1-4 times optic?
 

Hey all,

Just looking for recommendations for a good 1-4 times optic, with good eye relief. Primarily to be used in outdoor games...~150 - 300 foot distances, with occasional cqb inside buildings.

They got some decent variable zoom scopes in amazon.
Most of them won't break the bank either.

NC-Star and/or UTG/Leapers has high-end airsoft grade stuff with lots of options and variants. Companies like Barska and Bushnell for low-end real-steel are affordable as well. There are some solid airsoft grade reproductions out there as well, so a good sight isn't hard to find. Also there's nothing wrong with dropping some cash on higher end if you have the budget for it.

Good eye relief makes airsoft one-hundred times easier, so it's good that you're looking into. Myself along with many others found that more than two to three times zoom on an airsoft gun can be a too much depending on the gun and environment.

Yah, I use a UTG 3-9 times on my VSR, great little optic.

But I am looking for a 1.1-4 times for an ACR build now, not sure if a rifle/hunting scope look would really fit the bill... Might have to take a gander at a local gun shop or bass pro...I really dont want to spend more then $300 for something sub *4 with good and CLEAR eye relief.

I have a utg accushot, very good scope for the money. I had considered the barska as well when I bought the accushot. Set aside 200-300$ if you want useable glass. Anything made for airsoft and sold AS airsoft optics is a gamble at best. Don't waste your time or money.

I tried to use a visionking 1-4 shortdot. I could never get a sight picture in time to shoot anyone at max zoom. The utg is near instant, I hit the eye relief every time.

I would recommend an aimpoint with a 3x magnifier on a flip to side mount. Quality variable zoom in the 1-4x range is really hard to find for a good price. Airsoft aimpoint clones are very good (way better than EoTech clones) and although most 3x magnifiers don't have awesome eye relief it's very usable.

Ran a UTG for a while, it was solid for about $100.

I own a Bushnell AR 1-4 for one of my m4 for while. Got it on sale for around 300 but blows any airsoft replica out of the water for eye relief and glass quality.

Instead of starting a new thread, I might as well use this one to get my answers !

I played my first game last saturday (I was terrible by the way lol) and I didn't have any optic to fit the CQB game I was at. The thing is I have a hard time aiming with my iron sights (the hole in the one close to me is just ridiculously small and I have a hard time resting my cheek on my gun to get a good sight) so I thought maybe a red dot would help me since it would be higher and easier for me to aim in general. Also, I consider myself more of an outside player than a inside CQB player so a reflex sight or a zoom scope wouldn't necessarily be suited for my needs.

Now, I own a G&G GC16 MPW 12 which is full metal so it's kinda heavy already. I don't necessarily want to add too much weight to the gun but if I need to, I will.

I looked for the brands you guys mentionned (mostly UTG, Barska and Bushnell) and I'm quite surprise about how much they cost. I'm no expert so I'm wondering if paying the price is worth the gain for a beginner like me ? I also will need to get contacts for my eyes (instead of glasses). Will it give me headaches or anything like that ?

What are your suggestions ?

P.S. : I don't really like holographic sights, I mostly into red dots here or anything else.

You can get replica red dots for like $30-$40. Theyre junk, but they work.
Mount might be sloppy, dot will have lots of glare, but its fine for airsoft.
Even the $90 replicas arent great.
At around $200 it gets better. But you might not care about the difference in quality between cheap replica and real.
Its a bit easier with zoomed optics since they make okay RS scopes for just > $200

These are pretty good red dots bang for the buck wise.

http://airsoftdepot.ca/catalog/produ...oducts_id=3836

http://www.airsoftparts.ca/store2/in...oducts_id=2603

Same idea but higher quality.

http://www.airsoftparts.ca/store2/in...oducts_id=2784

They're light too.

Ah, this thread.

I ended up going with one of these: https://www.canadaammo.com/product/d...-illumination/

It was recommended by quite a few players I spoke with, and now that I have it mounted on my ACR, it is my scope of choice. Perfect clarity, amazing eye relief and the 1-4 times works flawlessly.

You do need to supply your own 20mm scope rings, but you can get those for like 20-30 bucks.

