I have a few Aimpoints.  I prefer them to the Eo's, but have owned them as well.  May own another, who knows.  

This leads me to Magnifiers.  I know very little about them, to be honest.  Are they comaprable to shooting a 4x scope at distance?  As in 300-400 yards?  

How durable are they?  

It seems like a few years ago, when the Eo G33  magnifier came out, that everybody liked it...a lot.  Do I remember correctly that guys were using them with Aimpoints?  I seem to remember that being the case.  Is there any problem with mixing these brands?  If I remember rightly, they were supposed to be a ton better than the Aimpoint one.  True?

I am sorry for all the questions, I just want to make a good decision.  I believe in buy nice, not buy twice.  

I don't like them, they are clunky fiddly for eye position, add more weight than zoom scope. I wanted 1x and 4x I bought the Bushnell throw down lit reticule scope. I have other rifles at 1x and I'll live with no magnification.

ACOG with an RMR on top is the way to go.  Aimpoints/EOTechs + magnifiers are so damn clunky.

As others have said, a red dot + magnifier can be a bit hefty. That said, the EOtech magnifier is amazing. Clearest magnifier I've seen adn yes it will wok fine with an Aimpoint.

Eotech G33 magnifier with mount 12oz








































 

Tried it and it takes much much more time and effort to get good/fast with the RMR from 5-100 yards.YMMV. I do like the piggy back RMR/ ACOG setup so don't take me the wrong way, but it is not as easy to use vs red dot/magnifier.

I got a magnifier for my Eotech and loved it.   Much easier to I.D. Targets at longer ranges.   I got tired of not being able to see targets in shadows at 100yds and now I see steel plates out to 400yds easily.    Cops around here are starting to put them on their guns because most do not have magnified optics (some are not allowed) but the flip to side magnifiers are being approved.   I've heard stories about guys not shooting in standoffs because they could ID someone had a cell phone in their hand and not a weapon.   Your basically spending the same money you would for an ACOG but I personally prefer the Eotech for close engagements.

Juke, I looked through a buddy's magnifier the other day for a min.  I have 20/20 vision, and have zero problems with any red dots, and the affects of them.  For the first time, when I looked through it, it looked like 3 or 4 blobs.  I guess that was just an effect of being blown up.  I could still shoot it, no problem, but weird.  BTW, there was none of that with just the red dot.

Was the magnifier properly focused?

+1, but it could also be that without the magnifier the blob effect is not as noticeable.

 

It was an Aimpoint mag.  There was no focus to my knowledge.  Like I said, I have never ever had the typical astigmatism effect, that guys have sometimes.  I have perfect eyes, but found it strange.  It wasn't huge and unshootable, just tiny off perfections.  I think it was just from it being magnified.

Yea its was most likely from it being magnified.

 

For eotechs and people with astigmatism, I've heard a magnifier will improve how the reticle looks. Will know tomorrow. My astigmatism so bad that my eotech reticle outter ring looks like a million red dots.

it is a million red dots

Well my jacked up eye balls sees them as dots, instead of solid ring lol. Not cool

This is correct.  I recently purchased the Eotech XSP2 along with the Primary Arms 3x long eye relief magnifier .  I wear glasses for longer distances such as driving.  I thought I had a problem at first with the eotech because the reticle had a bit of a halo effect until I read the manual where it talks about people that are near sighted.  I put my driving glasses on and the reticle sharpened right up and combined with the PA magnifier it really is a sweet ride.

Put your glasses on.

Umm...They are dots.  Read your eotech manual...it clearly states "the reticle is naturally pixilated where the circle will appear to be made up of many small dots."

Yep,  the Eotech is a ring of lit dots.  That is as designed and they function perfectly.  

Need new prescription. My astigmatism must've gotten worse. Even with current prescription the reticule looks jacked. I see an aimpoint dot just fine though.

And guys I realize the reticle is made out of a bunch of small dots, just saying with mad eye sight it looks way off. You really seem them more pronounced as dots vs any resemblance of a ring.

You see the Aimpoint fine because it uses a LED to project the reticle where the Eotech uses a laser.

+1  Laser light appears to be a pixelated light to start with.  The EoTech, essentially, uses a laser to project a holograph to the user through lenses and an embedded image. The holographic image is in the sandwich of glass and is illuminated by laser light.  Since laser light looks pixelated, the image will look pixelated.  If you want to verify this, pick up a laser line level or something similar at home depot and shine it on the wall.  Same type of light.  It's interesting to note that a laser based hologram can be set up with infinite focus.  Which means no matter how much you magnify it, it will always look like it's out on the target and crisp (except the pixelation).  You can test this by temporarily mounting or setting you favorite spotting scope on your rifle looking through an eotech.  It will still look in focus, but a lot larger.  I've only done it to 10X.

The aimpoint, again essentially, reflects the light of a small led off one of the internal lenses.  The lens is translucent allowing light to pass through (so you can see through it) but also slightly reflective (so the dot reflects back to the user).  By adding a magnifier, you are magnifying the reflection as well.  The effect is to sometimes blur the red dot slightly because the focal point of the led is much shorter than the focal point of the target.  It's exaggerated as you use a higher powered magnifier.  To some people it starts to look like a comma (as stated above.)

Right.  According to the Eotech manual: "2.The reticle is optically projected onto the target plane. Focus on it as you would any other object at that distance. Do not focus on the sight housing, as with other reflex sights, but focus on the target. 3. If you wear corrective lenses for nearsightedness, you will require them to see the reticle in focus. This is because the reticle is projected onto the target plane. If you wear bifocals or have astigmatism, you may see a distorted reticle."

Installed this Primary Arms 3x LER Magnifier behind my Eotech today. The reticle now looks like an Eotech reticle. Super stoked. Now to get my prescription fixed so it looks proper on 1x

What mount do you have under your Eotech?

It's the EXPS series. Has a QD riser built in for lower 1/3 co-witness.

I only saw it if I looked at the dot.  So it wasn't massive, just a bit there.

All of this argument speaks strongly in favor of illuminated 1-4x or 1-6x scopes.  The thing about magnifiers that really irks me as one who uses traditional low power variable scopes for hunting game, sometimes running game, is the greatly reduced field of view of post optic separate "magnifiers."

I've been thinking the same lately.  Again, this is all just my personal preference and is not intended to imply anyone else should agree with me.  I like the idea of a reflex/holographic for close work even out to 200yds.  adding a magnifier is a band aid to allow a "CQB" (I hate using those terms but it fits) rifle to be shot at longer distances.  But the more I think about it, the more I think I'd rather go with a 1-4x if I was planning to shoot anything from 0-500yds.  I know, "you can shoot irons to 1,000 yards!"  I know.  But you don't have to, we have optics now.  I guess what I'm getting at is that red dots and holographics were a great replacement for traditional irons, but are sort of limited in their flexibility.  So they added magnifiers to compete with scopes.  But that makes them an afterthought.  So they are limited.  Hmmm... u got me thinking.

I thought magnifiers were mainly for target I.D and the rare case when magnification was needed for guys mainly using their ARs for "CQB". I wouldn't say there were developed to compete with scopes. If anything I'd say 1-4s were made to compete with red dot/magnifiers, but that is just speculation that is not based on facts.

 

Good points.  Not sure about the 1-4 being made to compete because scopes have been around a lot longer, but I get your point.

Yea your right.

Yeah, that's a good point.  Riding the wave of tacticalicity!