What kind of AR sight are you using?

[strunes]

I just bought an Adams Arms Evo ultra light and I wanna put a sight on it. I have thought about either putting an Aim point patrol or a Redfield Counter strike. The Aim point has been around much longer and costs more, but the Redfield has more options. Anyone have any experience with either?

[M12Gunboy]

No experience with either. IMHO an EO Tech is the only sight for an AR...

[blackpowderscout]

I really like my ELCAN. I leave my EOTech in the box.

Uncle Sam saw fit to issue me both, LORD knows I can't afford either one.

[sharrison]

I have a cheap Sightmark reflex sight on my AR that I got from Academy for 100 bucks and I am actually pretty happy with it. Seems to hold zero well and i've shot quite a few hogs with it from 75-100 yards and dropped them with one shot right behind the ear. I have shot a few AR's with EOTech's and they are nice. I'm just too cheap to pay for something that expensive when this one is doing all I ask of it.

[kc45]

I have AR carbines with several different sights. I have a Meprolight Reflex, EO Tech, Aimpoint, ACOG TA01 and more recently a Leupold 1.5-4X scope. I've used these sights in competitions and training classes over many years and have found some to be better than others.

I started with Meprolight Reflex sight about 15 years ago when they were the state of the art sighting system for AR carbines. They are good sight and durable but they have a one down side which is when you are positioned indoors and looking outside the fiber optic don't pick up enough light to pick up the reticle very well. Basically the reticle is too dim to see sunny outside. This doesn't happen all the time but it does it frequently enough to be aware of it.

My second optical sight was the Aimpoint and to this day it is my personal favorite. The red dot sight system is easy to use and pretty much fool proof. The only down side is that you have to manually changed the dot intensity as your light situation changes. If you have it bright enough to see it easily in the sunny outdoors then as soon as you go indoors it will be too bright and the dot will "flair" to some degree. Another thing is that original units had limited battery life so if you accidently left it on then the battery would be drained within few days. New models have 20,000+ hour batter life so this is no longer a concern. The most impressive thing about Aimpoints is their durability... you can't kill these sights. I have had several accidents with my Aimpoints and they never broke. Mine are not pretty but they still work great. My home defense rifle is a AR carbine with an Aimpoint on it. I just keep the reticle on at low level and just change the battery two years.

EOTech sight are very fast for close targets. Out to about 60 yards you can't beat their speed for target acquisition as they are open sights and have wide view screen. Their 20 MOA circle with 3 MOA dot is very good reticle. My only concern with these sights is their durability and long range shooting. For some reason I have never been able to make pinpoint long range (100+ yards) shooting with this sight. They way the reticle looks makes it very difficult to make precision aiming. These sights are also fragile compared to other systems. I've had 2 EOTech go bad within 3 years and had to be returned to be repaired. I've talked to others who use these sights and they have told me same. IF you are just a occasional shooter who shoot couple mags a month then you will most likely never break one but if you really use your equipment hard then I would not choose EOTech.

ACOG sights are great for shooting longer distance (100+ yards) as they are 4X power. The optics are very good quality and are very bright. They are very durable and excellent quality scope but they have limited use. Due to their 4X power they are for longer range use and not for close in. I liked mine for a while but eventually decided to use it on the AR rifle instead of carbine as they are used for longer distance.

More recently I got a 1.5-4X scope for one of my carbine. I have not used it enough to decide if I'm going to keep it on my carbine or not. I think it will be durable enough but I'm not sure yet. I like the versatility of 1.5X to 4X power but that's just something else to distract. I usually just keep it at 2X power and not change the setting. One bog advantage is that because it's a "scope" it makes it easier to make long range shots.

In general 1x power sights like Aimpoint and EOTech are great out to about 100 yards but become more difficult to make precision shots beyond that. ACOG and scope are great when shooting at longer range due to their magnification but becomes hindrance when shooting close.

If I had to choose one sight for an AR it would be the Aimpoint.

[Triple Creek Reaper]

More recently I got a 1.5-4X scope for one of my carbine. I have not used it enough to decide if I'm going to keep it on my carbine or not. I think it will be durable enough but I'm not sure yet. I like the versatility of 1.5X to 4X power but that's just something else to distract. I usually just keep it at 2X power and not change the setting. One bog advantage is that because it's a "scope" it makes it easier to make long range shots.

This is the setup (Leupold 1.5-4x20) I used on my AR built for hunting. I 1st put it on a 6.8 and then later on a .458 SOCOM. I really liked the scope for hunting with the carbine. The carbine is light and easily maneuverable in a tree stand, a shooting house or stalking. The scope works well for all 3 situations. I used a Leupold offset mount and this setup is tough, atleast for my hunting purposes. I have traded out of all my AR's but I kept the scope and likes it so much I mounted it on a Rem 7 in .308 using DNZ mounts.

[strunes]

I went ahead and bought an Aim Point and a counterstrike. I put the Aimpoint on the Adams Arms and it was almost dead on at 50 yards out of the box. I put the Counterstrike on a Double star I had laying around and it also performed great out of the box too. The Aim Point has more brightness settings, but the Counterstrike has two colors and a lazer. I figure for hog hunting either will work just fine. Thanks for all the input..

[sharrison]

I bought one of the Counterstrikes and mine wouldn't hold zero, I swapped it for another one and it had the same issues. Also the laser is useless on an AR if you have a front sight on the gun. On a rifle or flat top AR it would be a good thing. No clue why they wouldn't put it on the side knowing they were going to be put on AR's.

Hopefully yours performs better then mine did, I really liked it aside from those issues..

[strunes]

I liked my so much I bought another and my buddy bought one too. As for the laser you are right you need to have a removable front sight in order to use it. For the money I don't think you can beat them.

[kc45]

Back about 20 years ago I used a Tasco PDP1 red dot sight on my Ruger Super Redhawk for few years.
I never had any problem with that sight and later it was moved to my Ruger Mini-14 for a while and now it sits on my Remington 870 slug gun.
It has never had any problem despite sitting on some heavy recoil guns.
Something I learned recently is that early/original PDP1 were made in Japan and Korea but more recent ones are made in China and components are different.