Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Aimpoints other red dots… review

This pertains to an older aimpoint 7000 but applies to the new 9000 as well.

If ur looking for a red dot to mount on a traditional style rifle don’t overlook them.

Drew a coveted sodak muzzleloader tag… no magnified optics

Could have mounted up an aimpoint t2, or maybe a pro.. but those were already spoken for an a 7000 came up for a song on the classifieds. Mounted in good rings and rocked on.

A few negatives of the 7000 don’t pertain to the newer 9000..such as a more bluish tint, and som emitter halo on full brightness

I like the two rings setup. Plenty of mounting space on a Remington SA footprint.

Everything you’d expect from an aimpoint. Turrets are not ez to get to, but they adjust as need be.

1/3n battery isn’t my favorite.. but 50k battery life.. no worries.

They functionally are the same as comp m4’s or PRO’s or the micro footprint options.. but for bolt guns. If that makes sense

Coupl negatives.
No nv settings.. they aren’t 4oz like a t2.. touched on the battery issue. They are sorta large. Elevation and Windage are set and forget. You ain’t dialing dope.

But all in all, I like the more options for height of optic with the traditional scope ring usage. It’s got all the pluses of an aimpoint,.. Not cheap, but not outrageous price wise.

A niche product to consider.

On other thing too, I like how the tube effect works. It’s very forgiving on parallax error aka dot not centered.. and the window is pretty large without a crap ton of bezel being obscured by the tube and emittor

Again this is based on a long season of use with the 7000, but I have experience with the 9000sc previously on a hunt in New Zealand

The 9000s are bomb proof. Full of time tested guts. If you hunt in the thick stuff, where 100 yards shots are few and far between, a 0x red dot makes a lot of sense. The 9000's downside is bulk. But it does give a bigger tube to look through. And the 2MOA dot will give you minute-of-vital results well past 100 yards. My only concern is the 1/3N batteries. I can't walk into the local Ace Hardware and find them. When I owned PROs, I ordered a multi-pack. Those batteries have very long shelf lives. On the other hand, the CR2032s are everywhere. And the Micros have just as long a battery life. But their tubes are smaller. Whichever you go with, the bigger 9000s or the Micros, they are the best red dots out there.

I've got a couple of T2s. One on a Sako 85 Black Bear (Henneberger mount) and one on my Browning Maxus II slug gun.



BTW, that Henneberger mount on the Sako actually is intended to go on the back, not the front. You can use it on the front, but the bar clamp won't screw into the base very far. On the back, it screws in nearly flush. I tried it on the front first because I didn't think I would like it on the back. But I like it on the back better. It's close to the eye on the back, and the view through the scope is better. There's also a roll pin that comes with the mount that goes into a hole on the bottom side of the base that goes into the recoil notch at the back of the back integral base. (The pin was way too long and I had to file it down quite a bit to make it fit. ) Otherwise, it's a very nice, solid base. And Optics Trade in Slovenia was great to deal with.

i like Trijicon MRO's. They're small and light and have held up over thousands of rounds in action matches for me. I've mostly used them on various AR's, some of which got banged around a good deal. They come in red and green, have a 2 MOA dot and use CR2032 batteries. You can find them on sale for under $400.

To be fair, quite a bit different type of dot compared to a tube style aimpoint. I’d not put one on a bolt/brush gun.

The non patrol that I’ve been around had some optical weirdness. Bad enough to not enjoy it at all. But the market of made in USA red dot isn’t great and 300$ is cheap enough to give a try
https://palmettostatearmory.com/tri...;utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=cl

I have a friend with several MROs and he swears by them. They are all on ARs. They are fine, to me, except that they are not a true 0X optic. They do have some magnification, enough that parallax can be an issue. I never noticed any optical weirdness with them, except that the magnification is noticable with both eyes open, and they have a darker tint than Aimpoints. For under $400, it's probably a decent choice. I'd certainly give one an honest try on a brush rifle or slug gun and see if it worked out.

My last scope on my Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle (before I sold it) was a Aimpoint Pro with the spacer in the mount removed. It worked well but it really needed a cheek riser when bench shooting. On a tree stand, though, it was perfect. That no-parallax and that big tube, along with a slightly high mount, made getting a decent sight picture while a bit bodily-contorted a bit easier. LOL, I also tried it on a Desert Eagle .50 AE and it actually worked very well on that, if you didn't mind holding up a cinder block. (And for yucks, I tried an EoTech on the DE, too.) I think the Aimpoint PRO is a great sight and if you don't mind spending a little $ on a lower mount, it would pull great duty on a lot of guns, and probably still come in a bit lower in terms of $$ than the 9000Sc.


My T-2 works well on my slug gun. I can shoot Remington Accu-Tips into a couple of inches at 100 yards.



I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl on my Sako.

I killed a deer this season with a Bushnell TRS 25 on my muzzleloader 28 minutes after sunset. That little bugger previously held up to many boxes of slugs and turkey loads mounted on a 12 gauge pump and is still working perfectly.

You can run the aimpoint PRO with any 30mm ring.

I was trying to find why I liked the 7000 better then say a t2 or a PRO.. i dunno, it’s just better.

I did t2 and comp ml3 before the 7000 on the muzzleloader and the 7000 was preferred.. didn’t write notes.. might be a bit more forgiving with my stigmatism.. that and it can sit in lower on the rifle.

Correction I ran a t1 not a t2… t2 are better then t1 for smear and less blue tint.

I've had a 9000SC on the 20 gauge dirty bird killer for a decade or so. Never a problem, have a backup in the cabinet in case I ever want to put it on my 358 Win.