Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Recommend a RDS for me

I want to try out using a RDS on an AR. This would be my first RDS, so I don’t want to drop a ton of cash on something I may not wind up liking. At the same time I don’t want a total piece of garbage. It’s going on a flattop with fixed front sight base. Let me know what I should be looking at. For example, the Sig Romeo MSR looks good to me but I don’t know much about it. Thanks in advance.

I’ve had a Sig Romeo 5 for awhile now and it or a Holosun micro are gonna be solid entry level red dots that work well.

Holosun 510C

I use a Sig MSR, and it isn't a horrible sight. It works well on my AR pistol in .300 BLK. It gets the job done 25-150 yards, but after that it's pretty worthless even with the Juliet3 magnifier I have. If I was doing it over I'd spend the coin for an Eotech with their .300 BLK reticle or similar RDS.

I think an illuminated LPVO is the better option for AR rifles.

I am using the Holosun 510C as well and much prefer it over any of the tube type red dots I have used or seen

My first go at a RDS was a cheapo by UTG.
Even at $35, I felt like I had thrown money out the window.
Ripped it off and replaced it with a scope....then sold the rifle.

Can't recall a brand name, but a holographic sight is a better option. They just ain't cheap! 😖

Aimpoint is a no-brainer for bomb proof optics; and with one battery per 5 years it’s an efficient design.

Ultra dot is what I and many others have on magnum revolvers, they’re tough scopes too. Gotta make sure to turn it on and off and have spare batteries for just in case.

Aimpoint is my favorite but at $650 vs $125, when someone asks about not spending a ton of cash to try one out, I recommend the Romeo5.

Yep.................I have a couple of the Romeo's & they work just fine but I really prefer the Eotech's & the Meprolight RDS's, but can't afford to have them on every gun that needs a red dot scope.

IMO, I really only prefer red dots for 50 yds & less including CQB as in a building, not that they don't work at some longer ranges.

Anything other than that for a defense weapon, I prefer some level of optical magnification depending, again, on the weapon's primary purpose. LVPO up to 6x for up to 200 yd work, something more for longer ranges, preferred.

It's all a matter of how much precision do you want, & to some degree, better target ID.

MM

If only EOTech could get the battery life figured out...

Years ago a friend wanted one bad. I told him he'd be better off with an AP - battery life, simple dot, no kill switch, no sudden battery death, etc - but he insisted. Back then Eos did not yet have the transverse battery position so that was another issue.

Fast forward several months. We went to a local range and, of course, his Eotech battery was dead. My first AP, a Comp M2, still has the original battery installed. Nowadays I don't leave it on a visible setting but it is, factually, "on" at a NV setting. Have several others, including two Micros. All of them are bankable.

Agree with most sentiments expressed in this thread. For most people an LPVO is the better option. But if you want a RDS it's not for shooting ground squirrels at 150 yds, right? Which means it absolutely must work the moment you need it. No excuses. Same as you expect from your AR. That narrows the field.

Understand the entry level market. Ideal for rimfires, practice "vehicles", toys, etc. I've used them on .22 rimfires.

My suggestion is for K1500 to find someone who has an Aimpoint, try it, decide whether a RDS is needed. If it is, get an Aimpoint or something at the same quality level. Buy once, cry once.

Thanks for the feedback and keep it coming. I have a Nikon Monarch African 1-4 on it now, which I like.

I figured a ‘cheap’ dot would let me know if I like it. If so I have no problem moving the cheapie off to a .22 and getting something more worthwhile. I just don’t want to go so cheap that it sours me on a dot.

I am also looking at a Holosun scs/G17 mos upgrade but figured playing with a rifle dot first would be a lot cheaper than the handgun route.

Leaning towards a sig Romeo 7s. Any feedback on this one? Also, will a fixed front sight base screw up the field of view or can you use it with a fixed front sight base?

I have no experience with the 7S but you will have no trouble with the front sight. I actually prefer fixed sights on a gun with a dot.

I’ve had 2 Sig Romeo5s and one 4H, sold or traded the 4H and one 5 off to good friends that are still shooting them. I’ve had probably well over 5000 rounds on the one I have left and I trust it. It’s not an Aimpoint but right now it’s on my 11.5” Colt upper and after I get a can bought for it, I’ll buy another H2 or T2 and put the Sig on a truck gun I threw together. Dots aren’t the perfect optic but have their place. For pure speed, nothing comes close.

