Any recommendations for an Eotech clone sight 551/553/558

[Panama]

I am in a similar situation to the OP in that this is the first time I wanted to get a classic Eotech style holographic site for an mk18 build.

 

I have bought this site off fleabay (yeah I know...) but from a looks point of view it was the closest to the Eotech and that was in stock, without spending hundreds of pounds. At this stage I am not sure if I like this style over the red dots I have but, this was for the look: SOTAC EXPS 3.0 Holographic Red Green Dot Reflex Sight XPS3 558 £63

 

It looks Ok but, there is a lot of distortion on the lens if you move your head/view point from the very center and I am considering sending it back but, again, no where has stock of the HW S1 in tan in stock which seems the best clone even at ~£140

 

I just stumbled across this very good comparison video which also backs the claim that, out of the ones tested, the HW S1 is the best:

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Panama

[Krisz]

On 07/02/2023 at 10:47, RostokMcSpoons said:

The vibe I'm getting though is that anything below HW levels is trash, but HWs are way above my intended budget.  And will have to come from Them Foreign Climes.

So the input has been useful - I thank you all. I've dragged myself away from feeding at the very bottom, and went for something a bit better, safe in the knowledge that the stuff that's actually good was more than I wanted to spend.  

 

And yeah, I've been casting around the Classifieds for a cheap sight for long enough that I definitely have become impatient
 

Buy cheap buy twice... I understand that you don't want to spend too much money on it but you need realistic expectations. If you don't mind a bit of parallax or ghosting then go for a cheaper one.

 

I'm sure Holy Warrior has an official online shop on aliexpress it could be cheaper than any uk retailer.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Krisz

[RostokMcSpoons]

Thanks chaps. 

That video you linked @Panama is why I agreed the HW was the best, it's a useful resource.  

@Krisz thanks, I found the HW shop again.   I think I'd seen it before but discounted it as the initial view of the sight on the front page shows it for $10  - but turns out that's just for a sticker!   A closer look at the product page, and the confusing morass of options I can see is for the site with different Eotech logos.   Now I'm understand what I want and what I'm looking for, the price of £113 inc shipping does become more of a sensible proposition, if the £55 sight I've bought disappoints me.

 

I'll look out for lens distortion on the Sotac, and if it's something I won't stop noticing I'll send it back under the returns policy, and spring for the HW S1. 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001473704252.html

 

 

Edit: Absolutely bloomin' typical, someone puts the Sotac sight up on the classifieds for £35, but it's too late to cancel my order and get that instead 😭

Edited February 8, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[C-Diddy]

On 07/02/2023 at 22:18, RostokMcSpoons said:

How do you find using the magnifier?

I probably use it more as a monocular if I'm honest. At most airsoft ranges, looking through a 3x magnification brings targets way too close for my liking.

 

The mount mine is on is solid though, with no flapping about. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Here's the Sotac...

 

 

Basically the sight is really nice made, the buttons work well, the quick release mount was easy to adjust to get a solid fit.

As you can see the reticle has the additional aiming marks, which makes it a nice change from all the plain red dot sights I have.  It seems to go quite bright. 
At the low end there's a big jump from 'indoor dim' to 'very dim' on the last adjustment step.   I presume that's for NV mode.  The NV button makes the reticle green.   It might do clever stuff with the brightness too, but I don't need that, so haven't checked the instructions

The glass isn't strongly tinted or distorted, but I can see there is distortion of the reticle when viewing off-centre so it's in the top corners of the sight.   Is it enough to make me send it back and spring the extra ~£60?   I don't think so but I'll sleep on that.

 

 

 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Here's the Sotac...

 

 

Basically the sight is really nice made, the buttons work well, the quick release mount was easy to adjust to get a solid fit.

As you can see the reticle has the additional aiming marks, which makes it a nice change from all the plain red dot sights I have.  It seems to go quite bright. 
At the low end there's a big jump from 'indoor dim' to 'very dim' on the last adjustment step.   I presume that's for NV mode.  The NV button makes the reticle green.   It might do clever stuff with the brightness too, but I don't need that, so haven't checked the instructions

The glass isn't strongly tinted or distorted, but I can see there is distortion of the reticle when viewing off-centre so it's in the top corners of the sight.   Is it enough to make me send it back and spring the extra ~£60?   I don't think so but I'll sleep on that.

 

 

 

Doesn’t look like it’s sitting flat on the rail?

