Looking for a good Red Dot for my AR. Any ideas???

I've had the following (I'm a bit ADD when it comes to optics):

Vortex Strikefire I: Cheap, decent, looks nice, worked okay.
Vortex SPARC I: Cheap, decent, smaller size than the Strikefire, brighter dot that the Strikefire, a bit more expensive.
Lucid: Not as cheap, looked great, had multiple reticles to choose from, it mounted pretty weirdly and was always coming loose. In the end I hated fiddling with it. Next guy might have solved the mount issue, I dunno.
Burris Fastfire II: Good precise dot, smallest, provides widest field of view, but harder to acquire as it is small. Definitely more suited to pistol.
Holosun HS403G: I just picked up one and haven't fired with it mounted yet but so far the build quality is decent, the dot seems fine and bright enough and it has a neat auto-on feature based upon movement. You turn it off and then it will come on if you snap your gun up or shake it. It does have a noticeable red tint to it.
 
Sig is coming out with a bunch of new optics. If you're not in a rush, wait and see what they release. Then again, they prob won't hit Canada for a few months.
 
bushnell trs , fairly inexpensive but good product for about 150 or so.

but to echo what others have said, if you can afford it get an aimpoint from the PRO all the way up to T1 micro
 
Sparc gets my vote.
Im not paying $700 for a RD that does the same thing.
I have to change my 2032 every 18 months- big deal.
 
I'm currently doing the same need a red dot for my DDM4A1. Aimpoint is looking like a good choice but the price is killer. Sparc II is my other front runner. I have a vortex viper pst 1x4 on my other one and I k ow vortex products are solid however I don't care for the look of the sparc very much and let's face it LFC has to be considered
 
+1 for Vortex SPARC II. Works Great, comes with nice flip up caps, lots of included hardware mounting height options.
Also run an EOtech XPS and I won't lie, this is my favourite because of the clarity, 1MOA dot (more precise shots) and the larger 65MOA ring on the outside (CQB).

Run both with a Vortex 3x Magnifier with no complaints.
 
I just picked up a bushnell holosight. The retarded cousin of the EOTECH. Seems like a great deal ifyou can find one and I really enjoy the lack of parallax error on these type of HWS
 
I wasn't too thrilled about the Aimpoint PRO until I used one. Knowing they were built about as tough as other Aimpoints and had a great battery life I felt they must have skimped in areas that are important to me like glass quality, brightness, the dot (actual size, brightness range, crispness) And when questioning a vendor got less than convincing answers. I was wrong, it is fantastic. Things that really annoy me are fisheye (distortion that gets worse the farther you get from the center of FOV) tint (many have a dark tint that makes contrast difficult and makes low light shooting more difficult) dot brightness not bright enough for a sunny winter day and too bright for low light shooting and let's be honest, many red dots have bigger than advertised dots. The PRO has no visible tint at all. Dot to background/target contrast is excellent. Its not as clear as higher end aimpoints but the difference is minute and the glass is still much better than anything at or below its price. The 2 moa dot delivers, its mint. The thing rocks, Vortex doesn't even compare.
 
I have an Aimpoint Micro and a Vortex sparc -- side by side there aint much difference in the Dot , big difference in the ease of the switchgear. Come resale time-- theres a mammoth difference in price. I don't smash around my SBR, so the toughness is not an issue. I prefer the micro, since it sits on tight real-estate.
I made a choice last year to use the best glass i can find, so the Aimpoint sits on the rail, while the Vortex sits on the shelf.
I will say, the AR is pretty good at medium to long range, and you may want to consider a magnified optic. Aimpoint doesn't make one, but Trijicon does, with a simple reticle similar to a red dot.
 
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