I have Reflex II's and ACOGs. The Reflex's are quick and do me quite well to around 250yds. The ACOG with 4X (TA01) makes shooting from a bipod at 300 yards almost boring. I have a pretty good collection of assorted Trijicon stuff. I've bought some so used and beat up that they have probably seen some hard use, sent them back to Trij for a freshenup (no charge) and had them back in 2 weeks with fresh tritium and fiber optics collectors. I'm positive you can get by for much much less but I'm leery of optics and their fragility anyway so only buy the best I can. I'm also a huge fan of not relying on batteries or electronics.
The whole point of a reflex sight like the one I pictured above is you can keep both eyes open at close range for fast target acquisition and full field of view/peripheral vision. If the reticule is on the target just "fire and forget" so to speak Again, a reflex like that one gives you the best field of view and the least occlusion.. it is even better in that regard than an Eotech. As a result it just isn't as rugged
Trijicon Reflex's, Aimpoints, and Eotechs are all based on the same principle- both eyes open. The first Aimpoints that the military used literally had no optic to look though. They presented a dot and you superimposed that dot by keeping both eyes open. Even the old ones are really fast. Having used all three, I don't think anyone is better than the other. All have ups and downs. As Melbo pointed out, the Reflex works on Tritium. I had a Reflex II and I had zero issues with it. A buddy of mine had one that was dimming and he couldn't use it without the polarizing filter. Not an issue now, but if Trijicon has been out of business for five years due to a failing economy, it could be an issue. The life of tritium lasts about a decade in my experience. I think my buddy just got a dud. I am sure they would have fixed it for him free. Aimpoints work on batteries, but last longer than any other battery powered optics. The newer M68 variants take typical batteries instead of the annoying button batteries. The Micros are the latest. The size of a Micro means they have reverted back to button batteries on that model. If you don't mind the size, an M2 (M68) can be had cheap these days. If you want small, you will pay for it. Eotechs get the taco in terms of reticle. Everyone seems to enjoy the Eotech reticle more. Some say faster... that's near impossible to prove. That's why I say "enjoy" more. The early Eotechs were quite frail and steel hoods were soon introduced on the aftermarket. Aluminum hoods soon started coming out of the factory. I have seen more than a few stop adjusting, failing to come on, and stop working with recoil. I have no idea why these seem to fail. I think it's likely do to plastic body and internals. There are others too. Meprolight makes one. Surplus MARs sights are out there. There is two versions of the Trijicon RMR (Trijicon's response to the micro Aimpoint). One is Tritium and the other is battery powered. There is the Trijicon Tri-Power. There are a few true 1x optics that magnify up to 5x. Useful as a point size or a powered scope. Generally, these will cost 2K+ (Schmidt and Bender Short Dot being the cheapest I believe). I think Leupold just came out with one of similar capability. Leupold did do a red dot point sight as well. I had one for a bit. It work ok, but seemed to have more parallax than the Aimpoint I was used to. Leupold also has the CQT. While not true 1x, one can become proficient enough to use it fast with both eyes open. I am getting tired now. The one thing I will add is this- if you can afford an optic that is variable to 3x or so, you can use it with Bindon Aiming concept as long as it's illuminated. Just tape it up the objective lens, keep both eyes open and go to town. This technique is what we use to for our ACOG equipped shooters that have trouble while on the SRM range.
Don't flame me for what I am about to say... but I say in the SHTF scenario when you cant get any batteries hopefully you have practiced with your iron sights... However I can't see myself spending so much dough on an optic for my weekend warrior range excursions. I just ordered an NCSTAR yes i said it NCSTAR SRT 3x9 scope with range finder (ACOG looking). I have read up on several peoples flames on them not holdng zero but have also read up on how people have fixed these issues and they are GTG... I guess I will report how it goes since I will be working on it today and leveling and tightening everything down. My ladies are safe queens they do get used and abused so lets see how this adventure goes.
