Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles LPVO or red dot for general purpose and SHTF truck gun

What are you running, and what advantages does your choice have over the other?

Debating replacing my MRO with a LPVO.

Except for better target ID, is there an advantage in real terms for a SHTF truck gun?

Went to Thunder Ranch a while back wit the Mrs. She was running a red dot, me an LPVO. Hit percentages were pretty close out to 300 yards.

LVPO, hands down for me.

I prefer that over any red dot except for very quick shooting under 50 yds.

Usually, 1-6x. Better precision, better target ID.

Dot with horseshoe illuminated reticle is still fast & good at closer ranges too.

MM

MM,

At what range do you zero your LPVO?

I use both but my “truck gun” wears a Sig Romeo5 red dot in an ADM mount because of cost. My LPV mounts cost more than the Romeo5 even in the ADM mount. I have a couple of these and they have proven to be reliable. Of course I have fixed irons too.

I can use these for CM hits out to 300 yards when zeroed at 50 yards. The whole rig is light and handy and I don’t mind leaving it locked up in the truck just in case I’m ever stuck in a “mostly peaceful protest”.

But if it weren’t for the possibility of it getting stolen while stashed in the truck, I’d grab a better gun with a LPVO, probably one with my Trijicon 1-6 but I’m confident in my Trijicon 1-4’s too.

100 yds.

MM

RD for me. Aimpoint.
Quick shooting under 50, but you can stretch it to 200, or more. Longer ranges require a bit more time to aim -- enough time to flip the magnifier.

LPVO for me. When shooting generous targets at known distances there's not much difference in dot and LPVOs. But I've been teaching quite a few LPVO classes and some guys show up with dots and magnifiers. As soon as the shooting gets more aggressive and shots get more difficult the LPVOs very noticeably pull away from the pack.

With an actual crosshair reticle you won't be dependent on batteries.
The advantages of target ID are substantial when you're talking about shooting at people.
A good reticle will make longer shots easier.

A magnifier has a couple of drawbacks.
-They either hang off the side or you have to go 2.26 high with a Unity FTC mount.
-You're limited to either 3x (not always enough) or 5x (too much for a lot of what you'd use magnification for)
-The eye relief and eye box on them is not as forgiving as an LPVO

IMO the advantages an LPVO offers outside 50 yards outweigh the advantages a dot offers inside 50ish yards. And even inside 50 yards there are times when magnification could be pretty doggone useful.

I prefer an LPVO for most purposes. A good LPVO with with true 1X and daylight bright illumination is barely slower than a dot at close quarters and for longer shots is much better. For a rifle to be used indoors or very close quarters only, maybe a dot is a little quicker but not much. And if batteries go out, the dot is useless, which is not true of an LPVO since you still have a reticle.

Pretty much covers it.

Tube-type red dots block part of your view, and open ones seem too fragile. Looking through a good LPVO at 1x is almost like just looking down a bare rifle.

What are you guys using for your LVPO?

Ceedo HX 1-6, Credo 1-4

That swfa 1-6x in the classifieds would be a solid choice

I have the SWFA, and to my eyes is not daylight bright.

No clue what all that alphabet soup stands for.

We normalized on all defense guns the Burris AR-332

The LPVO's I use most are a Vortex Razor 1-6x24 Gen 2 E on an 18 inch AR and a couple of Steiner 1-4x P4xi's on 16 inchers. These are on rifles I shoot in matches but the 16 inchers could also serve well as self defense rifles. These scopes have daylight bright illumination.

I also have a 1-4x SWFA which is not daylight bright. It's a pretty decent scope though, and I got it for $199 with rings so I can't complain. I have it on a 14.5 BCM upper right now but might put another optic on the upper.

I zero these rifles at 200 yards which puts them about dead on at 50 yards too.

My current favorite is a FFP 1-8 credo, the 1 power illuminated reticle is bright and fast, the 8 x reticle center is about 1MOA or covers a 1 inch red target center at 100 yds. I had an accupoint that was changing POI when I changed power, sent it in and they sent me a new creddo 1-8. Good company.

RDS. If I couldn't keep both eyes open a larger tube might seem better. With both eyes open tube diameter is irrelevant. I don't "see" (look at/focus on) the tube any more than I "see" a ghost ring.

Micros offer size and weight savings over larger RDS and any LPVO. Have a LPVO on a HK91 - seems an appropriate match. But am nowhere near as fast as with a RDS and binocular vision.

All a matter of what works. Needs differ.

Only time I ever even turned that on, was when I was taking pics of it to sell.

I like a 3X prism on a general utility AR. I think I've got five uppers set up with them, from 1X, 3X, and 5X.

The 3X is a useful zoom, but still has an easy eyebox, and plenty of eye relief.

This is the 3X micro prism from Primary Arms. The ACSS 5.56/308 reticle is there even without a battery in it, and has holdoffs out to 600 yards.



They come in a few different reticles and colors.

https://www.primaryarms.com/rifle-scopes/with-acss/magnification/3x


This is the larger 3X prism,

Sam, curious what you do with the HK91. I picked one up a few months ago that appears to have not been fired.