Hands-On: Aimpoint Pro Review

The Aimpoint PRO is a tube-style red dot optic that has seen a fair amount of military use. Red dots are an important category of optics that provide a lot of advantages over both iron sights and magnified scopes, and while they’re not perfect for every scenario, they certainly have their realm of dominance in the shooting world.

Anytime you’ll be shooting at 100 yards and under, especially in a tactical or law enforcement scenario, a red dot might be perfect since it keeps your field of view wide, allows you to shoot with both eyes open, and acquire your target incredibly quickly. They’re not instruments of precision, especially at longer distances, but are a great way to quickly get shots into center mass.

So how does the Aimpoint Pro stack up in the crowded field of red dot sights?

Review Summary - If You’re Short On Time

Aimpoint literally invented the red dot (it’s true), and they continue to make products that represent the high end of the market. The PRO, which stands for “Patrol Rifle Optic” is a strong, clear, high quality red dot with a 2 MOA (minute of angle) center. The PRO is a great optic, but there are so many other red dots that offer essentially the same thing for a much lower price point.

What you get from the Aimpoint that you may not get from a more affordable red dot rifle scope is fantastic customer support, an incredibly crisp and sharp dot with very little blur, and not one or two, but four different night vision-compatible brightness settings.

Keep reading to get some more detail about the Aimpoint PRO.

Our Review of the Aimpoint PRO Patrol Rifle Optic

The Aimpoint Niche - What It Does

Red dots really shine at under 50 yards. Yes, they can be used for further than that, but the further out you get the less realistic it becomes. Take me, for example. At 100 yards with 4x magnification I can shoot an MOA group fairly consistently. With a red dot, my groups are 3-4 MOA at 100 yards.

Assuming you’re taking aim at a hostile or large game, that 3-4 inch give-and-take is probably not a big deal, but if you’re hunting small game, coyote, varmints, or shooting at paper targets, 3-4 inches can make or break your shot.

Red dots should give you lightning fast target acquisition and reliable parallax-free performance so you don’t have to worry as much if your cheek weld is identical to what it was when zeroing. In theory, they should give you a fast, more accurate version of iron sights, and unlimited eye relief.

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Does The Aimpoint Measure Up? Why?

The short answer here is yes. The PRO is a pretty great optic. The 2 MOA dot helps keep it more accurate and precise from further out, and it gets bright enough that you can still acquire it quickly and line up your sight picture in no time. The riser can co-witness with your iron sights either absolutely or lower ⅓.

By most objective measures, the Aimpoint PRO is a high-end red dot. The other side of that coin, though, is that the red dot market (and the optics market as a whole) has evolved a lot in just the last few years, and the demand for tube-style red dots is getting whittled away by open reflex style red dots and prism scopes.

Even holographic sights like Eotech and Vortex are pulling market share.

I personally would not pay the money for an Aimpoint PRO, but at the same time I’d be thrilled to put it on one of my rifles if it were gifted to me. It’s a great red dot, but if you’re willing to pay the kind of money it takes to get one, you can pick up something that is more tailored to your needs. The Aimpoint Carbine Optic or CompM4 can be good options that’s more affordable.

It’s not my job to sell you on a specific product, just to give you as much info as possible to make the right choice for you. If night vision compatibility is important to you, for example, then there are few red dots even at this price point that will give you as many options.

The ‘Not So Great’

The Aimpoint is big and it takes up a lot of your vision when you’re using it, so the field of view is pretty narrow. It’s not heavy compared to a magnified optic but it is much heavier than an open reflex sight would be. Other than that, the only real drawback of this optic is the price, and if you’re already used to spending “professional” money on optics then it’s not bad.

The warranty is contingent on how the sight is being used. Professional or competition uses are only warrantied for 2 years, while the warranty for personal use is 10 years. This may be petty, but the lens caps could be better.