+1!

I enjoy an RDS banging short range steel with my pistol. Past 100 yards I need the magnifier (and do that thing you're not supposed to) for consistent hits on 8-10" plates. My MSR is far from a precision optic with 2 MOA dot.

I'd love a triangle or chevron style reticle over a dot. I think it would allow for more precise aiming at longer ranges with my magnifier. However you couldn't have any flare for it to be usable, unlike a cheap dot that might grow a MOA bigger and a little fuzzy but is still usable

I started using red dots with a Tasco ProPoint. Big tube, like a real 'scope, but with a really big non-magnified red dot instead of a magnified reticle. OK, for the time; pretty good at pin shoots. Bulky.

Got a C-More Railway, 2 MOA dot I think. Excellent, although the Railway mount system is longer than current MRDS units. Doesn't matter on an AR, and I have it on a .22 AR now. I've also used MRDS units on the receiver ring of bolt rifles, though, and the Railway mount doesn't work for that.

Had an Aimpoint CompM4, 2 MOA dot, I think. Excellent. Slightly bulkier than current MRDS units, so didn't work all that well on a bolt rifle's receiver ring. Bullet proof, near as I could tell. Expensive.

Now have a Burris FastFire 2, 3, and 4. FastFire2 is I think a 4 MOA dot, larger than I prefer, sight adjustments are awkward, and changing the battery required dismounting. Clear enough optics, but otherwise avoid. I moved it back to a target pistol, and it's decent enough for that.

The FF3 with 3 MOA dot is pretty good. Better adjustments, better battery access. No downsides on the AR that I've discovered, although the slightly larger dot isn't quite as crisp as the C-More or Aimpoint dots, and it's probably less robust than the Aimpoint. Doesn't cost an arm and a leg, though, like the Aimpoint.

The FF4 shows great promise, ditto all that FF3 stuff... but I haven't really worked with it yet.

I do slightly prefer the more open presentation for the FFs and the C-More, versus the tunnel-like (albeit small tunnel) presentation of the Aimpoint. The newer/smaller Aimpoints might mitigate that for me, but I haven't tried those...

-Chris

For an inexpensive red dot for your AR I would look hard at the Sig Romeo 5. There are a lot of reviews out there to include a couple torture test reviews that the Romeo 5 at $115 shouldn't pass. But it does. I have a Romeo 5 on my M&P 15-22 and shoot the heck outta that thing and it hasn't failed yet. That rig gets tossed around quite a bit and bounced around in an ATV or tractor and so far is always spot on.

I'm far from expert on the topic of red dot sights---I'm not even sure exactly what that would mean to be honest, but I do have some thoughts possibly worth consideration.

I once tried a reflex sight and ended up sending it back because I thought it was defective. The replacement I received was just the same---the red dot looked "smeared," or more like a slash than a dot. I didn't realize I have an astigmatism until then. I considered other types of non-magnifying sights since what I had in mind was speed in social situations. After lots of looking around I discovered prismatic sights with etched reticles, and that is what I homed in on. I like the fact that an astigmatism doesn't come into play with this type of sight and I liked the etched reticle for both durability and independence from battery power. I found two Leupold prismatics and have found them to be perfect for my purposes, and I can even have a lit reticle if the batteries are still good when needed...but most importantly the reticle is ALWAYS there. Leupold hasn't made them in years, but I believe Vortex offers one and there may be other manufacturers offering them.

One thing I found to help deal with astigmatism is to just ignore it out to 50 yards or so and if it gets further or I need a crisper dot for more accuracy, I look at the dot through my peep sight. It makes a huge difference for me but does take more time.

Burris also makes a line of prisim sights, but they are magnified at 3X and 5X. This makes eye relief more critical than an RDS. I have the RT-3 prisim sight, it's a great optic but it is nowhere near the speed of a basic RDS on target acquisition and engagement.

That's why I'm using an LPVO on my AR-15 rifles, at 1X it works similar to an RD at close range. Then I have an etched reticle for target engagement at longer ranges and it works with or without a battery. I'm really liking the Burris RT-6 LPVO as well, I had wanted to try the SWFA 1-4X but the inability to get them in a timely manner has made me look at other optics.