Posted: 2/14/2010 9:05:41 AM EDT
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So let me start off by saying that I have a Bushmaster patrolman 16" M "forgery" that I use for a truck gun. It has 23 confirmed hog kills on a cut down carry handle iron sight. Well, I decided I wanted a red dot on it, but didn't want to fork over another $400 plus dollars on another Aimpoint. So.....I started researching mid grade optics. The only two real options that I found that were acceptable to me were the Primary Arms M3 clone and the Vortex Strikefire.
Well, the Comp M3 clones have been on back order, and the Strikefire was sitting on the shelf at Gander Mountain....looking all pretty and smiling at me as I walked by. So, it ended up in my cart along with a 200 round pack of xm193. The price on the Strikefire was the norm with other retailers online and i didn't have to pay shipping. The ammo was expensive as usual, but Gander isn't known for their excellent prices. Well, I went to the family property, which is a large chunk of acreage in the middle of nowhere East Texas. The weather was cool with a slight breeze and the ground was full of water from continuous rain. I selected my normal shooting place that I have marked off at 25, 50, 100 and 200 yards. In order to get to my little range, i had to jump a 4 foot deep, 6 foot across ditch that was FULL of water. Strikefire test #1...while crossing the ditch, I was carrying two ammo boxes, targets and my rifle in a tactical rifle bag. I slipped and fell into the ditch soaking me and all my gear. The rifle and ammo were both completely submerged in the water. Cussing and bitching the entire time I was getting all my gear from the bottom of the ditch, I reclaimed all my stuff. I got to my shooting range and began unpacking everything. My rifle was full of water. I field stripped it to drain the water and sprayed it down with CLP. I was worrying about the Strikefire being submerged, but to my surprise, It worked!! No water inside of it at all. It functioned perfectly. All I did was wipe the glass clean!! Amazing! The Strikefire was a breeze to sight in...took all of about 8 rounds at 50 yards. the high mount that came with it perfectly co-witnessed with my BUIS (the cut down carry handle). I shot a total of just under 500 rounds with no change in accuracy in the Strikefire using xm193. When I changed to Wolf steel casing .223, I did notice my shots at 50 yards were a bit low, but that was because of cheap, underpowered ammo...not the Strikefire. It was an overcast day so i didn't notice any problem with the dot not being bright enough. All in all, I love this well made and sturdy red dot. It IS waterproof as advertised and remained zeroed through almost 500 rounds of ammo. There was a slight bit of parallax when shooting at the 25 yard targets, but not enough to worry about. The only thing that I do not like is the Side mounted power button. It constantly gets turned on inside my case and is annoying! For the price i paid, and the included lifetime warranty, I will purchase more of these for my other rifles! Great product! Lessons learned: The Strikefire is waterproof to 4 feet deep! Old ammo boxes are not. xm193 ammo is waterproof. Gortex jackets will keep you warm when they are soaked. AR-15 rifles work in the harshest of environments, even when soaked with a little CLP on them. Hope this helps everyone. |
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Quoted: Thanks a lot for the review! I'm glad you like it.So let me start off by saying that I have a Bushmaster patrolman 16" M "forgery" that I use for a truck gun. It has 23 confirmed hog kills on a cut down carry handle iron sight. Well, I decided I wanted a red dot on it, but didn't want to fork over another $400 plus dollars on another Aimpoint. So.....I started researching mid grade optics. The only two real options that I found that were acceptable to me were the Primary Arms M3 clone and the Vortex Strikefire. Well, the Comp M3 clones have been on back order, and the Strikefire was sitting on the shelf at Gander Mountain....looking all pretty and smiling at me as I walked by. So, it ended up in my cart along with a 200 round pack of xm193. The price on the Strikefire was the norm with other retailers online and i didn't have to pay shipping. The ammo was expensive as usual, but Gander isn't known for their excellent prices. Well, I went to the family property, which is a large chunk of acreage in the middle of nowhere East Texas. The weather was cool with a slight breeze and the ground was full of water from continuous rain. I selected my normal shooting place that I have marked off at 25, 50, 100 and 200 yards. In order to get to my little range, i had to jump a 4 foot deep, 6 foot across ditch that was FULL of water. Strikefire test #1...while crossing the ditch, I was carrying two ammo boxes, targets and my rifle in a tactical rifle bag. I slipped and fell into the ditch soaking me and all my gear. The rifle and ammo were both completely submerged in the water. Cussing and bitching the entire time I was getting all my gear from the bottom of the ditch, I reclaimed all my stuff. I got to my shooting range and began unpacking everything. My rifle was full of water. I field stripped it to drain the water and sprayed it down with CLP. I was worrying about the Strikefire being submerged, but to my surprise, It worked!! No water inside of it at all. It functioned perfectly. All I did was wipe the glass clean!! Amazing! The Strikefire was a breeze to sight in...took all of about 8 rounds at 50 yards. the high mount that came with it perfectly co-witnessed with my BUIS (the cut down carry handle). I shot a total of just under 500 rounds with no change in accuracy in the Strikefire using xm193. When I changed to Wolf steel casing .223, I did notice my shots at 50 yards were a bit low, but that was because of cheap, underpowered ammo...not the Strikefire. It was an overcast day so i didn't notice any problem with the dot not being bright enough. All in all, I love this well made and sturdy red dot. It IS waterproof as advertised and remained zeroed through almost 500 rounds of ammo. There was a slight bit of parallax when shooting at the 25 yard targets, but not enough to worry about. The only thing that I do not like is the Side mounted power button. It constantly gets turned on inside my case and is annoying! For the price i paid, and the included lifetime warranty, I will purchase more of these for my other rifles! Great product! Lessons learned: The Strikefire is waterproof to 4 feet deep! Old ammo boxes are not. xm193 ammo is waterproof. Gortex jackets will keep you warm when they are soaked. AR-15 rifles work in the harshest of environments, even when soaked with a little CLP on them. Hope this helps everyone. One trick we've learned about the power button is you can rotate the sight 90 degrees CCW in the ring. This will put the control module on the bottom and the power button will be protected. Your windage knob becomes the elevation and the elevation becomes a windage. Here is a thread about it: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=2&f=277&t=184844 Hope that works for you. Thanks again for taking the time to write the review!  -Sam |
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Sam,
Thanks for the link and advice. I have rotated the sight and will re-zero tomorrow. I will let everyone know how this turns out for me. As a side note...today is bright and sunny here in Southeast Texas. I brought the rifle outside to look at the brightness of the red dot. The red is not quite as bright as my Aimpoint is when side by side. However, when I switched to green there was not problem tracking the dot from target to target. Still love this sight!! -bpd207 |
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One trick we've learned about the power button is you can rotate the sight 90 degrees CCW in the ring. This will put the control module on the bottom and the power button will be protected. Your windage knob becomes the elevation and the elevation becomes a windage.
This is a great idea. The only complaint that i have had with my strikefire is the location of the power button. This is a simple and effective fix. |