For instance, when I brought my gun to Hero to see what magpul accessories work with the KWA PTS Masada (for reference, MOE, not M-lok!) the guy there remarked on how perfect the scope was to look through.

Just one of those hidden gems.

Thanks for that, I'll take a good look at these.

Yeah well I'm not sure I want that big thing right now. I want something a little bit more subtle that'll do a good work without covering too much of the rail and to be able to aim quickly with it. Thanks anyway, I'll keep it in mind nonetheless.

I actually do want something good and sturdy that can take hits, BBs, you name it... I'm not the kind to "invest twice". If I go for something I want, I'd rather get the best quality/price product I can afford. I mean, I'm not already equipped. I got my AEG, my boots, goggles, mesh mask, gloves and some extra magazines and that's about it really. Should I get myself some more gear before investing more on my gun or is it worth it to go and get an optic for better playability ?

I have 2 different types of optics on all my guns... a reflex sight and the utg 1.25-4.5x shortdot. The reflex sights are perfect and should be around 50$.

I think all airsoft optics work in the same way, the projector for the dots or reticles are not very precise and the shapes are fuzzy and out of focus and unnecessarily large. For that reason I like reticles because I use it as a point of reference depending on the range I'm at. When you play a lot you start to know just how much of a spread you'll shoot at what range and if you use the reticle as a reference you'll know at X range your spread will be halfway between the dot and the outside circle.. or at Y range most of your shots will land inside the circle. You get to know ranging because the target will be a certain size in relation to the size of the reticle.

Most airsoft optics will not be able to take a hit to the glass. Even real steel optics can't, so even if you buy a fancy real one, you still need to buy a shield for it if you care about it. If you're not using gas blowback guns, you don't need to spend more for a real one. The reason you need a higher quality on for gas is the blowback can reset the zero or walk the settings off where you put them. Some really low end airsoft optics do this too on aegs, but I've not yet encountered an airsoft reflex to lose zero on aegs. In fact, my friend put his 30$ one on his real steel remington 870 and it held even after a box of shells.

double post.

So I should buy a cheap red dot and just protect the glass with a shield ? Will the external break if a BB hits it directly ?


I'd like something with just a little bit of zoom on it like 1.5x or 2x. Is it a common thing in the optic world or not at all ?

just a tip, alot of rear sights have different settings. for example an AR (m4 variants) flip from the small hole to a larger one.
H&K guns are quite obvious, they rotate and lock every 1/4 turn with a new opening size at each stop.
for optics if yoh want to stay cheap places like airsoftdepot have some decent quality clones of popular RS optics. i have their gbbr rated aimpoint m4 and it holds zero on my gbbr for 3 seasons. also their T1 micro held zero on there as well.
the staff there could tell you what is good for gbbr or not, most any of the gbbr safe ones are of decent quality and will hold zero well.
or a cheapo tasco reddot from the crappy tire is an option as well, but dont look as cool.

I don't own any GBBR but thanks hehe

1.5-2x zoom in airsoft pricing would be really shitty quality. The glass will be bad and the eye relief will be bad. You'll spend more time trying to get a sight picture with the bad eye relief than you will actually aiming. I had a 100$ magnified optic for airsoft 1.5-6x shortdot from visionking. It was a huge disappointment. I had to go into lower end real steel optics to get what I wanted. The utg accushot scope is heavy compared to others but the glass is really good for the price... you can find them for around 200-250.

I find I use it at almost no magnification or max magnification. I almost never use it anywhere between the 1.25-4.5x.

Everything else I use is no magnification. You should be able to see 50-60m before losing sight of the bb with the naked eye. 2x mag is pretty useless in that regard... especially at the price you'll need to pay to get anything worth using that you won't end up throwing at a wall cause it sucks.

The reflex sights I use are metal, they've taken shots to the frame without issue. One took a shot to the glass and popped the metal retaining frame out. Another one was dropped on the floor and the glass cracked. It still works fine. They're pretty cheap, whether or not you want to pay the same price as the optic is worth for a shield is up to you. The little airsoft ones are pretty shitty, they'll break after a shot but at least you can reuse the mount and cut your own polycarb to put in.