What’s In The Package

The PRO comes with a spacer to get the sight in the right spot for co-witnessing with irons, as well as a DL1/3N lithium battery for its first (up to) 50,000 hours of long battery life. It also comes with rear lens and front lens covers that are designed so that they won’t get in the way while you’re shooting, and they are even see-through in case you have to pick it up and shoot incredibly quickly.

It mounts easily to almost all types of rails and comes with everything you need to get it on most rigs.

Design & Features

2 MOA Dot

The most common dot sizes you’ll see compared to each other are 3 MOA and 6 MOA. 3 MOA is considered good for shooting at long range while 6 MOA is considered to be better for faster target acquisition. In my opinion, 6 MOA belongs on handguns, and target acquisition can be sped up by simply making the dot brighter.

A 2 MOA red dot reticle is even better than a 3 MOA dot for accuracy and precision, so I like having such a small and precise dot.

Compatibility

The PRO will mount on a Picatinny rail or Weaver rail out-of-the-box thanks to the QRP2 mount adapter. If you need to get it on something unique, it should be possible via adapters.

More importantly, it works really well with night vision. A lot of red dot sights will just throw “night vision compatible” on their product info because you can theoretically see the dot through the NVD (night vision devices) and it theoretically won’t damage the NVD if it’s dim enough. Aimpoint, though, has put a lot of thought into their night vision compatibility.

It will work with all generations of night vision as well as digital night vision. If you’re using thermal imaging, though, you’re out of luck, although that is true of pretty much every single red dot scope that I know of.

It’s compatible with a magnifier as well, and there’s a lot to say about pairing a red dot with a magnifier that can be used when it makes sense and skipped when preferred. You can also screw on an anti-reflection device on the front.

Field Performance

Aimpoint advertises the PRO as being “operationally” parallax free, which is fairly accurate. There is definitely parallax present, but it seems to be fixed at 50 yards. At 100 yards there is obvious parallax but it will still only deviate a few inches even if you move your eye to where you can barely see the dot.

Unless my math is wrong then the parallax should be about the same at 25 yards as at 100 if it really is fixed at 50, so getting a consistent cheek weld is still important, but as long as you’re doing what you should do anyway then you should never really have to worry about parallax unless you’re trying to shoot sub-MOA groups.

The 2 MOA dot is remarkably easy to see, and even though there are only 6 daytime brightness level settings it’s still plenty for most situations. There are also 4 night vision compatible settings that you can also see with the naked eye. Windage and elevation adjustments are as you would expect.

The PRO is submersible down to 150 meters, so rainy or wet conditions are not a threat to its operation. It’s tough, durable, and should withstand anything short of a bullet. The objective lens is 38mm so you’ll have plenty of light transmission.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• 2 MOA dot
• 150 meter waterproof
• 4 night vision settings
• Parallax is virtually non-existent

Cons:

• Higher price point
• Heavier than other red dots
• Field of view could be wider

If you’re ready to pull the trigger on an Aimpoint PRO, you can see the current price on Amazon or OpticsPlanet. If the PRO sounds good but not perfect, we do have a recommendation as a budget alternative.

Budget Alternative:

Sig Sauer Romeo5

I chose the Romeo 5 because it’s very similar to the PRO. It’s tube style, it has a 2 MOA dot, and it has night vision settings, though only two compared to the PRO’s 4. It has more daytime brightness settings than the PRO, however, and it’s only about a fourth of the price.

The dot is passably crisp, and the motion activated tech keeps the battery from running down when you forget to turn it off (which I feel like I always do). You can check the current price also on Amazon or OpticsPlanet.

Final Thoughts

Aimpoint has won a lot of military contracts for a reason. If you want an optic that will always work, be reliable and durable and perfectly functional, then the Aimpoint PRO is a good bet. If you aren’t using it for home defense or other life-or-death situations, the Aimpoint may not be worth it.

Have you used the Aimpoint PRO? What are your thoughts on it? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Reference:

Featured Image The Daily Shooter