Home AR-15 Budget Optic Battle. LPVO vs Red Dot and Magnifier. Holosun Sig PSA

Budget Optic Battle. LPVO vs Red Dot and Magnifier. Holosun Sig PSA

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Budget optics. Sig Sauer Tango MSR 1-6x vs Holosun 403B with Sig Juliet 3 micro. Palmetto State armory AR airsoft eotech trijicon

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32 COMMENTS

  1. The Two guns at the beginning are different specimens. They are matched Barrel length to the respective optic. If the set up on the left went into a mere 6ARC or 6.5G caliber change, that configuration will eat the system on the Right for Lunch and Dinner. it might even do it with the Red Dot out to 6-700m. The left side Pistol should have the Dot, and is completely workable and faster in urgent circumstances. The Carbine only wishes to be the Pistol.

  4. VCOG for me. At 1x, the horseshoe dot looks a lot like a red dot, and the eye box is very forgiving. My goal was to build a rig that didn't depend on batteries, so I haven't decided whether to add a dot or not.

  5. Hello. First of all, thanks for the comparison. I will usually hunt pigs at close range (30-40 meters) and sometimes at 80-90 meters. What do you think, reddot + magnifier or lpvo? And The area I hunt is heavily forested, sometimes with open ground . I also do bird hunting. Thank you 🙏🏻

  6. The main thing to remember is that LPVO’s do a bit of everything, but everything they do is done better by something else. A red dot’s 1x is parallax free, and your head position isn’t going to change where your hits go. You also aren’t going to get scope shadow from it if you’re too close or too far, because they have essentially unlimited eye relief. Shoot with both eyes open and as long as you can see the dot it will be good. The magnifier does introduce parallax / head positioning issues, and you may find that you can shoot tighter with just the 1x dot than you can with the magnifier flipped down behind it, because your head position makes your shots go left or right if it isn’t perfectly centered, just like on a scope.

    This is a good reason to have a fixed front sight if you are using a magnifier, a fixed prism like an Acog / elcan / primary arms 3x, or a 1-4 LPVO – you can line up the reticle with the front sight post to ensure you are centered.

    No matter how nice the LPVO, I find that i never feel good using the 1x on it, and I almost always throw a 45 degree offset mount with a small micro/ pistol dot, and use that for the 1x.

    Since the entire point of an LPVO IS to have a centerline 1x, this lets me know I am simply not comfortable using them as they are intended most of the time. There are 1 or 2 LPVO’s that I have felt comfortable using the 1x on, but they are the exception that proves the rule.

    Furthermore, since most people using LPVO’s tend to use them either at 1x or their max magnification? It’s worth looking at how they perform at their max magnification; the lesson here is that the higher they go, the worse quality image you get, and the harder it is to use, no matter how nice of an LPVO.

    In my opinion, a 1-6 is probably the highest you want to go, because beyond that 6x, beyond that 1:6 ratio? The glass has to work so hard that it rarely gives good results. For PID / simply getting a better look at what it is you intend to shoot at? Maybe there is a case to be made for 1-8 / 1-10, but for actually then shooting at those things ? Boy, we are talking about an extremely unforgiving eyebox that you have to be absolutely perfectly centered behind, with poor light transmission and just in general a bad experience vs a 2-10 / 3-15, or even the old familiar 3-9. I think a lot of people assume that the LPVO’s high end is going to be just like the 3-9 hunting scopes that are so familiar to so many, and that it will be just like that except it can go down to 1x. That just isn’t the case.

    If you plan to use / need that much magnification, I believe you are much better off with a medium powered scope paired with an offset or top mounted pistol dot for 1x.

    Personally, I think that most people would be very surprised if they could get their hands on an ACOG, particularly the classic 4×32 model, especially in their more modern battery powered LED form factors.

    The glass on an ACOG is truly high quality, and the field of view on the 4×32 is the largest field of view of any 4x magnified optic that exists. This combination of extremely nice glass, with such a big field of view, and a huge image/ eyebox can often feel like it’s doing more than the 6x on an LPVO. Simply put, you are getting SO much information that is of SUCH high quality, and the difference is palpable. A magnifier cannot come close, either. Some people complain about the eye relief, and to them I would suggest the 3.5×35 models, which sacrifices some field of view for a lot more eye relief. The 0.5x magnification power isn’t that big of a deal, the field of view loss is the more noticeable thing. However, this version of the Acog still has a better field of view than most LPVO’s at that zoom level, a much bigger eyebox than most LPVO’s and all magnifiers.