If you're going to into the $200 price range, I'd highly suggest the Vector Arbiter which is often claimed to be the OEM of the Millet DMS.

So magnification is kinda useless unless you use a DMR or sniper rifle ?

I just feel that a slight magnification would be comfortable for me but I guess I would have to try many types to really find what my eye can deal with.

I wasn't really into scopes but I begin to think it's my go-to option if I want a versatile type of sight.

I've been looking into the Barska 1-4x28mm IR SWAT-AR Tactical Rifle Scope which looks very nice and is in the $240.

I just looked at what you suggested Duffman and it looks promising ! I might consider it.

My main question now is more and more about the space it occupies on the gun. It looks heavier and takes way more space than a simple red dot for example. As a beginner, I don't have the experience to tell whether or not a scope would be better overall or a red dot would be just perfect. May I get some of your feedback (I take yours in consideration, Lurkingknight).

Thanks !

if you don't need magnification, don't get magnification. You get tunnel vision both literally and figuratively when playing. You'll be too busy looking through the scope to have a good perception of the space around you.

I would suggest getting just a tube red dot that can be raised off the rail to fix your cheek welding issue, then reevaluate. magnified scopes aren't for everyone or every gun. Most aegs shoot 50m just fine and everything after that it becomes an issue of upgrading and tuning, so having a 5x scope to see 50m is excessive and adds about 2 pounds to your rifle. When you start making shots in the 60-80m range with great consistency, like 3 out of 5 shots are hitting or better, then you'll probably want to consider a scope to see where your shots are landing. Spending that now is a bit of a waste unless you want the look.

Also you should be running up front as a newer player, it helps you learn your ranges better. New players have a tendency to sit back and lob rounds at ridiculous ranges thinking they'll hit better players with better guns because they see those players doing it. Learn your ranges and what your gun can and can't do, then come up with a course of action and budget to suit it.

Right now you have an issue with putting rounds on any target at any range. Fix that problem first.

You'll note that a lot of experienced players run Holosuns or real aimpoints. Point is, the magnification is often not that useful as most airsoft guns just aren't accurate to hit at a range where magnification is needed. The magnification is useful for spotting but little else, and if the glass is of poor quality, your naked eye can see much better than through bad glass. Now if you run a quality real steel optic (scope or red dot) you'll be able to see much better. Personally, I run a bushell 1-4x scope, but its big, bulky, and heavy, so I'm planning on switching to a holosun, vortex, or aimpoint myself.

Again, you all should check out the optic I linked.

Its not overly heavy, the glass is fantastic, eye relief is amazing and you can easily use it with both eyes open. It really is a hidden gem. Plus the illumination makes it just that much better for use as a red dot.

Thank you all for your share. I got to admit I was staying back but I got a long barrel (12") so it kinda was a pain in the ass to get out of cover. I ended up being kill many times and my only kill was a teamkill haha f*ck me...

So I'll get down to my local shop and look through different optics. If I'm not sure about what I see, I'll consider to buy online maybe.

And Daishi, I truly like the one you linked. I was not really into scopes but now I kinda see they seem to be better products for the money.

What sucks though is that my local shop won't let me fix it on my gun so I can't really feel the thing on my own weapon aside from putting it on the rail without fixing it and just see what it looks like…

Huh, that one looks not bad actually. Wonder why it's so much cheaper than a Vortex short dot scope...

A lot of reasons: sharpness, amount of light transmission, distortion around the edges, coatings, etc.

Cheap scopes look great if you haven't looked through any nice scopes (eg: Trijicon TR24 1-4x - my personal fav; Vortex Razor HDII; most of the S&B scopes, etc), but when you do, you can't go back.

Yeah, I kind of figured it was that. Oh well... guess I'll save up for a HDII. Expensive piece though; I can buy 2+ ZTWs for the price of an HDII...

Of course but a $1000 isn't affordable haha

I mean if it really offers a day and night difference, I guess it could be an option for many.

difference in price is not just the glass, but also the tube and the weight of the optic overall. The glass on my accushot at 200$ is sufficient for airsoft and probably good enough for a real AR given that's what the scope is meant for. The drawback is that with a mount you're looking at almost 2 pounds.

