VUDU 5-25x50, figured I'd test it out.

[Kswhitetails]

11.2", amazing turrets. Went crazy, will go on the 12" pistola. We'll see if it's worth keeping, the short footprint should be good on just about any gasser. I'm excited to see how it looks and operates. Splurged on a used one for a steal, if the Gooberment's gonna give me money to play with, I'll oblige.

If it's good on the pistol, I figure it'll be truly worth living on the LaRue. We shall see, the LRTSi on it is begging for an upgrade, and I'm looking for an LRHSi to replace it with. This may just do it all better.

[Kswhitetails]

The following is a simple first look report. I think I will have more to report, but will need more time and experience behind it to further objectively detail my thoughts about it.

I have to say, the scope is nice. Turrets click as they should, firm and tactile, but not overly loud.

The Parallax adjustment is firm but smooth, you don't have to come off the scope to adjust it. No grit. Same with the magnification. The entire eyepiece rotates like on the NF F1 scopes, and is firm and smooth.

The glass is at first blush so-so. Hard to comment completely on this point yet, as I have no accumulated time behind it. I'll comment further when I get to the range with it and can look at distance to see what pops out - or doesn't. Though, I must say please don't take this as my final opinion. The glass is better than the Forge 3-18 it is replacing. At the price point, it definitely should be. I'd say it's on at least the same level as the Bushnell LRTSi, ETS, DMR(1), 6500 Elites, and the Burris XTR IIs that I've had and used, probably better than all but the DMR. The turrets are better than all of those were, and none of those were dissapointing. - I must reserve the right to further detail this later. It may be that I am guilty of holding too much expectation rather than the optic being guilty of not being as good as I had hoped.

Same with tracking, I'll need time behind it to render judgement. Though from reports so far, this shouldn't be an issue.

Size is extremely compact. This was a major factor in the purchase for me. I was actually looking for a Mark5 3-18 for this reason. It allows it to fit atop the AR15 receiver while providing plenty of room for a clip on or other night vision adaptation and conjunction later. I'm not in the NV game yet, but from everything I've read, self contained options in the sub 1K mark aren't better than a good optic with a used clip on. Time will tell. As a side note - I have to report that a LaRue LT104 will fit on the body fine. The LT745 did not, it was .040 too long from outside the rings. I forced myself to break out the dremel and chamfer the inside of both rings and the base to allow the optic room to fit between them. This was a better option than buying another mount for me, as I'm never going to get rid of my 745, and if I wind up swapping the mounts later, I'll just blacken the rings to make it invisible. After some custom fitting, it fits into the mount like a glove, and there is absolutely no chance of movement inside the mount. Picking the right mount is something to be aware of, as not all mounts will mate up without some kind of modification.

Weight -my wife's kitchen scale reads 28.6 oz with battery in no rings. This is pretty light, mainly due to the lack of length and the material that would usually be involved with a longer optic.

Reticle - this one really makes me sit and think. I love the MD3 at first look. It reminds me a lot of the SCR Mil out of my Burris XTR2, with a few bonus's. It's simple, the Mils are numbered at each one, preventing the need to count or lose your place between 3-4 or 2-3 when you're on the clock. The illumination is NOT daylight bright, which is fine in my mind because if you need lighted reticles in the day time then you're shooting differently than I do. The way I see it, magnified optics aren't red dots, or even LPVOs; and if you can't or have trouble seeing the X during the light of day, you have other issues beyond the illumination. At low light however, the lighted reticle shines. The outline of the entire reticle is visible in my scope. Like the light is shining out from behind the lines. The center floating dot is lit, as are every two mils (one above X and 4 below, 6 dots total lit) to the tenth mil line down for holdover. This is really nice because it doesn't overpower your vision through the scope during illumination. The lack of an Xmas tree style is actually not as much of a loss as I originally thought it would be, but I think I'd prefer a simple .2 mill dot tree that spreads to 1.6 mils still. The available H59 is a little busy especially when magnified, and interferes with self spotted misses, so I'm interested to see what EOTECH drops as far as reticle options down the road. If a simple tree becomes available I may be in contact to see what a swap would cost.

