Jeffrey Shaw from United States, ND Public Profile

I'll get the minor issues out of the way immediately: (1) The wire loops that hold the turret caps on are a pain; (2) It's heavy at 31.5 oz, but that includes the integral mount, so comparable to other LPVOs plus a mount; (3) The illumination is picked up in tiny spots along the numbering and some of the mil hashes, though it's only noticeable in very low light, and if you have the brightness slightly too high; (4) The magnification dial is slightly stiffer than I'd like; (5) It's too expensive for me to put one on every gun I own!

With those out of the way, let me just say that I love this scope! After using a couple Primary Arms scopes, mostly a 5x Prism fixed-zoom and Leatherwood CMR-4, the glass on the VCOG is incredible. Virtually no distortion, with a crisp, clear picture from edge to edge, and a great field of view when I compare the VCOG at matching magnifications (5x and 4x). The thing could probably survive a bomb blast and will probably outlive my DD5V3, and they'll both outlive me. Once I got it dialed in at 100m and put 60 rounds on paper, I took it off and mounted it again and fired a couple more groups to check if it held zero, which it did perfectly. I didn't do the box test, but I did adjust it 10 clicks to the right, then 20 clicks left, then 10 clicks right to get it back on center, and it performed admirably. Each .1 mil adjustment is a precise, crisp, audible click.

The eye box at 1x allows about a 3/4" of wiggle room forward/backward, and about 1/2" to

I just got my HS503BU for use on my Kel-Tec KSG. I actually got it to replace my HS503C, which is basically the same optic but with different features. Switching from the C to the BU on my home defense shotgun because the auto-adjusted brightness of the C changes the brightness based on the ambient lighting directly above you, which often makes it too dim when looking into bright areas, or too bright when looking into dark areas. Also having to manually switch it on is a drawback when you need to react quickly. The BU solves those issues for me.

As stated in the title, the battery life stated on both Optic Planet's and HoloSun's websites is "up to 50,000 hours," and the box states "50,000 hours with the Dot/20,000 hours with the Circle Dot." However the manual of the optic states that "due to use of new LED technology, the optic can be operated for up to 10,000 hours." It doesn't specify any difference based on which reticle you use. On a home defense gun that will likely be sitting still most of the time, that's not so big a deal, but it will probably be on most of the time while you're moving around with it, or while it's in your car. The super-long battery life was a pretty big selling point, and now I find out it might be up to 5x shorter than advertised. Kind of a bummer.

Besides that, the build quality is excellent, it feels sturdy, the shake-awake feature works as advertised, and there are plenty of brightness levels to find exactly what you need. When it activates a