Cheap red dots

[Djantlive]

For 1X red dots that are used for ranges, I have found many prism and reflex red dots to be really good. They have shake awake, bright and crisp dots, hold zeros and very clear lens.

They are selling $50-100 on amazon. At this point, i don't plan to spend $150-300 on romeo 5 or holosun 510c anymore.

Back a couple years ago, cheap red dots often get loose or can't hold zeros. If you are shopping around, it may be worth considering saving a few bucks if it's a range toy gun.

[stormvet]

I did this for my M&P 15/22, bought a Votatu micro red dot 2 MOA dot, shake awake auto off for $60. It is surprisingly good, that said I will only use the no name cheapies for rimfire range guns. With a center fire I’ll stick to proven products like Primary Arms, Vortex, etc.

[Zenderfall]

Like Stormvet, I only stick the chinese amazon dots on rimfire trainer guns, or guns for people new to shooting. While they do hold zero, there’s a few things I don’t like about them.

-the glass is curved wrong, meaning, if you move your eyes a bit, the dot starts to curve and wobble a bit due to the glass being shaped wrong. You have to keep your eye almost exactly in the middle of the sight for the dot to work right.

-also, the dot blurs a lot more the further from the center it gets.

-the glass coating is uneven. Almost like they pointed a spray can at the middle of the glass and shot a blast, so only the center has a decent coating and the edges are uncoated glass.

-the body and screws seem to be made of a soft metal, and strip easily. Lots of care has to be taken to not strip out any threads in the picatinny plate the sights mount to. Also be careful of the picatinny screw(s) as I know someone who stripped theirs out already and had to makeshift a new screw to make it work.

-the battery contacts are flimsy, and can lose contact during recoil. Special care has to be taken when replacing the batteries.

So yes, they work. Most are bright enough. Dots are more like little blobs than dots. They have their issues that only people who shoot a lot will notice. For 20-50 100 tops ($) they’re better than nothing but I wouldn’t use them on guns I compete with, or depended my life with.

[neeks619]

I got my romeo 5&7 for a little over 100 when palmetto state has their sales.

[Dano3467]

I have 2 Bushnell ($45 -75) red dots.

1. on a 223 ar
the other on a 308 ar.

Zero issues for both

Did I get lucky ?.. Idk, but they work fine

[enorbit3]

A vortex crossfire red dot can be had for around $100 if you look around. Lifetime warranty.