 

Is it lightly mirrored enough to make it useful indoors/lowlight conditions?

[Lozart]

1 minute ago, rocketdogbert said:

Doesn’t look like it’s sitting flat on the rail?

 

If you look at where the adjusters are it looks like it's the outer cover that's wonky. Sight itself seems to be sat properly.

[alxndrhll]

9 minutes ago, Lozart said:

 

If you look at where the adjusters are it looks like it's the outer cover that's wonky. Sight itself seems to be sat properly.

 

Aye, hood looks super on't wonk. Makes the whole thing look like it's leaning backward, curious to see how it looks from the other side, give the 3 cut outs for the control buttons and the pair of torx screws on the other side I'd like to think it's damn near impossible for the to be wonky. Looking at the second photo the hood definitely looks higher at what would be the front right as you're looking through it.

 

Edit: Not intending to rail on your purchase, just want to make sure you're getting a product you're happy with.

Edited February 15, 2023 by alxndrhll

[C-Diddy]

If you do get a sight protector from RDE, you'll struggle to get it in place without encouraging the hood to stand at attention

[RostokMcSpoons]

Thanks for pointing that out... I'm not enough of an Eotech afficionado to think it was anything else than "how it's supposed to be", I guess.
I loosened off the torx screws and fiddled the hood into better alignment (maybe half a mil), and re-tightened them.   I think it's looking much straighter.  I also checked the overall aligment from the front, it looks correctly centred (the ADS pic was taken with no great consideration to lining it up nicely, so that may have been misleading)

 

I'm off to play footy but I'll take a pic or two later so you can all give me an unbiased opinion on whether it's ok now.

[hitmanNo2]

That seems to have an impressively clear lens for a clone Eotech.

[Panama]

It does look like is not quite mounted right. This is the exactly the same  sight on my mk18. Ignore the duvet ;-)

[Fatboy40]

On 08/02/2023 at 08:03, Panama said:

I just stumbled across this very good comparison video which also backs the claim that, out of the ones tested, the HW S1 is the best:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxKlpk8nn0

 

 

Watching it I'm thinking "wow, that no.6 clone one is so clear"... then I realise it's a genuine Eotech 😢

[RostokMcSpoons]

 

 

What do you guys think?  The windage and elevation dials aren't perfectly centered in the cutouts, but it looks straight to me.

I suspect my quick attempt to wedge the sight protector into place had pushed it askew (which doesn't say great things about the screws fitting the hood to the sight, but hey-ho)

 

Edit:  Seems I'm going to be spending a lot of money on airline tickets shortly, so frankly a few quid here or there will make sod-all difference in the grand scheme of things - I'm now leaning a little towards sending this back and ordering the HW S1, as I now have 2 reasons to prefer it:  [1] the reticle hopefully won't distort when viewed in the corners, [2] the screws aren't made of cheese and the hood will stay in the right place (though I do like cheese)

Edited February 15, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[Panama]

39 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

 

 

What do you guys think?  The windage and elevation dials aren't perfectly centered in the cutouts, but it looks straight to me.

I suspect my quick attempt to wedge the sight protector into place had pushed it askew (which doesn't say great things about the screws fitting the hood to the sight, but hey-ho)

Yeah, in the bottom pic it looks a lot better.

[RostokMcSpoons]

Yeah, I've looked at it quite a bit since I took the pic, if I talk about 'panel gaps' from a car buyers vernacular, everything looks correct now (apart from the cutouts)... anything off in those pics is as much a photography / camera artifact as an actual misalignment.

 

I still am impressed by the sight.  Sure the S1 will be better, but this is damned good value as it cost only :checks notes:  twice as much as some of the very much less impressive red dots I've bought in the past.  

 

 

[alxndrhll]

Certainly look less wonky in the more recent photos. Ultimately, at least in the case of the real one, the hood/shroud is considered a ‘sacrificial’ part there to protect the expensive bit from bumps and drops. As long as the sight itself sits correct that’s the main concern.

 

Finger are crossed for you that it can withstand the rigours of a GBBR. I know it got largely lost in the weeds of an ongoing parallax discussion, but holding zero and the electronics not playing silly buggers is going to be the main test when used on a GBBR. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

Let's be honest, if people think it looks shit, it's a fail

That's a good point about the recoil.  I'll bang a few BBs with it on the Tippmann and the 416, see if it holds zero after a good shake!

