially when flipped to the side to clear the view of the primary optic. Traditional magnifiers also have tight eyeboxes and small eye reliefs. The Ghost 2x has nearly unlimited eye relief and when positioned farther away from the face, minimizes blocking of my peripheral views.
This extreme eye relief is a key feature of the Ghost 2x, which makes it an ideal optic for scout rifles, AKs, or folding carbines like my Sub2000. Theoretically it could even be used on a pistol. This also allows it to be placed in front of magnified prism optics as well as red dots. This effectively doubles the intrinsic magnification of that prism; turning a 4x ACOG into a 8x optic.
But as Heinlein said, there is no free lunch. By adding a Ghost 2x in front of a prism, it reduces the brightness and introduces more distortion on the outer rim of the image. Moreover adding a optic in front of your primary optics aimpoint, causes the point of aim to shift; you have to zero out the Ghost 2x independent of your primary optic.In theory this could be an advantage, allowing you to set a long distance zero with the Ghost 2x to compensate for bullet drop, while keeping a point blank zero for your primary optic.
But fantasies of turning a 4x ACOG into a long range precision optic with a Ghost 2x, should be dispelled by the side-flip mount. The hinge of the side-flip will inherently never keep an absolute zero. As anybody who’s had to tighten the hinge on a kitchen cabinet knows, over time and use, a hinge will loosen up. Traditional side-flip magnifiers also have this issue but that doesn’t stop people from using them especially for 3-gun. That’s because at close to moderate distances (ie 100yrds or les) the side-hinge mount shouldn’t impact action-shooting level accuracy with man sized targets.
As I said, I’m not a fan of traditional magnifiers and for the same reasons, nor am I fan of prism optics. But the benefits imparted by this unique magnifier avoid most of those negatives. I’m looking forward to seeing how this new class of optic impacts the shooting industry.
CVLife offers one of the most affordable multi reticle micro red dots I’ve found. While many budget companies make RMR-style micro sized red dots, almost none allow for the change in reticle style. The WolfCovert allows you to choose between a typical 2MOA red dot, to a 32MOA circle (with a sunburst), or a 32MOA plus red 2MOA red dot configuration.
Personal tastes in reticle design aside, the large 32MOA circle burst benefits shooters with astigmatism (such as myself) who have trouble resolving a pinpoint cleanly. To me most red dots have a smeared or star-burst appearance which can make pinpoint accuracy impossible when not wearing corrective eyeglasses. The unit has 9 levels of brightness and lowering brightness helps improve finer resolution of the reticle. CVLife only offers red illumination but is working on a greed version.
The WolfCovert has some premium features like motion-activation and 4-minute auto sleep to conserve battery life. The unit has a stated 50,000hr (10year) battery life. The battery chamber is accessible from the top of the unit so you don’t have to unmount it. It is built with an Trijicon RMR footprint and comes with an RMR to Picatinny and a RMR to Glock MOS adapter.
The reticle can be adjusted using a small flathead screwdriver (a flathead tool is included). The adjustment screws are faintly audible, tactical positive and distinct, with no slop. Each click is 1MOA. In my testing with 50rnds of 115gr 9mm on my Glock 17 the unit held zero.
SHOT Show is a great opportunity to meet the people at a brand face to face. But it’s not often that you get to meet a company’s CEO and have him personally walk you through their new products. At SHOT Show 2023 at the Lucid Optics booth, I did just that. Lucid’s CEO, Jason Wilson, showed me their newest Prism scope, red dot, monocular, and spotting scope.
Their products appear to be well made and have impressive specs (and impressive premium prices). I hope to test their products later this year to see if they live up to it.
