EOTech Tactical AA 65MOA Circle/1MOA Dot Md: 517.A65/1.

Comment: To give you a background, I'm an action shooter who uses my Rock River AR-15 "Entry Tactical" for practical rifle shooting competitions at my local club. That being said, my goal with my AR is to continually hit inside the primary scoring circle, which is about an 8" diameter circle at center mass on a man sized target. I don't get a micrometer out to measure group size. My main goal is fast target acquisition and reliable performance.

I purchased the EOTech 5.17.A65 for my rifle and I couldn't be happier. The performance thus far has been amazing. After bore sighting, and dialing in the optic at 50 yards, I've been able to compete and improve my scores over my previous optic. To get an idea of what this optic looks like, imagine that there is a hologram floating about 25 yards down range with a red circle and a dot in the center. No matter where your eyes are at, where the red dot is where the bullet is going to travel.

This is a durable unit. That's obvious from the moment you open up the injection molded case the optic arrives in. There is a piece of steel that is "U" shaped that surrounds the glass of the optic. This guard is missing on some of the Bushnell varieties of the Holographic Weapon Sight.

I don't intend to try to break the glass, but its pretty evident that this guard is going to protect the unit from some pretty serious bangs against hard objects, and from internet videos, you can still see the red dot even if the glass is shattered.

I'll update this review later into the next competition season, but for now, I don't see any reason to not give this product 5 stars. Some may prefer the AimPoint optics, or ACOG and I respect that. But that doesn't mean that they are not all 5 star optics.

Comment: The Eotech 517 is virtually identical to their earlier 512 with the same battery specs, excellent circle-dot reticle and 10' waterproof rating. However, it differs in a couple of important ways:
1) The control buttons are on the side instead of the rear. This is great for those who wish to use a magnifier or need to mount the optic as close to a rear sight as possible (the rear control buttons on the 512, for example, make this impossible). While it's fairly easy to determine which button you're pressing from feel alone they're spaced closer together than on the 512 which makes turning the optic off (done by pressing both buttons simultaneously) a little more difficult (but to me this is a very minor point).
2) Perhaps most importantly, the 517 has a stronger & better designed mounting crossbolt which avoids some of the problems experienced with the earlier design. Perceived field of view through the optic is great and the circle-dot reticle fast to pick up (especially when shooting from unconventional positions where head alignment isn't precise).
3) The 517 incorporates a new-style mount that's raised by 7mm. The result is that instead of getting an absolute cowitness when using iron sights you now have a 1/3 cowitness (which I prefer) and the front is raised slightly to allow a more forward mounting of the optic over handguards if desired. I gave the 517 5 stars for its improvements over the earlier Eotech 512.