[Enid_Puceflange]

I just ordered one of the HW eotech clones from Ali Exp last night, it was dispatched earlier today.

watched more than my fair share of video comparisons about it

Fingers crossed 🤞

[RostokMcSpoons]

7 minutes ago, Enid_Puceflange said:

I just ordered one of the HW eotech clones from Ali Exp last night, it was dispatched earlier today.

watched more than my fair share of video comparisons about it

Fingers crossed 🤞

It'll be interesting to see how quickly it gets here, how much the taxes and fees work out... Did you get the S1, or something else?

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

9 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

It'll be interesting to see how quickly it gets here, how much the taxes and fees work out... Did you get the S1, or something else?

 

 

I ordered the S1

From the same seller I got my Spectre from, it was a whole £2 dearer than the cheapest available, but I had a good experience when I had an issue with the Spectre that was resolved amicably and quickly.

 

You pay your fees etc at the checkout, so no additional surprises when it arrives at the uk , and a quicker delivery to your door. My Spectre arrived within a fortnight , and keeping in mind I ordered it at Xmas time, it arrived a good 2/3 weeks faster than their eta - and has been dispatched already.

 

I watched the video attached above, the one with the chap comparing like 6/7 all together. 

There is a pre owned one in the classifieds just now, but for the price difference I just decided to get a fresh out of the box one 👌

The seller is Poptactcalgear , recommend 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Enid_Puceflange

[alxndrhll]

12 minutes ago, Enid_Puceflange said:

You pay your fees etc at the checkout, so no additional surprises when it arrives at the uk , and a quicker delivery to your door.

 

 

To clarify, this isn't entirely accurate, though it is in the instance of this order due to the value of it (assuming it's correctly declared by the seller anyway).

 

You can still wind up paying duty, seemingly entirely pot luck, if the item you've ordered is over £135. Depending on exactly how they're shipped you can sometimes wind up being charged a handling fee by whichever courier handles the parcel once it hits the UK. Those two are usually bundled together, and it's unlikely (at least in terms of anecdotal experience on my part) you'll get hit by a handling fees if you haven't had to pay duty.

 

Very much aware there is an element of faux pas here because the one on the classifieds you're referring to is mine, but I see a lot of confusion around what fees have and haven't been paid when ordering from overseas.

[Enid_Puceflange]

20 minutes ago, alxndrhll said:

 

To clarify, this isn't entirely accurate, though it is in the instance of this order due to the value of it (assuming it's correctly declared by the seller anyway).

 

You can still wind up paying duty, seemingly entirely pot luck, if the item you've ordered is over £135. Depending on exactly how they're shipped you can sometimes wind up being charged a handling fee by whichever courier handles the parcel once it hits the UK. Those two are usually bundled together, and it's unlikely (at least in terms of anecdotal experience on my part) you'll get hit by a handling fees if you haven't had to pay duty.

 

Very much aware there is an element of faux pas here because the one on the classifieds you're referring to is mine, but I see a lot of confusion around what fees have and haven't been paid when ordering from overseas.

I suppose I’ll have to wait and see……

Ive ordered quite a lot from Ali in the past 12 months and haven’t been charged anything additional by uk customs when the items have arrived on our shores

I may have been lucky -every time 

But knowing my luck, that’s unlikely 😉

 

Anyway, the discussion here is about decent clones

The whole Brexit and customs charges debate has been flogged to death 

[alxndrhll]

1 minute ago, Enid_Puceflange said:

I suppose I’ll have to wait and see……

Ive ordered quite a lot from Ali in the past 12 months and haven’t been charged anything additional by uk customs when the items have arrived on our shores

I may have been lucky -every time 

But knowing my luck, that’s unlikely 😉

 

Anyway, the discussion here is about decent clones

The whole Brexit and customs charges debate has been flogged to death 

 

I mean your 'luck' entirely depends on how frequently you've ordered items that are valued at £135 or more. If it's under £135 you won't pay duty, if it's £135 or over you should pay duty (with varying rates depending on what it is you've order). It's not a debate in the slightest, it's simply how it works.

[Enid_Puceflange]

Ok

In my experience, I’ve been “lucky” every time.

Plenty of orders over the £135 cost.

I wonder if it’s because China and the far east aren’t part of Europe , I think it was purchases from European retailers that were affected?

As we “left” Europe then it all fell to pants, I don’t think the far east purchases had any issues other than the exchange rate being gash now that we are a third world country 😂

Edited February 16, 2023 by Enid_Puceflange