A vortex viper weighs almost half of that, has better clarity, better eye relief and almost no distortion. You also don't see the tube at all when you look through it. But it's also a 700$ scope.

The problem with buying low end is that you don't know the kind of quality you will get, sight unseen. 200$ is a lot to gamble on an optic that might not work out, which is why I've recommended the accushot. Several other players have bought the exact scope I have and also agree for the price that it is a very good deal if you can get it at the 200$ mark when it comes on sale on amazon. The regular price is something like 300 after taxes and shipping. I also looked for a good month at all the other options around the 200-300$ price range and all the review are somewhat similar.. heavy, questionable eye relief. If you still don't know what the difference is, buy a shitty visionking and take it to cabelas or sail or basspro and compare it side by side with something that has similar magnification. Most magnified optics sold to airsofters will not even compare, it is a waste of your money to even consider magnified optics under 200$ and everything else unless you've looked through it yourself is a gamble because most realsteel shooters will have something nicer.

I'm working on a gun right now for a client, he left his 4x acog on it, the sight picture is cloudy and grey through the glass. You can barely see anything through it, on top of having a knife edge eyerelief where you either hit the spot right and get a picture or you get nothing but blackness of the tube. And if you try to move with the rifle shouldered, you lose the picture.

Kids these days. Dude, a service-length C7/M16 barrel is 20".

I know, old man, but I'd rather play CQB with a MP5 or something meant for CQB. :innocent:

pssh... I play field with my cqb guns and rape. airsoft is not about barrel length. Everything is limited to output Joules. The barrels aren't rifled and there's no gyroscopic stabilization of the projectile in flight. There's backspin to create lift to keep it flying longer but the precision is from the airseal and the straightness of the bore.

I never said it was impossible to do. It's just a personal preference that's all. I'd rather play with a CQB gun on a field than to play CQB with a long barrel gun. It's just a matter of personal taste ;)

Now back to the topic, I'll go check out some optics tonight and see what they got in store. I hope this will help me figure out what's best suited for me !

So I went to my local shop and I ended up trying NCStars red dots and a Holosun. I ended going with the Holosun because of the quality compared to NCStars' models. Lot less parallax effect on it, better red dot luminosity and "sharpness", less reflections in the glasses, etc.

I tried one NCStar scope and it sucked. I had a real hard time getting the eye relief and to get a clear image. Also it's way bigger than I expected so I think the red dot was the best option here even though it cost me more.

Thanks for your advices people !

Anyone know where I can get a lexan lens protector custom made?

buy one of the airsoft ones, toss the shitty plexi lense it comes with and go to a plastics manufacturer and ask them to cut you some appropriate shapes in 3/8" inch lexan/polycarbonate. 1/4" might do as well. It will cost a bit.. but you probably won't have to replace it like the shitty airsoft ones. You'll need to drill the screw holes yourself to mount it to the rail mount, but it'll be much nicer.

I run the speedsoft shield, it's quite thick but I'm reasonably sure it's plexi and not polycarb.

Go to home depot and buy a lexan sheet for like 20 bucks.

Cut your own.

3/32" of polycabronate would be enough, 1/8" will give you >4j impact protection easily.
3/8" is getting real close to stopping real bullets.

Keep in mind our polycarbonate ballistic glasses are only 2-3mm thick.

I've purchased an Eotech lexan protector for $9.

ah well then, the claims of the chinese airsoft shields being polycarb are false then because I'm pretty sure they're thicker than 3/32.

For what?

We had Bruce on here making awesome ones but he seems to be gone/retired.

Just a round 24mm objective

One of these?

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/178...lection-device

I'd actually prefer not to go with the ARD. 24mm is a pretty small objective already and I'm concerned about how it would affect light transmission.

I have one of the Vortex ones on my Nikon and it's fine. You only see a hint at 1X.

http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/en/n...23-1-4x20.html

Howabout greater mags? 4x? I'm curious because that was my original plan but some pros talked me out of it.

I just got a lexan cover made for the flip cover at airsoftdepot today.

It vanishes as soon as you dial past 1x.