Affordable prism optic - Primary Arms SLx Series 2.5 x 32 mm Red Dot Sight

I borrowed this optic for a carbine class and fell in love with it for many reasons. The glass is very bright. The reticle is etched into the prism and it is visible without using a battery powered reticle as in a standard red dot. (It has battery powered reticles also, but during day light hours, the prism optic works just fine without a battery.

The reticle is clever and is useful across a distance from CQB to around 600 yards. For distant targets of a known size the reticle can be used to estimate range. Using the reticle to aim at distant targets becomes natural very quickly.

For those shooters with astigmatism in their shooting eye, this scope is WONDERFUL! Regular red dots gave me a double/blurred reticle image but this prism optic is crisp.

Overall size is much smaller than the typical AR15 optic, like the Vortex Strike Eagle. I like the smaller size. The Strike Eagle offers variable magnification which might be helpful but I find the 2.5x fixed power of this Primary Arms optic is adequate for shooting steel targets out to around 600 yards.

The base is not quick release but any ACOG base should work. On their website, Primary Arms recommends using a base made by American Defense, model AD-B3

In summary, this optic offers a clear 2.5 fixed magnification with a super crisp reticle etched onto the prism. I've shot carbines with $1000 ACOG optics and while I prefer the ACOG, this Primary Arms optic is totally adequate for this shooter and the savings is paying for lots of ammunition.