I figured a new thread was warranted since these are actually shipping now. Today I received a new Vudu 1-10 LE5 reticle (MRAD christmas tree with a crosshair in the middle rather than a circle-dot). Just going to post some first impressions here and will flesh this out as I start to use it.
1) In the box: the scope (wrapped in a plastic bag for additional dust protection), a pair of cheap plastic slip-fit lens covers only suitable for shipping, a removable throw lever, a 2032 battery, a user manual, a reticle manual, a lens cloth, a desiccant pack, and a couple EOTech stickers.
2) Finish is very nice, uniform matte black anodizing, nice stylized knurling on the turrets and power ring, feels solid and reasonably well-built.
3) Power ring tension is pretty spot-on for me, firm but not tight. Easy when you want to move it, but not going to slip. Throw lever was not mandatory but I added it. It goes from about 8:30 at 1x to about 2:30 on 10x which is nice if you're running a right-handed bolt gun, which is my application.
4) The illumination is not "daylight bright." It will be visible in daylight but it's not like a Vortex. I'd call it similar to setting 8 or maybe 9 on an Aimpoint T2.
5) Optically I like it so far. The reports of a tight eyebox seem exaggerated to me; it is perhaps a bit tighter than my Trijicon 1-8 on the same 1-8 range and definitely tighter on 10x which is to be expected, but it does not seem like a huge deal to me, and my initial belief is that it will be plenty usable. I do not note significant barrel or pincushion distortion at 1x, color reproduction seems adequate, and I did not see any obvious chromatic aberration or fringing out to 200 yards, though I have not run it in bright light yet.
6) Not sure yet how usable the "Ring of Death" is on an LPVO. I like its inclusion philosophically, but at 1x the center dot is small and not super bright, so the ring isn't "centering" your eye in quite the same way that it does on an Eotech holosight. The ring disappears at about 5.5x and above that you just have the center reticle, which I do initially like, design-wise.
7) Turrets are clicky and very positive, I like them from a tactile perspective. The elevation is exposed with a locking function, and windage is capped. There are NO reference lines for elevation and NO zero stop which is annoying, I could see it being easy to accidentally dial back to zero and be a full turn off if you have used the elevation turrets. Sadly there are very few good LPVOs with exposed turrets which I needed for my application, and I think this is the only 1-10 with same. Setting zero on the turrets is easy but does require a coin or similar tool.
8) The illumination knob does not turn. There are three buttons on its periphery, a center button for power and two adjustment buttons (up/down). They are easy to press and have a soft tactile click but make no sound. Don't know how I feel about it, but I don't think buttons on their holosights are failing left and right, so hopefully the durability is there. It has a 2-hour auto shutoff.
9) EOTech does not provide torque specs for rings, the manual says to just use whatever the mount indicates.
10) The throw lever is not broached for a hex key on the top. I could see it being difficult to remove if you loctite it.
11) I threw a TigIR 6z+ in front of it and it paired very well. I could not discern significant parallax which is nice since the parallax is non-adjustable on the optic. The screen does not fill the optic until about 4-5x which is a little later than it happens on my Trijicon 1-8s - perhaps related to larger FOV?
TLDR: It seems optically decent and well-made. I wish the reticle was brighter but this is a common complain on many LPVOs, and I am not using it on an AR for running and gunning, so I find this less necessary for my application. The illumination buttons are a question mark but I have no reason to hate them immediately. They should have at least put index lines on the elevation, though a zero stop would have been better. However, I'm not aware of any other quality 1-10 LPVO on the market with an exposed elevation turret, which makes this a no-brainer if that's what you're looking for. I'm not sure it's a "Razor Killer" but it met my specific needs more than the Razor, and it costs about $400 less. Overall my first impression is favorable.
1) In the box: the scope (wrapped in a plastic bag for additional dust protection), a pair of cheap plastic slip-fit lens covers only suitable for shipping, a removable throw lever, a 2032 battery, a user manual, a reticle manual, a lens cloth, a desiccant pack, and a couple EOTech stickers.
2) Finish is very nice, uniform matte black anodizing, nice stylized knurling on the turrets and power ring, feels solid and reasonably well-built.
3) Power ring tension is pretty spot-on for me, firm but not tight. Easy when you want to move it, but not going to slip. Throw lever was not mandatory but I added it. It goes from about 8:30 at 1x to about 2:30 on 10x which is nice if you're running a right-handed bolt gun, which is my application.
4) The illumination is not "daylight bright." It will be visible in daylight but it's not like a Vortex. I'd call it similar to setting 8 or maybe 9 on an Aimpoint T2.
5) Optically I like it so far. The reports of a tight eyebox seem exaggerated to me; it is perhaps a bit tighter than my Trijicon 1-8 on the same 1-8 range and definitely tighter on 10x which is to be expected, but it does not seem like a huge deal to me, and my initial belief is that it will be plenty usable. I do not note significant barrel or pincushion distortion at 1x, color reproduction seems adequate, and I did not see any obvious chromatic aberration or fringing out to 200 yards, though I have not run it in bright light yet.
6) Not sure yet how usable the "Ring of Death" is on an LPVO. I like its inclusion philosophically, but at 1x the center dot is small and not super bright, so the ring isn't "centering" your eye in quite the same way that it does on an Eotech holosight. The ring disappears at about 5.5x and above that you just have the center reticle, which I do initially like, design-wise.
7) Turrets are clicky and very positive, I like them from a tactile perspective. The elevation is exposed with a locking function, and windage is capped. There are NO reference lines for elevation and NO zero stop which is annoying, I could see it being easy to accidentally dial back to zero and be a full turn off if you have used the elevation turrets. Sadly there are very few good LPVOs with exposed turrets which I needed for my application, and I think this is the only 1-10 with same. Setting zero on the turrets is easy but does require a coin or similar tool.
8) The illumination knob does not turn. There are three buttons on its periphery, a center button for power and two adjustment buttons (up/down). They are easy to press and have a soft tactile click but make no sound. Don't know how I feel about it, but I don't think buttons on their holosights are failing left and right, so hopefully the durability is there. It has a 2-hour auto shutoff.
9) EOTech does not provide torque specs for rings, the manual says to just use whatever the mount indicates.
10) The throw lever is not broached for a hex key on the top. I could see it being difficult to remove if you loctite it.
11) I threw a TigIR 6z+ in front of it and it paired very well. I could not discern significant parallax which is nice since the parallax is non-adjustable on the optic. The screen does not fill the optic until about 4-5x which is a little later than it happens on my Trijicon 1-8s - perhaps related to larger FOV?
TLDR: It seems optically decent and well-made. I wish the reticle was brighter but this is a common complain on many LPVOs, and I am not using it on an AR for running and gunning, so I find this less necessary for my application. The illumination buttons are a question mark but I have no reason to hate them immediately. They should have at least put index lines on the elevation, though a zero stop would have been better. However, I'm not aware of any other quality 1-10 LPVO on the market with an exposed elevation turret, which makes this a no-brainer if that's what you're looking for. I'm not sure it's a "Razor Killer" but it met my specific needs more than the Razor, and it costs about $400 less. Overall my first impression is favorable.
