I'm looking for an optic for a rifle too and given my astigmatism, get both starburst/constellation with a red dot and when I look thru the Razor, the reticle looks like a red wooly-bear caterpillar rather than a nice crisp line.
Leading me to either a prism or a LPV and open to the collective wisdom of MDS.
I didn't care for the small (to me) reticle of the Vortex 3x Prism and between the Vortex 1x with the twin ring reticle, and the Primary Arms 1x with the ACCS I like the ACCS better. How are the PA optics on battery consumption and reliability?
will mount on my E4 rifle for range use out to 200yds
thoughts?
I run them all on my rifles.
Prisms are simpler - they're always at the same magnification, eye relief never changes, the reticle isn't magnification-level dependent, etc. Downside is that 3x/4x only gets you so far, you can't switch back to 1x when you don't need magnification, there's not a lot of options not at "AR height" (1.5"), and illumination is generally not daylight bright in the cheaper prisms. The Steiner M332 is a stupid awesome deal when they're in the $300-$350 range.
LPVOs are more flexible, but also more complicated and expensive. I think where people get in trouble 1-X scopes is going cheap - like, I've got a couple 1-4x scopes in the $200-$300 price range, and IMHO, the qualify difference by going to the Burris XTR II was more than worth it, even with the weight and price increase. The Burris XTR II 1.5-8x dual focal plane scopes are REALLY nice for the price (<$600 on sale), and I don't find the 1.5x floor to be a meaningful downside compared to having an FFP reticle and the crazy bright SFP illumination you get with them. Just do your homework if daylight-bright reticle matters to you, because there's a lot of people who claim their scope has one when it really doesn't... maybe like "overcast bright".
I use the reflex sight plus magnifier combo in situations where suitable BDC isn't available in a prism sight, but I still want the option of magnification. I will definitely concede that it is my least favorite of the options, but it's still very usable when set up correctly. In particular, if you're running your rifle in classes where you're working at short-ish ranges most of the time, being able to go reflex with the option of magnification can sometimes be very handy. Just don't buy a cheap magnifier and/or mount. The PA FTS mounts are EXTREMELY bad in my opinion, and my baseline would be an Aimpoint 3X-C in a LaRue/ADM mount, or maybe an Eotech G33. Frankly, I'd almost argue the magnifier is the thing you should spend more money on compared to the reflex sight at this point.