Good high mount red dots?

[igotfips]

Looking to purchase a red dot for my TM416 Devgru. Any decent brands to go for? Looking for in the region of 40-100 quid. 

[HELIflipper03]

this may not be useful, but I'd save up and get yourself a Vortex crossfire red dot. Crystal clear sight picture, long lasting, super bright when you need it to be, lifetime "no questions asked" warranty. Expensive, but will last a lifetime of airsoft.

[RobHedley]

6 hours ago, HELIflipper03 said:

this may not be useful, but I'd save up and get yourself a Vortex crossfire red dot. Crystal clear sight picture, long lasting, super bright when you need it to be, lifetime "no questions asked" warranty. Expensive, but will last a lifetime of airsoft.

 

I second that. I had a number of clones Red Dots which ended up as eye candy as they just kept losing zero after a couple of mags (GBBR but still!!). I went to the Vortex Crossfire and very occasionally I need to tweak the zero after it has been in the gun bag and bumped around. Plus you get a machined aluminium high mount in the box as well (Going on the title of this thread, that is what you are looking for).

[PureSilver]

You have basically two choices - £10-50 buys you any one of a number of unbranded Chinese clone optics, or £100-200 buys you one of a number of branded Chinese clone optics. The Vortex Crossfire red dot, Bushnell TRS-25 and various other Aimpoint H-1 rip-offs totally unique 1x20 micro red dot sights fall into the latter category; they're all made in China just like the other clones are, but with significantly better quality control - they are undoubtedly much better sights - and sometimes with a good warranty.

 

Whether you want to spend £14 on "someone described a T-1 to us over a very bad telephone line" or £145 on "definitely not a clone H-1, your Honour" is up to you.

 

My $25 T-1 clone (with a Guns Modify lens protector that was almost as much as the sight itself) has done just fine on my AKS-74U for about two years now. It's nowhere near as nice (the brightness adjustability is coarse and there's a pronounced blue tint through the sight) as my genuine Comp M2, but it was also 1/15th of the price of the used Aimpoint.

[RobHedley]

4 minutes ago, PureSilver said:

£100-200 buys you one of a number of branded Chinese clone optics.

????? I am confused?? How is a Vortex a clone optic? It may be manufactured in China (as are most products in the world) but Vortex is an American Company? How are they Aimpoint Ripoffs? Am I missing something?

[PureSilver]

Vortex Crossfire red dot left, Aimpoint Micro H-1 right.

 

 

The H-1 was released in 2007, the Crossfire red dot was released in 2018. They have the same lens diameter, the same dot size, the same control layout, the same overall dimensions and weight and use the same battery.

If you want to, you can choose to believe these are totally unrelated and independent designs. I choose to believe that the Crossfire red dot is one of a number of very-slightly-cosmetically-altered clones of the Aimpoint T-1.

 

This isn't revelatory; a number of companies' product lines include (or are entirely composed of) lightly cosmetically altered cloned red dot optics. Primary Arms are the most notable - their equivalent of the H-1/Crossfire red dot is the MD-RB-AD. There's a hierarchy here - Primary Arms are basically equivalent to unbranded things you get off AliExpress, but Vortex are more expensive. Vortex's Strikefire II and Primary Arms' PA30MMRD-AD are both straight clones of the Aimpoint Comp ML2, for example, but the Vortex is 40% more expensive. That extra cost should reflect a better build process (some combination of materials, processes and QC) and/or an improved warranty.

 

Like I said, there is value added in buying a Chinese-made "inspired by" optic rebranded by or manufactured on behalf of a named company. You get vastly better QC, you get support that otherwise literally would not exist - which might include a good warranty - and you get vastly better QC. It's up to OP to decide if those guarantees - a sight that works, and will keep working or will be replaced - are worth the price premium to him over an unbranded version of the same product.

[RobHedley]

It is more the wording i.e. Clone. A clone is a copy of an actual object and meant to look like an exact copy of that object and 99% means that it is a cheap copy. Someone taking design cues from a previous design is not cloning. Yes Vortex may have copied aspects of the H1 but does that mean that every Short Dot is a clone of the first ever company to create one as all of their controls are in the same position and the reticules are the same size. Is a Dunlop tyre a clone of a Michelin tyre as Michelin came out with the first ever tyre.

 

I just wanting to clear this up for the original poster as the way it was worded made it sound like Vortex, Bushnell etc optics were simply fake Chinese copies of a real optic. When in reality Vortex or Bushnell optics (as well as a large number of other manufacturers) are high quality real steel optics that are built to withstand the kick of an AR-15, .303 hunting rifle etc and not Chinese clones.