My newest most favorite product is the OPMOD Strikefire by Vortex. It's an exclusive red dot reflex sight made just for us. Yes, the all the products on this S&W M&P 15-22 in the above picture work superbly together, starting with the Strikefire.
The OPMOD Strikefire has a 4 minute dot, switchable from red to green, with 10 intensity settings. The lowest two settings are for night vision use. The dot is one of the roundest and most defined I've seen. Not that that is a big deal to me, but it is to some. The dot isn't important to be clearly defined, because properly used, you use both eyes open and actually look through the dot, not at it. That dot will glow up to 6,000 hours on low setting with a single CR2 battery, or 300 hours on high. It has a 12 hour auto shutdown if left on. It only weighs a bit over 7 ounces and comes in the package with a 1/3 lower cowitness cantilever mount. The low mount is available separately. Only OPMOD has the tan color.
In the top picture you'll see the OPMOD Strikefire mounted on the fore-end. It works great just like this with no other optics. The magnifier above the charging handle is an EOTech G23, part of the HHS-1 package that when first introduced included the EXPS-3 holographic weapon sight and the G-23, now upgraded to the G-33. The sight picture with the magnifier so far away is still very good. What this apparently silliness lets you do is to squeeze in an OPMOD PVS-14 night vision unit and use all three. Yes, it works great! Set the Strikefire on one of the two lowest settings (works with the third setting, also), and you have the most amazing clear dot through all three of these products! The Vortex magnifier would work, also, but the mount requires a bit more room. Since the upper is not conpletely monolithic and is missing a groove where the receiver meets the fore-end, I would have to move the D-Loc mount holding the PVS-14 several more spaces forward, and didn't want to do that because of weight distribution and balance. But, if you weren't going to use the NV monocular, the Vortex magnifier works great, and the mount is solid and cleverly designed. The flip up caps that come with the Strikefire are not only excellent, they are as good as any out there except the outrageously superb and expensive Leupold Alumina covers. Just as important, they are secured with a deep groove in the objective and ocular housings that capture it, letting it rotate, but not come off. Another impressive feature of this unit.
One thing I noticed though, it that I could use another 1/8 of an inch or so between the magnifier and the monocular. I have a couple ways of addressing that. I haven't decided how or even if I will bother with it. Also, you can't use the built-in infrared illuminator from the NV because it bounces into the red dot and is blinding. So I added a Streamlight TLR-1 IR light on the bottom of the rail. Works great. Then I added another TRL-1 with white light. For good measure I placed one of the powerful little Lasermax Unimax Micros on it and sighted all in to my desired distance with my favorite full power .22LR load, Winchester Power Points. The CAA stock holds batteries and a few more rounds of 22. The whole contraption still weighs little, and you can carry it all day. Who knows… all these accessories will probably be on different guns next month.
Strikefire matched with Vortex VMX 3T magnifier
The Strikefire works great with the Vortex VMX-3T magnifier alone. I'll be filming a spot on Midwest Outdoors next week and I'll be using Stikefires on several different platforms.
Have a great weekend and play safe!
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