I own a strike fire r/g dot, a sightmark red dot, and an aimpoint micro.
Truth be told, I am only marginally impressed with the strike fire. The buttons on the housing are too easy to turn the optic over to NV mode, which you can't really see, and NV mode slowly drains the battery since you think it is off.
I've also read multiple reviews where the control box actually busted off the red dot housing... and looking at mine, it doesn't look incredibly difficult to do. However, it also has a lifetime warranty.
With the Vortex Strike Fire Red/Green dot, the brightness is really poor. I love vortex customer service, but with the poor brightness on my dots, I tried calling vortex to swap this out for a red dot since I had so many issues trying to see my dot during the day, and they wouldn't swap it out without $50 bucks and the purchase of an ARD. (This isn't entirely a negative because most companies will NOT swap out an optic for any $).
The 2x magnifier is almost worthless because it destroys your field of view. Basically, it takes your view, and cuts it in half. That would be a worthy loss if the magnifier was 4x or 6x, but at 2x, its not worth the loss of FOV for only 2x zoom.
If you are absolutely stuck on getting the Strike Fire, I would also push you towards the Red Dot only.
I first started out with a SightMark red dot on my AR and promptly put the Strike Fire on my AR after reading a bunch of *rave* reviews about it. Once I got it, I wasn't overly impressed and could barely see the dot during daytime use.
With all this being said, I pulled the Strike Fire off my AR for my carbine course, and put my Sightmark back on it... and the sightmark was only like 80 or 90 bucks and is an aimpoint Comp clone and you can get the beefy rubber armor for it. This thing held up to dives, drops, 1000+ rounds, etc and it held a perfect zero.
http://swfa.com/Sightmark-Tactical-Red-Dot-Sight-P47076.aspx Granted, there is no lifetime warranty, and the Vortex lifetime warranty is great.
Were I in your shoes, and I *had* to have an optic knowing i'd eventually upgrade - I'd buy the sightmark for now, and then save up for an aimpoint or trijicon, and then sell the sightmark later on. I'm selling mine and taking almost no loss because its such a cheap red dot to begin with.
If you're not planning to upgrade ever, get the Vortex, because even if it does break, you're covered under warranty. Toss the 2x magnifier because its worthless. DM Optics makes a really nice flip to side 3x and 4x magnifier on a samson mount for an ok price if you need to magnify your view.
I was in your shoes buying budget red dots for my AR's, and when I got the $ i upgraded them. If you're addicted to upgraded like most of us, eventually you're going to end up with a better red dot.
|