Glass and reticle are crisp and clear!
I have been using ACOG 4x32 LED with my LMT piston AR and decided to try something with 1x for my new Springfield Saint AR pistol. Because of astigmatism, I can’t use anything with projection/reflection design. I had used ACOG in the army with chevron for 10 plus years and always loved how sharp and clearly defined the reticle is. After researching, I narrowed it down to vortex Spitfire and Burris AR-1X. I like Spitfire’s clean reticle, Burris’s retile is too busy and the hold for 400m, 500m, 600, are just not defined (empty spaces with two harsh marks on the two sides). Also the reputation of Vortex’s customer service set an industry standard. Glad I picked the Spitfire. It is relatively compact and lightweight, the build quality is way beyond its price point. The image is very crisp and clear with outstanding contrast, better than Aimpoint COMPM4, but not as good as my ACOG 4x32, of course ACOG cost 5 times as much. There are some slightly image distortions but not enough to bother me as an aiming device. Most importantly, the spitfire’s glasses does not have any annoying color tint that is found in almost all other red dots Aimpoint included. Now the best part is the retile, looking through my astigmatism eyes, it is sharply defined, as sharp as my ACOG, the thickness of the outlines just perfect, easy to locate but not to cover the field of view, the outer ring in the Burris AR-1X is little too thick by comparison. The design engineers at Vortex did their homework well. In addition, Vortex includes a replaceable 5.56mm BDC turret cap and flip-up lens caps for free, a nice touch.
Con: Spitfire’s hardwares are high quality but I really wish the mounting screws are thumb screws so I can take it off in the field without a tool, it is just me, other people may disagree but I understand, the current mounting method is more secure then thumb screws.
Overall, the Spitfire is a really well designed product; I will be proudly using it side by side with my ACOG that cost 5 times more.