Holo Sight With 3x Magnifier Airsoft

Unless you're currently living in a log cabin with your great-grandpappy's antiquarian flintlock drove, you probably ain at least ane gun with a red dot sight. These illuminated sights are ubiquitous on rifles, carbines, PDWs, and shotguns, and they're becoming steadily more than mutual on pistols too. The minimally-obstructed field of view, easy-to-acquire indicate of aim, and long bombardment life an RDS provides make information technology an appealing choice for whatever close-quarters-oriented weapon platform.

That said, blood-red dot sights aren't the but selection anymore. Many optic manufacturers offer dissimilar reticle colors, such as green or gilt/bister. We recently picked up the new Holosun HE503R-GD gold dot sight to see how it fares in comparing to a traditional RDS or a dark-green dot sight similar the HE510C-GR nosotros previously reviewed. We also took this opportunity to evaluate the Holosun HM3X magnifier, which adds versatility to this sight.

Read on as we review the gold dot sight, the magnifier, and how the 2 worked together.

Holosun Gilded Dot Sight

The company has expanded its Elite optic line with two new gold reticle models: the HE403R-GD and HE503R-GD. Both are variants of existing cerise dot sights from the company's Classic line, namely the HS403R and HS503R. All four of these models feature a compact 20mm housing with a manual brightness dial, and each includes a low mountain and a lower-1/3 co-witness mount.

The 403 models feature a 2-MOA dot, while 503 models feature Holosun's Multiple Reticle Organization (MRS) which offers a 2-MOA dot with a user-selectable 65-MOA ring choice. There's an $85 to $100 difference between the 2, so if you aren't committed to the 65-MOA band, y'all can save a considerable corporeality by going with the dot-only 403 model. Electric current MSRPs are $199 for the HS403R (cherry dot only) or $218 for the HE403R-GD (aureate dot only), and $285 for the HS503R (blood-red dot/ring) or $320 for the HE503R-GD (gold dot/band). The latter model is the discipline of this review.

As mentioned in our HE510C review, Elite models also offer a better warranty than the Classic series. Specifically, you lot go a limited lifetime warranty against defects on the housing or lens, and a 10-twelvemonth warranty on the illumination organization. Classic optics have a v-year lens warranty and 3-year illumination warranty.

Why Gold?

Now for the elephant in the room — what's the point of a gold reticle? Is it actually superior to red or dark-green? As you may expect, that answer is mostly subjective. However, in that location are some potential pros and cons to consider before choosing a golden dot.

Holosun says the aureate reticle was developed partially because information technology's non affected by the about common form of colour-blindness. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, blood-red-greenish color vision deficiency affects ane in 12 males and ane in 200 females in population groups with Northern European ancestry. In comparing, bluish-yellowish color vision defects are far rarer, only affecting near 1 in 10,000 people worldwide. If you were born with red-green colour-blindess, a xanthous reticle should be much easier to spot than either of those colors.

The other claimed reward of the gilded dot reticle is its effectiveness in a wider variety of environments. While a cherry dot might go done-out against burnt sienna rock formations and a green dot might blend into a grassy field, this brilliant yellow-orange hue stands out in both settings.

At that place is one glaring issue (no pun intended) with the golden reticle: bombardment life. If you lot directly compare the specifications box between red dot and gilded dot models, you'll see that the former lists "upwards to 100,000 hours" of bombardment life at medium brightness while the latter lists "upwardly to 50,000 hours" (the same every bit green dot models). Although l,000 hours is still a very long fourth dimension — roughly 5.7 years — it's still one-half as long every bit the standard red dot. Also, this sight doesn't have Holosun's battery-saving features such as Shake-Awake or a solar console, so it'south likely that you lot'll be eating into that bombardment life 24/7/365 if information technology's used on annihilation other than a condom queen.

Holosun 3X Magnifier

The HM3X magnifier is new for 2019, and Holosun boldly proclaims that information technology'south "the best magnifier value on the market today" every bit a result of its $235 MSRP. Information technology features a lever-locking QD rail mountain with a removable spacer for employ with absolute co-witness or lower-i/iii co-witness sights (1.4 or one.63 inches from meridian of rails to heart of lens, respectively). The aluminum housing flips directly to the side and is retained in either position by a sturdy detent.

A ±3 diopter allows you to focus the magnifier to friction match your eye, and the windage/superlative controls can exist adapted to center the dot using a flat screwdriver or the slotted caps from a Holosun sight. Heart relief is 2.75 inches; leave educatee is 0.29 inches.

Range Time

We installed the HE503R-GD sight and HM3X magnifier onto a S&Due west AR-xv aslope the standard Magpul MBUS rear sight. The lower-i/3 mountain comes pre-installed on the gold dot sight, only the matching lower-1/3 spacer had to exist installed on the magnifier to become it to line up. With that step complete, the HE503R was installed onto the upper receiver with the included Torx wrench, and the magnifier's QD mountain was locked in place later on adjusting its clamping strength with the aforementioned wrench. Information technology'south nice that this QD mount comes standard with the sight, since some competitors (e.one thousand. Master Arms) sell them separately.

