Reflex/Red Dot

Aimpoint and Glock have teamed up to release a pistol and red dot sight package, available starting January 20th. This collaboration features select Glock 9mm pistols equipped with the new Aimpoint COA™ red dot optic, mounted using Aimpoint’s proprietary A-CUT™ interface. Mankind can fly to the Moon, but we cannot mount a red dot to the slide of a pistol in a reliable way. Will Aimpoint’s new A-Cut be a cut above the rest?

Viridian Weapon Technologies has introduced the RFX11 green dot reflex sight, designed specifically for KelTec firearms. This lightweight sight combines advanced optics with a design that complements KelTec models. Featuring a 3-MOA green dot—chosen for its superior visibility to the human eye—it enables quick and accurate target acquisition. The RFX11 includes the INSTANT-ON® activation, auto shut-off, and an ambient light sensor for adaptability in varying conditions. With a battery life of over 30,000 hours and unlimited eye relief, the sight is said to offer both reliability and versatility. The price is $169, and I can only appreciate the existence of reflex sights that don’t cost a fortune to buy.

Red dots have been all the rage in the last 5 - 10 years both from an optics manufacturing standpoint as well as firearm manufacturers. More and more firearm and optic companies have joined the optics-equipped bandwagon to make shooting handguns that much more enjoyable - and easy to see - with a red dot. Within this renaissance, we have seen a burst of popularity for “enclosed emitter” red dots, too: optics that are fully housed in a box to protect the red dot from outside elements. While they can appear boxy to some with the endearing moniker of “mailboxes,” it is difficult to doubt the advantages that they can afford you. So, today we are going to look at 2 enclosed emitter red dots from Meprolight: the MPO Pro-S (Shield footprint) and their MPO Pro-F (RMR footprint) to see which one might be best for you. Let’s dive in!

Griffin Armament has announced its new GPS1X and GPS3X (Griffin Prism Sight 1x & 3x). As a fan of prisms, it’s great to see Griffin Armament throw their hat in the ring with these lightweight, compact, and versatile optics at a very affordable price point, especially in time for the holidays.

The micro red dot market has become increasingly crowded, with options at every price point promising various features and innovations. The Meprolight MPO-DS enters this space with a straightforward proposition - though whether straightforward is enough in today's market is what we're here to explore.

The Meprolight MPO-F is a closed-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It was designed to be a very durable optic, to meet the needs of military and law enforcement operations in any environment. Meprolight sent me one out for review, and I’m ready to give you my full and unbiased opinion and feedback on the optic.

We are living in a renaissance for red dots on handguns. It is a glorious thing. It was not that long ago that your only options were a Trijicon RMR (good, but insanely expensive), a Burris FastFire (unexciting, but OK), and a hoard of untested, foreign red dots that now don’t exist anymore. Flash-forward to today and the moment you walk through a gun shop’s door you are tripping over options. If you want to spend $1K on a handgun red dot, there is some manufacturer out there making one with thermal, a million hour battery life, and GPS plotting (I’m kidding, but what if). What about the other end of the spectrum? How low can we go on price and still get a “bulletproof” red dot?

The Meprolight MPO-F is an open-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It was designed for a full-sized handgun in the USA and is made in the Philippines.

The Meprolight Mepro MPO-DF is an affordable open-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It provides a good value proposition and includes many features and extras not included with other optics at this MSRP. Meprolight was nice enough to send one out for a review. I’ve been using the optic for the past week and will give you a full and unbiased write-up of my findings.

Welcome back to another edition of Concealed Carry Corner. Last week, we took a look at the best cover garments. If you happened to miss that article be sure to click the link here to give it a read. This week, I want to talk about the benefits of having a red dot sight on your carry gun. I was recently in a local hardware store that also sells firearms. The store employee was talking the guy out of a Trijicon RMRcc and told him to just keep the iron sights. It was an interesting argument but if you start carrying with an optic, it will start to show just how fast it is to find your sight with a red dot optic. Let’s take a closer look at some of the good as well as bad aspects of carrying with a red dot in our red dot rundown.

A few weeks back I took my concealed carry pistol to the range for some much-needed practice. When I drew and acquired a sight picture, the only thing that went through my mind was “what the hell is that thing.” I had been shooting red dot sight-equipped pistols exclusively for months on end. In the time leading up to this practice trip, I had shot a few steel challenge matches, USPSA matches and took a course – all with red dot equipped pistols. The thing in my sight picture happened to be a steel sight post. Whether I liked it or not, the caveman tool sitting on the top deck of the slide turned out to be jarring.

Bottom-of-the-Barrel Price, High Tier Quality? New AT3 Tactical ARO-Mini Red Dot

Riton has released their new 1 Tactix ARD 2 (AR dot), a red dot packed with features for a price that may be more friendly to budget-minded shooters. Riton intends the 1 Tactix ARD 2 to be geared toward carbine, AR pistol, and shotgun applications where a simple and affordable aiming solution is needed without sacrificing adaptability. Let’s check out some of the specs and features.

Pistol red dots are a fairly common thing these days. We’ve come a long way since the early days of mounting gigantic optics like the early Aimpoint and Tasco red dots to the frames of 1911s. We can now mount some excellent optics, directly on our pistol slides, and the options at this point are virtually endless - it just depends on what you want to do with it. Vortex has been putting in a lot of work lately to expand its pistol and rifle optics line to be as comprehensive as possible. Standard RMR-type designs were some of their first ventures into the pistol-mounted optics category, but Vortex quickly upped the game by putting in their bid to the “large window” pistol red dot category. Primarily intended for competition shooters who value a large viewing window, the Vortex Defender XL is the company’s equivalent of Trijicon’s RMR HD, Holosuns 507COMP, or Shield’s RMSX. Today we’re going to check out what it offers, how it’s priced for its specific sector of the pistol optics market, and some of my thoughts on my experiences with it over the last 9 months.

Luke C (  @BallisticAviation  ) is talking with Jordan from Meprolight Optics about some of their latest updates to the M22 line of self-illuminated optics, as well as a new magnifier they've just debuted in 2024. The new MMX3 magnifier is a more compact and more adaptable version of the previous Meprolight 3X magnifier and comes in at a price of about $350 MSRP. Meanwhile, the successor to the M21, the M22, is getting a new light module kit for even more self-illumination options, as well as a new polarizer for use in brightly lit environments.

Join James Reeves of TFBTV at the SIG Next event as he dives into the details of two innovative red dot sights from SIG Sauer: the ROMEO-X Enclosed Pro and the ROMEO-X Enclosed Compact.

Meprolight has added new open emitter red dot sights to their catalog, including today’s subject, the Meprolight MPO-F. The MPO-F is a Full-size and full-featured red dot sight with the RMR footprint, battery door, two-button operation and three reticle options. I recently reviewed the smaller MPO-S with the RMSc footprint, but with the larger footprint of the MPO-F, also comes a larger objective lens for viewing targets. Let’s take a look.

Join James Reeves of TFBTV at the SIG Next event as he showcases the newly revealed ROMEO3MAX Pro optic. This advanced red dot sight is designed for precision and speed, making it ideal for both competitive shooting and tactical applications.