    The ACOG/ micro dot combination is something worth looking at, that a lot of people simply aren’t familiar with, but rest assured there is a reason that many modern military units today, including plenty of special forces guys, use the ACOG / Elcan.

    I truly love red dots, and I have dots and magnifiers on some AR’s, but the biggest issue with magnifiers is that none of them have high end glass, even the expensive ones have just decently good glass, and on top of that, the eyebox / actual size of the image you get is always small. They’re still a good option, especially if you know most of your shooting will be inside 300yd or so, because they can let you get the PID you need to see what you’re shooting at, and then you could just switch back to the dot. They don’t increase the range you can shoot, only the range you can be certain of what exactly the target is that you’re able to hit.

    The ACOG unequivocally increases your range, and with their extremely well thought out reticles, make it so that even shooters not experienced with mid to long range shooting can hit torso sized targets out to 500yd or so with an AR, whether it’s a 10.3” or a 20” – the exact notch you’ll use will be different, but they’ll make it worlds easier to start hitting targets out to your weapons max effective range.

    Proper scopes are easily the best option for precision at long range, and paired with a 1x dot, in a way you get the best of both worlds. However, you also get significantly more weight, which is a lot bigger downside than it may seem if you haven’t ever tried walking around with a rifle for hours on end, especially with an adrenaline rush at some point while you’re shooting, and then it wearing off and you still have to lug that thing around.

    If you don’t need to shoot beyond 200-300yd, I would say the red dot / 3x or 4x magnifier is a fine choice, as is the Acog / micro dot. The dot and magnifier is going to be cheaper.

    If your needs are more likely to be 500/maybe 600 and in, depending on ammo choice and barrel length on the further end of that, the Acog is surely the better choice, allowing you to make hits on torso sized targets relatively easy out to the AR’s max effective range. It also will let you be much more precise than a dot and magnifier inside that original shorter 200-300yd range, despite not being a precision optic.

    The LPVO, be it 1-6 or 1-8, is going to give you the longest range, both for shooting and target identification, and with a good reticle AND good glass (this is crucial for true long range precision), you will be able to accomplish tighter groups at longer ranges than the dot/magnifier by far, and depending on the skill of the shooter / quality of the optic, probably tighter than the Acog as well. Although, with the right reticle and a skilled shooter? The Acog is capable of a lot more precision than one might think.

    Allllll that having been said, when we’re looking at budget considerations ? You can get a fully performing dot / magnifier for a lot cheaper than a “fully performing” LPVO and mount. I can’t stress enough how important glass quality is when dealing with shooting at longer distances, and likewise, when setting up your AR, you should think very carefully about what exactly it is you need the weapon to do best; what the use case for the weapon is. Most people simply do not need the capability to be able to shoot with high precision out past 4/500yd. If you can recognize this to be the case for your situation? I would strongly consider going for the dot and magnifier, to get the best possible 1x shooting experience, and having the option to take the magnifier off the gun to decrease weight and put it in your pocket / bag, OR, consider the ACOG / Micro dot, as it is a relatively lightweight option that will get almost any AR making hits that count out to its max effective range.

    Just some rambling long thoughts on this short. Haha.

  8. now here might be a dumb question: what about an LPVO AND a magnifier? with the magnifier in front of the LPVO, in theory it should work to give you even greater magnification (up to 18x if the the simple math checks out) I've seen something kinda similar done with old Mosin scopes so it should work in theory.

  11. In my experience, LVPO doesn't work for hog hunting when hogs start running in every direction including straight at you. Also, it is important to havve a red dot with a very large field of view like a Holosun 510.

  16. It's not a matter of preference but purpose and deployment, LPVOs come with parallax and eye relief whereas Red dots have infinite Eye relief and parallax free, this is selected for CQC to mid range whilst LPVO is preferable applied for precision long range say 300-500 yards. What are you going to deploy your AR15 for and in what situations ?

  23. Correct me if I'm wrong
    I believe that optic riser and magnifier riser cost as much as the LPVO… not including the red-dot and magnifier themselves, those two risers alone is also the cost of the red-dot and magnifier… 🤔

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