I've been thinking of doing a set it and forget it lightweight AR. for this I was thinking of doing a battery free optic. Price does not matter.

so far, I have these as possible:

-Trijicon TA44 (any acog, but I wanted a low mag/no mag)
-Trijicon Dual Illum RMR (have heard not great things on this one)
-Trijicon RX01 series (no experience with these, haven't heard great things but they are still being produced)
-Trijicon Tripower (same as above)
-leupold prismatic (etched, not battery free illum)
-meprolight m21

What am I missing? whats the up to date scoop on the tripower and reflex series?

I figured with technology coming the way it has been that we'd have more options by now.

I used the Trijicon RX01 for a while. It worked very well, and is extremely durable. The only thing I didnt like was that the dot was hard to see in very low light situations. Even with it having tritium it was still a challenge to pick out the dot quickly.

Those are pretty much the best non battery powered optics.

I have a Mepro M21 with the triangle reticule, and have found no drawbacks. No blooming ( a faint bit but you have to look for it in the most probable conditions ), and no washout ( except two feet from a white wall with a weapon light on ).

I've shot moving targets with it in pitch black conditions using a weapon light on the target. Using the tip of the triangle is very precise, as precise as my Eotech's 1moa dot. The triangle is easy to use for range estimation and holdover/windage as well. It's robust, looks great.

Trijicon accupoint tr24-g

Simple easy true 1x acts as a red dot type optic bright easy to see and you get 4x for longer shots.

Its my main scar17 optic

Nice, but not a good option for a LW build.

 

I forgot about the accupoints.

I had a ta44 for awhile, but sold it. I regret it. It was absolutely awesome.

Doesn't Zeiss have an offering?

Most of the 1x optics that don't have batteries have some sort of color or distortion to them.  

I'm probably going to go with a ta44, I was curious though if any newer ones had come out that were cheaper. Im quite surprised the ta44s aren't more popular.

Its cause at 1.5x most people would just prefer zero magnification so no eye relief or parallax issues.

 

Minus the issues of reticle washout, I've always preferred the Trijicon Reflex and the Meprolight M21 type sights over the Aimpoint and EO Tech, by a wide margin actually. They just work better for my eyes. If Meprolight has finally managed to solve the issue of washout, I guess I'll have to pick one up to try. If all goes well, they will probably become my non-magnified optic of choice.

PM Tomac, he has a bunch of them, he also has the earlier models that did have some washout. He's got the trijicons in question as well, and has a thread where he did a side by side review.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll do a search for that thread and PM him with any additional questions I might have, if there remain any.

The tritium only lasts about 15 years, then it is a really expensive swap.  Batteries in an Aimpoint can last 5 years always on, that's just 3 batteries for 15 years.   I also have an ACOG, but I probably won't swap the tritium when it dies.

I like the TA44 the best for your purpose as it is very small & light, has an etched reticle and fiber optic in addition to the tritium and is low magnification.

I have a TA33 on a Larue mount.  Good option.  Its an ounce heavier than the TA44.

I had the RX01 on an Ultimak mount for my AK, it sucked.  Played with the TriPower, didn't care for it.  Havent heard anything really good about the Meprolight, but Ive never handled one.

The Leupold prismatic looks a little awkward to me.

15 years is optimistic.  I've been through two sets of tritium pistol sights made by Trijicon.  Each lasted about 10 years.  At least they are easy to replace and relatively inexpensive for my Glock.  Not so on either count for ACOG.  Have to go back to the factory with considerable delay and expense.

I'll stick with batteries.  New motion detection circuits create instant on dots with battery life up in years.  Leupold seems to be taking the lead with their Firedot scopes and Deltapoint reflex sight, for those of us who either want magnification, or a reticle with faster acquisition than a simple dot which can sometimes be hard to locate against certain backgrounds under stress.

If Aimpoint put this tech into the micro with an 8 hr auto-off feature, the battery life would become the shelf life of the battery, up to a decade.

I've owned/used the RMR, RX01, Tripower, Leupold Prismatic, RX30 & M21.
TL/DR version:
RMR: Superior washout resistance but fisheye lens and limited FOV through the optic, large reticle difficult for precision shots.
RX01: The most susceptible to washout, smallish 24mm FOV, adjustable polarizing lens for reticle contrast but having to adjust the polarizer kinda defeats the whole KISS purpose of this type of optic.
Tripower: Excellent concept w/poor execution, IMHO. Tritium's too dim (supposedly for NV compatibility), unusual battery w/very short life, fiber optic collector glows unless covered when using the battery, loved the chevron reticle & daytime performance (brighten the tritium & change the battery to a CR123 or AA and I'd reconsider it).
Leupold Prismatic: Adjustable eyepiece/focus is great, doesn't need batteries for daytime use, really liked the Double Circle Dot reticle, weak mount, appx 250hr battery life on lowest setting (my tests, all I needed for lowlight use), parallax & eye relief to consider.
Trijicon RX30: Great FOV through the 42mm objective, reticle blooms badly in bright light, more washout resistance than the RX01 but not as much as the M21. Meprolight M21: Multiple reticles to choose from (I prefer the triangle which is both fast on target & allows for precision shots as well), bright tritium, good washout resistance (but not perfect, it's harder to achieve but still possible), excellent QD mount, very rugged (IDF issue), relatively coarse 1moa adjustments.
HTH...
Tomac