With the sight and magnifier installed, we immediately noticed that the finishes on these items are unlike. Holosun's web site lists "MAO black" as the surface finish for both products, but the sight we received appears glossier and darker than the magnifier. We compared a few other Holosun sights, and they all seem to match the magnifier's matte charcoal finish, but the HE503R-GD doesn't. Holosun's product photos also show a lower-gloss finish than what we received. This may be a minor nitpick, but information technology makes us wonder about how much variation there is on this production line.

Cosmetics aside, the gold dot sight can be adapted between brightness settings of 0 through 12 — two settings for use with nighttime vision, and x for use in daylight. The final position of the brightness punch (pictured to a higher place) toggles the reticle between dot and dot+ring; it remembers this setting even if the light is turned off and on again. Nosotros prefer the dot+band configuration since information technology makes information technology easier to larn the dot equally the weapon is shouldered.

Parallax is minimal, merely not entirely absent as Holosun advertises — no dot sight on the market is truly parallax-complimentary.

Choosing a Color

This "gilt" dot color is an acquired taste, although we don't mean that in a negative way. It can be described as vivid yellow with a hint of orange, much like a yellow traffic light. It's similar to Trijicon's amber reticle colour, which has been available for quite a few years at present. We thought it might wash out more against a desert background, but were pleased to see that it wasn't very hard to spot as long as the brightness was prepare accordingly.

So, you may be wondering, should I go with a red, dark-green, or gold dot?We tin't answer that question for y'all, but based on our experiences, we like green the best. It seems to stand up out more than than the other colors in nearly environments nosotros've tested, despite Holosun's implication that gold is more versatile. This makes sense considering the human being centre is nigh sensitive to colors in the light-green portion of the spectrum, causing them to appear brighter (unless you're color-blind).

A photo of the HE510C-GR dark-green reticle from our previous review.

Deciding between ruddy and gold is a much closer call. We'd even so requite a slight border to red, only that may be mostly because nosotros're already had many years to become used to it. Notwithstanding, bright red backgrounds aren't common in nature, whereas bright yellows — such as sunlit sand dunes — are more plentiful. For this reason, gold would be our tertiary pick, but we'd still gladly have information technology over atomic number 26 sights.

Magnification

The HM3X magnifier is simple to use, and pairs nicely with this sight. The detent holds the magnifier firmly in line, only isn't hard to overcome as you push the housing to the side. Clarity is skilful, although the magnifier cuts downward on lite transmission, causing the sight movie to appear dimmer with a faint bluish bandage. There's a lot of glass between your centre and the target with ii separately-housed optics, so this is to be expected.

The HM3X is on par with entry-level magnifiers, merely it's clearly not on the level of an Aimpoint or EOTech. Of grade, it's priced accordingly.

Through the magnifier, the dot and circumvolve still expect crisp, although the circle becomes distracting at 3X magnification. We gear up the sight to dot-only mode while using the magnifier.

After using a friend's AR with a Primary Arms Gen Iv 3X magnifier with QD mount ($165 MSRP), the PA magnifier's sight picture seemed a little brighter, simply it featured a smaller eyebox and some slight border distortion. We strongly preferred the Holosun's smoothen housing design and flip action, but it also has a $70 higher pricetag. The HM3X is a solid option, simply we wouldn't say it'southward far and abroad "the all-time value on the market" as Holosun's production folio states.

Terminal Thoughts

Both the HE503R aureate dot sight and HM3X magnifier have performed well, and piece of work together equally intended. The magnifier makes it easier to reach a little farther out, and tin exist quickly pushed out of the way for curt-range engagement.

At a combined MSRP of $555, the HE503R and HM3X are in the same toll range every bit entry-level depression-power variable optics (LPVOs). Frankly, we're still partial to a ane-4X or ane-6X LPVO for virtually multipurpose carbines. Those scopes offer infinite magnification adjustability, and their higher maximum magnification and more than detailed reticles are improve-suited to longer ranges. They're besides contained in a single unit of measurement with one set of adjustments.

That said, the "1X" offered by LPVOs in the sub-$1000 cost range can't touch on the clarity of an unmagnified dot sight for close-range use. The magnifier is as well removable to cut weight, whereas an LPVO is a bundle deal. If you already own a dot sight and y'all're looking to expand its capabilities, or you rarely utilise your weapon at longer ranges, a magnifier like the HM3X might be worth considering.

As for the gold dot sight on its ain, we still adopt Holosun's red and greenish dot sights, especially those with Shake Awake and solar features. Only the HE503R-GD comes with the improved Aristocracy warranty and gold reticle for $35 more than the HS503R red dot, so if you call back y'all'll adopt the gilded colour, it's worth a shot. As a consumer, more choices are never a bad thing — even though this sight configuration and reticle color wouldn't exist our commencement choice from Holosun's lineup, we're glad there are plenty of models to cull from.

For more than info on Holosun'south dot sights and magnifier, go to Holosun.com.

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