Another thought on the size. I love the compact short package. It's like a good cigar, usually the fatter and more expensive they are the more you enjoy them. I really think it makes the Pistol look great, and should it prove itself after some testing there, I'll swap it to the LaRue for more pics and further testing at greater range. This thing really is about as good as you can ask for as far as features go on an SPR style weapon system IMO.

I have formed opinions about it that I probably shouldn't have as I have yet to get it out to the range. In my back yard is hardly the place to judge the glass. My Mark5 5-25 is definitely better in terms of glass, but the EOTECH has that beat hands down on size for the AR platform. Reports are similar for the folks who have both the mark5 5-25 and the 3-18. The 5-25 seems better, likely because of the form factor as they both have the exact same glass. I figured you'd lose a little since it was so short, and after taking both to the range I will be able to get a better comparison on just how much you lose in terms of clarity. It will be interesting to see how they compare at the same magnification ranges and settings.

A quick couple of pics I took once I got it mounted up.





ETA:

There are some features that stand out about this scope I didn't mention. One, tool-less zero stop and locking elevation turret. Two, capped windage turret. Three: 34mm tube. Four: sexy battery life potential. More on these later. Note to self.

[Lemonaid]

Nice write up! What is eye relief like? Some scopes at the high end of magnification if your eye isn't in just the right spot the image is gone.

[Kswhitetails]

[FLshooter]

Nice looking rig

[Kswhitetails]

Update!

Short but sweet:

Eye box is amazing. Easier to get in at 25x than my Mark5, even at 25x. Not as clear as the Mark5, but clearer than the DMRII, especially at the edges. Low light was impressive, but doesn't hold a candle to the Leupold. Tracking was on, on low magnification, it almost became like shooting through my spotting scope. I never lost the target at 15x during recoil, and could easily spot my impacts at 400 solo with the pistol. I hadn't been able to see that far as well firing, I'd lose the target during each shot. It's not as light as I thought it would be, the leupold is lighter.

Overall I'd say it's probably going to live on my Grendels, becoming a worthy optic to retain for the stable. Especially in the 20moa QD. This scope'll hunt, PRS, LR. I am looking foward to finally having a few bugs worked out of the pistol to do some load work up that I can trust.

[newb]

Nice!

The looks of it is like a smaller version of my Valdada Recon G2.

I'll follow this, like to see how it holds up over time.

[Kswhitetails]

Update again:

I'm sold on this optic being pretty darn good for Grendel (or the new Hornady hotness the 6.5ARC or - insert long range AR15 build/caliber here) or any other purpose a sub 2k 5-25 would find itself. I find it hard to find fault with it, even when I'm looking for a reason to drop the extra magnification and save the weight. It has made itself a permanent home on my LaRue, and is absolutely worthy of that spot.

A couple features I'm really growing to love:

First the tool-less zero. Both windage and elevation are easily reset with simple on the bench. The elevation is truly tool-free with a simple unscrew of a threaded cap over the knob with your fingers. pull the cap up and off, and replace with the knob on the zero. The index marks align perfectly. I've now swapped this onto 4 different platforms, and it's been really easy to zero the turret cap to each. You can go into the internals and reset the physical turret stop permanently with an allen, should you so desire, or if you need to with some kind of drastic POI change, but so far, I've found that the 7/10 under zero is about perfect. The windage reset requires a coin, or case-base used in a "coin slot" to loosen enough to turn with your fingers to reset, but I don't consider that a tool as you can do it in the field easily with whatever you find that would fit the slot. Replacing the cap snug locks the turret from changing without coming loose, and since the windage turret is capped, I'm not going to fuss about that as a negative. Set it and forget it, hold for windage.

Second is the absolute beast this optic has been manufactured to be. I'm aware this isn't really a feature: but until you're rough - really rough - on your optical system and have it perform again and again; When you find out you can trust it (despite the bumps, knocks, tip overs, dirt dives, and accidental drops ) and after an at-home rough and dirty dry fire session step right back up to the barricade and send first round impacts, you don't know what you're missing. This thing is a beast. Like that sentence...

Overall, I'd whole-heartedly recommend this optic to anyone that doesn't mind spending $1500-2k on an absolutely great optic.

The fact that this optic looks equally at home on my short framed pistol as it does on my more precision purposed LaRue is icing on the cake that isn't by itself important. But it helps - to quote a mechanic I heard of.