VORTEX Strike Eagle 1-6x24mm Illuminated AR-BDC Reticle 30mm Riflescope (SE-1624-1)

Glass is clear, reticle is good out to 500yd, illumination is daytime bright. All backed by the best warranty around.

This is 4 star optic compared to something that costs 2-3 times as much, but value easily adds a star. Had mine for several months, with a variety of guns, rounds, and shooting types. It's taken a few good bumps, but the finish and mechanics show no signs of it. The optical quality is very good in my opinion. The reticle is an easy to use design, and easily gets bright enough for broad daylight use, but it's a bit chubby for precision work past 300 yds. At 1X, there is some magnification for anything within a few feet, but at 5 yds onwards, it views like a red dot or reflex with both eyes open. Nice touch to put a battery storage slot in elevation turret cap too.

I purchased thisboptic last year when I was building a 14.5 inch Recce rifle. I tried running a 1-4x but found the lack of magnification to be a problem identifying and engaging smaller targets quickly at ranges past 200 meters. Having several other Vortex products I decided to try this one out and have been very pleased! At 1x the optic is fast (but not quite a true 1x) and the illumination is more than enough for dusk/cloudy days. It's a bit lacking on sunny days, but you can still pick up the reticle on targets. It doesn't exactly replicate a red dot because the reticle is so large, but with some training you can get pretty fast with it. At 6x it gives you plenty of magnification to hit anything within a 5.56 engagement range. The BDC reticle is accurate, but there are so many ballistics apps out there you may as well run your own numbers and tape a cheat card to your stock or inside your scope cap. This will give you some flexibility if you need to run different loads in the same rifle. As far as the reticle design goes, I wish there was a more precise aiming point instead of just a "T" crosshair. Vortex must have realized this too because the reticle on the 1-8x Strike Eagle is much better with a precise dot at the center. Overall, I have been very impressed with this scope. I've run it hard during training, have pig hunted with it through heavy brush and rough terrain and it currently sits on one of my go-to/general purpose rifles. If you're looking for a sub-$400 1-6x optic, this is the one you should go with.