Vortex StrikeFire - Broken?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Reading the specs on this unit on the manufacturer website, it is hard to tell whether it is supposed to be an ordinary reflex sight or a holographic sight. Red/Green would imply reflex sight of course, because a switchable red/green laser would be kinda expensive as far as I know, even on a very-low-power laser.

 

Unless they can now make collimated LED beams.

 

Just saying, the holographic sights have a "holograph" reflective screen, and for instance on my Eotech sights if you peer thru the sight from a long distance, the round crosshairs image gets big and rather pixellated.  But reflex sights I've used are smooth reflective coated glass, and stay about the same size, non-pixellated, even if one peers thru the sight from quite a distance away.

 

Just trying to figure out why a reflex site would ever have a "pixellated" appearance. The only thing I can think up-- Maybe the reflective coating on some units is "bumpy" from uneven vapor deposition? Most of the optical coatings nowadays are a very thin vapor-deposition process, AFAIK. Or maybe the glass isn't polished smooth enough?

 

Makes no never mind, just thinking out loud. :)

[Garufa]

Update: got the replacement, and yep this one:

 

- has much smaller dot, actual 4 MOA I assume, not a distorted 10 or more. Though it's not a perfectly uniformly lit precise dot like I assume some higher end ones are, at least it's the right overall size. And of course it is possible my vision is no longer optimal for this time output, but it's plenty good enough to use it.

- brightness responds correctly with single clicks in 10 steps, up or down (or held down).

- even the end caps "snap" in place, unlike the other one where you had to press on two or more edges to get it sealed. Didn't expect a diff with that, almost like first one was made from different specs.

 

I notice that this one shipped from WV and the first one from WI, so maybe a different production run or something, who knows? At any rate, pretty confident this one is doing its thing as designed.

 

Appreciate all the input folks, and Neil and Garufa, sure do appreciate y'all's personal hands-on regarding this.

 

- OS

 

Good to hear.  Now that's all settled, I think you'll really enjoy it.  I know I do mine, even if the dot looks screwy now after staring through your defective one for like an hour the other day.  :lol:

[reed1285]

I read the first post and jump ahead to this reply, so sorry if you have already stated this and missed it. 

 

Did you get the red/green dot strikefire? or the red only? Before I bought mine, I looked at a lot of reviews for them and noticed a whole lot of complaining from people that had the red/green dot version, the red dot not being bright enough to see in daylight. The replies to these complaints were always the same thing, buy the red dot version only, unless you plan on using it with nv or low light situations. 

 

I bought the red dot only version and its been a great sight. Holds a zero great. Although I haven't had to use them, Vortex is supposed to have top notch CS.

[Oh Shoot]

Reading the specs on this unit on the manufacturer website, it is hard to tell whether it is supposed to be an ordinary reflex sight or a holographic sight. Red/Green would imply reflex sight of course, because a switchable red/green laser would be kinda expensive as far as I know, even on a very-low-power laser.

 

Unless they can now make collimated LED beams.

 

Just saying, the holographic sights have a "holograph" reflective screen, and for instance on my Eotech sights if you peer thru the sight from a long distance, the round crosshairs image gets big and rather pixellated.  But reflex sights I've used are smooth reflective coated glass, and stay about the same size, non-pixellated, even if one peers thru the sight from quite a distance away.

 

Just trying to figure out why a reflex site would ever have a "pixellated" appearance. The only thing I can think up-- Maybe the reflective coating on some units is "bumpy" from uneven vapor deposition? Most of the optical coatings nowadays are a very thin vapor-deposition process, AFAIK. Or maybe the glass isn't polished smooth enough?

 

Makes no never mind, just thinking out loud. :)

 

Honestly don't know the answer to any part of that. Then again, I was pro photog for many years and don't even know the finer points of plain ole spherical and flat field lenses, let alone how the various "powered" optics work. :)

 

- OS

[TripleDigitRide]

The lens caps being a pain to close is my only complaint. I'm going to take a dremel to the inside of the lens cover to see if I can take a very small amount of rubber off of the inside.

[Oh Shoot]

I read the first post and jump ahead to this reply, so sorry if you have already stated this and missed it. 

 

Did you get the red/green dot strikefire? or the red only? Before I bought mine, I looked at a lot of reviews for them and noticed a whole lot of complaining from people that had the red/green dot version, the red dot not being bright enough to see in daylight. The replies to these complaints were always the same thing, buy the red dot version only, unless you plan on using it with nv or low light situations. 

 

I bought the red dot only version and its been a great sight. Holds a zero great. Although I haven't had to use them, Vortex is supposed to have top notch CS.

 

This is red/green. Comes with mount and 2x magnifyer.

 

And yes, the plain red dot is brighter. Garufa's Vortex red dot only is at least 25% brighter than mine. The reason for that is -- I don't know.

 

- OS

[Oh Shoot]

The lens caps being a pain to close is my only complaint. I'm going to take a dremel to the inside of the lens cover to see if I can take a very small amount of rubber off of the inside.

 

My first one was. This one just snaps open and closed very nicely.