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Posted: 5/1/2016 2:06:20 PM EDT
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Has anyone heard anything about the Vortex SPARC AR?
Selling my MRO to fund something else, but will replace the MRO with a SPARC AR eventually, if they are as decent as the original SPARC II. |
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I got one last week. HERE I have not had a chance to shoot with it. I like the smaller form factor, It damn near is the size of the T2. Its a great clone with the Vortex Warranty. Once I get a chance to shoot with it I can update you on how it performs. If it works as well as my Sparc 2 Its a winner. The TD style scope covers are allot nicer than the flip covers. I like that is uses AAA batteries easy to pick up. The main difference that I noticed is the on the Sparc 2 the LED emitter is on the bottom of the glass about the 6 o'clock position, the AR its around the 4 o'clock. I'll try to snap some pictures later today.
RS |
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Quoted:
I got one last week. HERE I have not had a chance to shoot with it. I like the smaller form factor, It damn near is the size of the T2. Its a great clone with the Vortex Warranty. Once I get a chance to shoot with it I can update you on how it performs. If it works as well as my Sparc 2 Its a winner. The TD style scope covers are allot nicer than the flip covers. I like that is uses AAA batteries easy to pick up. The main difference that I noticed is the on the Sparc 2 the LED emitter is on the bottom of the glass about the 6 o'clock position, the AR its around the 4 o'clock. I'll try to snap some pictures later today. RS Thanks for the info. How's fit and finish compared to an Aimpoint? My Holosun 503GU is nice, but just doesn't "feel" as nice as my T1 |
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Fit and finish seem to be on par with the Sparc 2 and their other optics at this price point. The TD style flip covers feel pretty good and not like they would tear or fall apart quickly. Glass is surprisingly clear, Not much of a tint at all. It has a much better sight picture than the Sparc 2, Id 'say its very Aimpointish with its site picture wit the removal of the side power buttons. If you want a better sight picture your going to have to either remove the TD style caps or the whole rubber piece protecting the body, as they stick out slightly.
Hope this helps. RS |
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Quoted:
I got one last week. HERE I have not had a chance to shoot with it. I like the smaller form factor, It damn near is the size of the T2. Its a great clone with the Vortex Warranty. Once I get a chance to shoot with it I can update you on how it performs. If it works as well as my Sparc 2 Its a winner. The TD style scope covers are allot nicer than the flip covers. I like that is uses AAA batteries easy to pick up. The main difference that I noticed is the on the Sparc 2 the LED emitter is on the bottom of the glass about the 6 o'clock position, the AR its around the 4 o'clock. I'll try to snap some pictures later today. RS Im really liking the looks of the Sparc AR. Does the emitter being at the 4 'oclock position cause any issue or occlude any of the FOV? |
| I'll try to snap a picture of the 2 side by side, during the day. The emitter sticks out about the same as the Sparc 2, but because its at 4 it at first appears to take up some real estate, but once I had it mounted to a rifle and was looking at steel, It quickly disappeared, but I would prefer that had kept at at 6. |
| It looks to me to be a vast improvement over the sparc's of the past, mainly because of the emitter placement, the restructuring of the power/brightness buttons, and the use of a common battery. Now, if they could just incorporate a better battery life into the mix, it would defiantly be a winner. I had a sparc 1, and there was a lot I didn't like about it, and from what I saw of the sparc 2, they only addressed one of my complaints about it...The sparc AR seems to have addressed most of my complaints about the optic in general....Good job Vortex. |
| I had put a sparc on a new sbr to run a 40hr carbine class about a month ago. the sparc made it about 6hrs before the objective lens fractured. I must say vortex customer service was fantastic. They refunded my money which i put toward an aimpoint T2. My .02 if you plan to use your rifle seriously then save and purchase combat proven accessories. During the course everything on the range that wasn't name brand stuff failed. There were lots of failures of optics, magazines, lights, etc.. |
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I had put a sparc on a new sbr to run a 40hr carbine class about a month ago. the sparc made it about 6hrs before the objective lens fractured. I must say vortex customer service was fantastic. They refunded my money which i put toward an aimpoint T2. My .02 if you plan to use your rifle seriously then save and purchase combat proven accessories. During the course everything on the range that wasn't name brand stuff failed. There were lots of failures of optics, magazines, lights, etc.. Vortex is a name brand. Now was this a Sparc 1 or 2? The 2 is one of the most durable red dots out there IMO. Hell, Recoil magazine ended up shooting and lighting their demo unit on fire to kill it. I'd have zero issues running a Vortex on something that could save my ass. They are even getting to be a big name in competition and longer range shooting. |
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Got my SPARC AR today and mounted it to my SBR.....fit and finish is a LOT better than the Holosun it replaced. Doesn't feel/look like an $184 optic.......feels like something more expensive. I really like it thus far, and have co-witnessed it with my BUIS. Gonna go do more fine tuning next week when I'm off work.
