Running a 10.5in upper and thinking about a strike eagle or something of that nature. Is anyone running any variable power optics on their sbrs?

Yes. Strike eagle 1-6 or primary arms 1-6. Works fine.

I ran a strike eagle 1-8x on my 10.3" sbr until I swaped the sight over to my 308.

Depends on what you’re trying to do, IMO. I played with variable powers in that price range and ultimately found them to be lacking at both ends of the magnification spectrum for my needs. Not enough mag and coarse reticle left it lacking for any real precision shooting. Low end mag and eye box issues led to frustration when using it as a red dot. Also didn’t care for the extra bulk and weight on a rifle that’s already got an IR laser, illuminator, and suppressor hanging on it. Ymmv.

I ended up just going red dot on my 10.5” and leaving precision work to my bolt gun with high magnification ffp reticle scope.

I agree with the above post. If you’re going for a mini recce or something of the likes a variable would be ideal. For the most part, my 10.5s / 11.5s / 12.5s all have rds’s. I’m still able to easily reach out to 200m and probably even 300m if I tried

For a 10.5 with variable power, 1-4 would definitely be sufficient. Though, it wouldn’t hurt too have the extra zoom of a 1-6 or 1-8 (the NF 1-8 is really awesome, if you have cash burning a hole in your pocket that is) so long as the extra scope length/weight is not of much importance

Just my 2 pennies, OP. The strike eagle is a great optic for the money and the Vortex warranty is unbeatable.

Best of luck

SWFA 1-6x on my 300 blk out SBR. Love it.

I am still going back and forth on this very topic.  I have an NX8 currently sitting on my 12.5" SBR.  The weight makes me want to put an MRO on it.  I still haven't decided what to do with it.  The thing already has a Surefire mini, MAWL and SF DF on it.  That damn optic just makes a small carbine that much heavier.

I have a 12.5" 5.56 that I was trying to figure out what optic to go with.  I found a deal on a Bushnell 1-4x Throw Down PCL, and decided it was worth a try.  I never had a first focal plane scope before, and I really like it.  I'm just shooting paper, so I wanted a more budget friendly option.

Like always, go with the best glass you can afford.

I find my 1-5x XTR2 much more useful/user friendly than my 1-6x Strike Eagle, despite preferring more magnification. That said, I enjoy my 1-8x strike eagle, especially for the price. Glass seems much better than the 1-6x.

Vortex pst 1-4 on a 11.5”

I think that SBRs excel at the same distances RDs excel.  If you like having a short AR with a can or something to go out and shoot at a few hundred yards just for fun, a LPVO would be a great choice, but if it is a serious use or personal defense minded rifle, I think sticking with something like an Aimpoint would be better.  For me, the purpose of an SBR is improved speed, maneuverability, and internet cool points , and LPVO slow you down with the whole eye box thing in addition to adding a good bit more weight to your setup.  So you are basically working in both directions and end up with something that isn't optimized for short distance or for longer ranges... it is just kinda meh at both.

I personally rather have something that excels at <250-300y and isn't ideal for anything past that, and something else that is meh in the <250y range but excels at 250-600ish.  Then I can choose which rifle I am going to take out based on my "mission".  I own 2 ARs... a personal defense 10.5 with an Aimpoint, and a 14.5 with a 1-8x to hunt pigs with and to shoot paper at longer ranges.

Leupold Vari-X III 1.5-5x on a 10.5" 5.56mm

It's an old scope I used to have on an 18" 3-gun rifle, which I decided to thrown on for training / evaluation of the LPVO on an SBR concept this year. The illumination is not bright enough to be useful in daylight, and eats batteries when I do use it at dusk. That said, the duplex reticle is simple and still pretty darn fast at low power. Positive target ID and being able to easily engage silhouette targets with head shots at 100 yards with an SBR have left me pretty impressed.

The only real downside is the weight penalty, but as an overall package I think the gun is still really handy.

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I have the Steiner p4xi 1-4 on more than one of my 10.3, 11.5 and 12.5 rifles
I think it’s a great optic for the money, nice glass, bright, fairly lightweight

DSG has good prices on occasion

Steiner

Not affiliated in any way with DSG- except as a satisfied customer

Steiner P4xi on my 10.5” lwrci.

The smallest quality optic I am aware of in the realm of LPV's is the NF 1-8. It's part of why I plan on picking one up for my next SBR build.

The scope is arguably the most important part though. It's what allows you to connect the boom to the desired impact. I used to be one of those guys t hat felt like an RDS was fine because I could ding plates at 300 with it, but then the real world stepped in and I began shooting non-contrasting targets in varying lighting, and I quickly wished for a LPV.  White plates on a square range are fine with a RDS, but add in terrain, foliage, non-contrasting colors...there is a reason most deer hunters use a 3-9 variable or similar even though most deer are taken <200 yards in most parts of the US.  I find it interesting just how much "combat" has began to barrow from deer hunting.

The much vaunted TBBC barrier blind rounds? Yeah, they came out in the 1980's. Low power variables? They've been using them to hunt boar in the dark woods in Europe for a lot longer than they've been in the sandbox. When shooting at things in non-contrasting environments, etc. there is a lot to be learned from the lowly Fudd, as it were.

Pretty much this.

I like the FFP reticle in the Accupower 1-8x28. It works well with the capability of 6.5 Grendel out of a 12” barrel. The Accupower is no Aimpoint Micro in size or weight, but the advantages of a LPVO are compelling.

Same experience here.

I used a 1-4x and a 1-6x.

Prismatic scopes are terrible when compared to true parallax free red dots, so don't expect a variable scope to perform like a red dot, due to the eye box requirement. I have an Aimpoint on my SBR.

Soon I will be building a Recce style rifle but will be using a fixed 10x optic and probably an offset trijicon RMR.

One scope that I really like was the Leupold 1.5-4x fire dot with the green dot. I got a good deal on one of those and it has great glass and while it will never double as a true "red dot" at 1.5x the green dot works really well.

i have the Mark AR Mod version of that scope on my 16". pretty light and the glass is great. MRO on the 11.5"