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Primary Arms M4 Aimpoint Clone review

28K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  rmilchman 
#1 ·
I wanted to do this review for a couple of reasons. First and foremost I think this is a great piece of high value gear (High quality / low cost). Secondly I have never seen mention of this particular optic on this forum and wanted to share with you my opinions. Let me apologize now for the pictures. In addition to not being a rifleman I am also not a photographer lol. Anyway, on to the good stuff

Testing platform
AR-15 - Rock River lower - Model 1 sales upper. Basically a budget kit. No match grade anything (Although the buddy that put it together for me did say that it was the smoothest stock non match grade trigger he has ever seen). I was shooting of a UTG Bi-pod. not a full rest. I was shooting 5.99 a box american eagle budget ammo.

Another side note before I begin talking about the actually optic. I am NOT a rifleman. Never have been and probably never will be. I don't shoot 1 inch groups and 300 yards with any rifle I pick up. Im a guy that likes shooting guns even though I'm not very good at it. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I know the groups aren't super impressive but they also weren't shot by a skilled marksman so don't blame it on the optic :)

On to the good stuff. Up for review is the Primary Arms M4 Red dot sight. It is basically a Aim Point clone. It comes with a mount, lens caps and a battery. Mine also came with a kill flash which I thought was extra but was included with mine. Total cost was 89.00 and I think shipping was about 10 bucks.

It weighs in around 12 ounces so it's decently hefty. It's built solid. I am impressed with it's ability to hold zero. I mounted it the first trip out and have not had to adjust it in three range trips. Method of transport to and from the range is a padded soft case ridding in the back of my dads pickup truck down country Indiana roads so it's fair to say it's been bumped around a little but.

The dot is 2 MOA and has 4 different reticules in addition to 7 brightness levels. I have shot it in over cast and bright sunny conditions and never had a issue seeing the dot.

The optic was easy to zero. Took about 10 min with my dad spotting for me. There is no audible click when turning any of the knobs however there is good tactile response.

My opinion -

I think this is a great optic. Is it a aim point? No. Is it a eotech? No. Does it cost 400.00? Nope and for me that's the bottom line. This is a great optic to slap on your rifle if your the type that doesn't have to have 100 percent mil spec stuff. It's well built and it holds it's zero well. That's all that matters to me. I'm not a cop or a soldier so not having a mil spec sight isn't a big deal. I didn't want to slap a 400.00 sight on a 650.00 rifle. This optic fit the budget and so far has performed FANTASTIC.

For a budget optic on a budget gun shooting budget ammo I am 100 percent pleased with it. For a non magnified sight at 50 yards I am more then happy with the groups. Once I get some slightly larger targets I will shoot it at 100 yards. All in all I would say that it's WELL worth the 90 bucks I spent on it. If your in the market for a optic but don't want to blow 400.00+ then I suggest trying out something from primary arms.

Oh, on a side note. The company as well is great to deal with. I ordered my sight, mounted it to my gun and took it out for a range session. Looking over the web page a few days later I noticed another red dot sight that seemed quite a bit lighter. This caught my interest so I e-mailed the company. I stated I noticed that the other sight was quite a bit lighter and asked if I could send the one I bought and exchange it for the other.

I explained it had been mounted and used and I would be happy to pay a restocking fee as I knew they couldn't resell my sight as new. I got a reply back a few hours later stating that the sight that was lighter was not listed with the mount. He stated that he would weigh the sight with the mount when he got to the office the following day and let me know the difference so that I could decide which I wanted but either way that they would take care of me and no restocking fee would be needed. A+ for customer service.
 

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#9 ·
I have not personally tried it however I have seen reports on AR15.com of guys putting them on their AK's with no issue.
 
#7 ·
I have Primary Arms optics on several of my rifles. As you report Rollo they are a great value and quality is exceptional for this price range. The best I have found in the sub-$100 range without question.

Full co-witness on the AR


The Micro clone is a perfect setup on the SIG 522


As well as the GSG 522
 
#8 ·
I like the looks of it....Thats good you like it. Thats what matters. And for the groups, it would kill a zombie...you are not a SWAT sniper , but few are for a reason.
 
#10 ·
wow rollo, thanks for the review, ive recently seriously started looking at rifles, and when i found out the prices for a good RDS at 400 dollrs, gosh, its crazy, so thank you for reviewing the the RDS, i will probably end up using this one on a rifle i get, now, i gotta figure out which rifle to get, but thats a wholeeeee diffrent topic,

thank you again! btw im in the same boat as you, love to shoot guns, not great at it, but will be decent enough for what time comes to it.
 
#11 ·
Thanks a ton for the review. I have been wanting an Aimpoint T1 for a long time but times are tough and I just can't justify the coin on it right now. I am going to look at the Primary Arms now because that price is much more doable. I can always save up and get the Aimpoint later on down the road. Thanks again for the right up!
 
#12 ·
To those of you who have them - what IS the battery life?
 
#13 ·
Their website lists it at 1000+. I generally tend not to listen to manufacturer specs but I tend to believe primary as everything else they have said is true.
 
#14 ·
Primary arms sells ultimak packages so I would assume they do OK on AK platforms.
 
#15 ·
Great review.
Pirate that is so cool building a gun rack that also serves as a deck and seating area while you clean your guns.
 
#16 ·
Don't ya love it when a "plan" comes together!
 
#18 ·
Let me know how you like it after you get some trigger time on it. I plan on picking another up when I do my AK build. I might go with a micro this time around though.
 
#19 ·
Rollo, at what distance was the targets in your pictures? I'm having a heck of a time getting mine sighted in at 100 yards using a 5x magnifier. I'm thinking that anything within 2 inches of the target center would be acceptable since it is a 2" MOA, but if possible I would like to get closer to bullseye.
 
#23 ·
I think he is talking about the device that projects the red dot inside the tube.
 
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