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| I'm still trying to figure out an optic for my upcoming SBR, I love the SPARC I I put on my duty rifle and I'm starting to consider the SPARC AR, I'm just struggling with battery life. If Vortex could manage to get a SPARC type optic with a battery life comparable to Aimpoint and Trijicon, they'd have a real winner |
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Quoted: I'm still trying to figure out an optic for my upcoming SBR, I love the SPARC I I put on my duty rifle and I'm starting to consider the SPARC AR, I'm just struggling with battery life. If Vortex could manage to get a SPARC type optic with a battery life comparable to Aimpoint and Trijicon, they'd have a real winner |
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Not understanding the battery life hiccup that people complain about. Hell yes 5.7 years on a battery with an T2 is the gold standard, but if your an absolute nut about batteries and you would be a full idiot to do this, but if you take Vortex's 300 hours on max, (most use setting 3 or 4) The Sparc shuts off after 12 hours so you would have to turn it back on. 300 hours translates to 12.5 days. So if you replaced it with a new AAA Lithium You can currently get 20 for 30.00 from Amazon. You would end up using 30 batteries a year. so 40.00 a year in batteries You would spend 228.00 over 5 years to equal the aimpoint battery life. So you have only invested 428.00. Like I said this is completely far fetched, but I get its not the money its the hassle of changing batteries, but if battery life is the only thing holding you back from buying a budget red dot like the sparc, I think your way over analyzing this.
I have a sparc 2 that is about 2.5 years old and I'm on the original battery and I use it about 4 hours every other weekend or so. If this was my only optic then I might be concerned with battery life a little more, but I don't work with a rifle. YMMV. |
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I got to handle one at Sportsmans Warehouse today. I was definitely impressed. The emitter was definitely bigger and somewhat more annoying than I had hoped, but this definitely feels like a quality optic. I also did notice a bit of a slow dot refresh rate (like a flicker, at least compared to my PRO) when I turned the optic on, but my brain stopped noticing it after about 5 seconds. I think i will probably put one on top of my SBR build.
I also got to handle the Spitfire AR. I was incredibly impressed with the brightness of the optic, and the generous eye relief. The issue I have with it, however, was that I had trouble seeing the center dot of the reticle. The outer rings certainly help with the quick acquisition, but I found myself struggling to pick up the dot, even with the optic on. The outer rings can certainly be used to get a quick approximate aim up close, but I felt they were too big for me to comfortably snap off a quick shot at any sort of distance. But that may just be my eyes. YMMV. |
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This. Battery life is my hang up as well. Quoted:
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I'm still trying to figure out an optic for my upcoming SBR, I love the SPARC I I put on my duty rifle and I'm starting to consider the SPARC AR, I'm just struggling with battery life. If Vortex could manage to get a SPARC type optic with a battery life comparable to Aimpoint and Trijicon, they'd have a real winner I've had a battery life test running for a week - so far, about 110 hours run time. Will post the results when the battery dies. 
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Just order one from brownells for 199, this is my first budget red dot I hope I don't regret it! I just got my sparc AR in and so far I'm extremely impressed. Long as it doesn't zap batteries and it holds zero I feel it's a winner. It is as clear and every bit as crisp as my aimpoint ml3. Most of the small micro red dots have some sort of tint but this one is pretty crystal clear. I really like that it takes AAA and the on/off/brightness switches are far superior to the older vortex red dots. 
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