LUCIDHD7 GENIII Red Dot

I bought this red dot for a couple of reasons and have not been disappointed in any of them so far. I got this back in October and have taken it out several times, on two different ARs both times took about 5 shots to sight in (I'm not very good at sighting in). But this sight was really easy.The two main reasons why I bought this were first the option to change the dot, I love being able to use the 'T' with the 3 dots for long range and using the circle with the dot in the middle for keeping both eyes open. FYI I have this in front of a flip-to-side magnifier for longer range.The Second reason is the price. And yes this red dot is about half as much as an aimpoint or eotech and frankly they are still of great quality! Everything in the construction seems very solid, I say seem because I haven't opened it up to take a look at the insides and have no plans too. Battery life has been great (not as great as an eotech or aimpoint, but I can buy a lot of batteries with $300 :p).I don't use the auto-brightness because it doesn't do the best of job, and really when you are indoors you can just turn the brightness down and it is fine and when you go outdoors just turn the brightness up. No adjusting (after the initial adjust) is needed unless you change environments. Just be sure not to have the brightness turned up when you are indoors, it becomes extremely blurry... guess what that happens, that just turn it down, save battery and you can see just fine.Keeping both eyes open works great, zero problems there.Lines up well with my current magnifier, but will soon be getting a LaRue Tactical mount and Lucid's 2x-5x Mag, I'll edit this later to let you know how well they work together.

I bought this sight for my Faxon Arms ARAK 21. I have a primary red dot (Aimpoint Pro) that is the best I've found on the market. I also have a Trijicon ACOG for long(er) distance shooting. What I realized is that when I switched my barrels (yes, you can do that with this upper) my 5.56mm barrel wasn't marking where my 300 AAC Blackout barrel was marking (my 300 BLK was eight inches low and 3.25 left of the other) so I needed to get another optic for that caliber.So I was searching around from something affordable yet reliable and durable. This Lucid option fit the bill and I purchased it. When I installed it (you're going to need a socket wrench or something like that due to the locking nuts) I noticed that the rails had to be positioned just so to fit into my rails. When loosened, the rails tend to swing out of position and the rail adapter (while seeming to be strong) seemed like it needed a little more work to be top shelf. The other issue was the weight of the sight. Some people (mistakenly) think that weight equals ruggedness and value. In reality - you want your sight to be tough, small and light so as to not limit the time a shooter can take aimed shots at a distant target from an unsupported standing position. Really - those are the only faults I found in the design.It holds zero very well (even when removed and re-installed). The single AA battery compartment is waterproof (it has rubber "O-rings" that seal completely when screwed tight) and shock does not cause the sight to power down or flicker. The sight adjustments are easy to read and manipulate (with a screw-driver) and overall, the design reminded me of the Trijicon ACOG when it came to durability. This sight has rubber armor and a very sturdy feel to it.Bottom Line:Good sight - just don't plan to put a lot of other attachments on your weapon. Good price/quality.

The sight came promptly from Amazon. I also purchased the 2x magnifier attachment. So far both work as promised. The sight feels well made, and the controls are easy to use and intuitive. The 2 hour auto off, works, tried it a couple of times.The auto brightness control works well. It is easy to switch to manual brightness control, one push of the power button toggles back and forth between auto and manual, up and down arrows control the brightness in the manual mode. I needed to switch to manual brightness control at the range; the shooting area is in the shade, the targets are in the sun.Was able to start hitting a metal target the size of a dinner plate at a 100 yards, after a few adjustments. The 2x magnifier really helped me see where the misses were hitting and dial in on the target. You focus the 2x by turning the eye piece. Once I was hitting the metal target consistently, I removed the 2x and still was hitting the metal target with out having to zero again. Have not shot at paper targets yet, so not sure how tight the grouping is, not really planning to shoot that way with this sight, I have a rifle scope for that. I liked the dot in the circle reticle, did not have time to try out the other reticles. When I was first looking thru the sight, I noticed that the reticle imager is visible (I think thats what it is) in the upper left of the sight view. At first it bothered me, but while shooting, I did not even notice it. Wish the sight came with lens caps.Was not impressed with the HD7's rail mounting, it seems to have a little play in it. I plan to try to adjust that when I have time. Will probably mount the sight on a quick release riser.I wish the sight had turret hand dials, I do not like have to sight in using a screw driver. I e-mailed Lucid to ask them if having tactical/target windage and elevation turret hand dials on the sight, was an option, because I had seen photos of the sight equipped that way.Jason Wilson from Lucid responded: "The HD7 (Gen II) with the exposed turrets has not been in production since 2012. We made the switch to a caped turret system in a direct response to the Army Ranger Airborn units that fielded the HD7 and wanted the turrets more protected during hard use. We currently only offer the caped turrets. This is not an applicable accessory as the optic would need reworked completely to install the older style turrets.".This makes sense, but wish it was an option, for those of us not planning to crawl thru brush or be in a running urban warfare firefight.The sight is powered by a single AAA battery, this is good and bad; the good, AAA batteries are inexpensive and readily available everywhere, the bad, AAA batteries can leak and corrode. Both myself, and the HD7's instructions, recommend removing the battery if your not planning to shoot for awhile. Even if you are shooting every weekend, I would still check the battery every couple of weeks. Battery corrosion damage is not covered under the warranty.All in all the HD7 seems to be a good, well made red dot sight for a reasonable price. I will update this review after I have used it some more.Update: I have had another chance to shoot with the HD7, very satisfied. Was able to get the sight to seat tight on the riser. I can still hit the 100 yard metal plate repeatedly with out a miss. I tried dialing in the sight on a 75 yard paper target, using a spotting scope, and was getting fairly tight groupings (2" to 3") I think it works great. I recommend the 2x magnifier.