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A Cheap 1-10x LPVO??? - Primary Arms SLX 1-10x ACSS Griffin Mil
Updated
9 months ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals, and today we're going to be taking a look at the fairly new Primary Arms SLX 1-10x LPVO. This is a pretty decent one, though it does have some downsides.
Full disclosure, I personally am a dealer for Primary Arms optics, I did buy this from them with my own money, however, at a reduced price. Occasionally, they will also send me out optics to test, but keep in mind for this specific review they did not send this out, I did pay for it, however, at a reduced price.
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Getting into some of the specifics on the optic, this is a 1-10x28 LPVO. What that means is that we're dealing with a 34-millimeter main tube versus your standard 30-millimeter that's going to be on most other budget LPVOs. That is pretty important when we get into a 1-10x optic because as we get a higher magnification range with that standard 30-millimeter tube your exit pupil ends up, getting smaller and smaller as the magnification range increases, meaning that it's not particularly forgiving, so to get a little bit more light transmission, to get a little bit more forgiving exit pupil you can make the tube a little bit bigger, and that's what they've done.
That being said, the size and weight is not bad, coming in at 10 and a half inches long and just over 19 ounces, it's not really a particularly big or heavy LPVO, certainly not small or compact like some other optics on the market, but there are plenty of 1-6s and 1-8s and the 24+ ounce range, and this 1-10 with a 34-millimeter main tube is coming in at just over 19 ounces, so you're already getting a ton of magnification without that much of a size and weight penalty compared to LPVOs.
On the optic body itself we have capped windage and elevation knobs, which is how I personally prefer it for more of a tactical set and forget style of optic. The windage knob also has an extra 2032 in the cap, so if your battery does die you have an extra one on hand, which is fairly nice, and it's shipped that way so that is cool. On the left hand side of the optic we have our illumination dial, it has 11 different settings, night vision 1,2, and then standard 3/9, and then, very interestingly on this optic, they have two at the top end that are labeled DT1 and DT2, I believe that is daylight one and daylight two. That doesn't mean that it's specifically brighter than other Primary Arms LPVOs on the market, but it is definitely what I would consider to be bright enough, not necessarily fire hot like a red dot, but certainly usable, it will pop up, it will give you very good contrast in a lot of scenarios. Don't think of it as like a Vortex Viper or something like that, but it does have a decent illumination, on the top end it's going to be daylight tinted, and then certain low lights in this situation is going to be very helpful, which is more of what it's intended for anyways.
Moving back from there, as you can probably tell on our magnification ring, which is very nicely machined and knurled, has a lot of grip by itself, but it also has an included throw lever. Very nicely on Primary Arms part they're actually coming out with a lot of different throw levers, so if you want a tall one, you want a short one, you want a fat one, so on and so forth, these are swappable, so in the future when they come out with different aftermarket ones, if you have one that just really suits your fancy, you can go ahead and throw it on there, which is a nice touch, it's a nice thing to see, especially at a sub 500$ price tag, and remember it does come with one so you don't need to purchase one separately after the fact. The magnification throw itself is 180 degrees, it's a pretty light throw, so you can definitely get it over really quick, especially with the throw lever, it does have some resistance, so it's not just going to bump on its own, but it's definitely not the stiffest or smoothest on the market, it's very decent. One little thing that I did notice about the magnification ring is that it does have a tiny bit of wobble, I don't think it's an issue with it, but it's just something to note. Last thing on the actual optic body itself is rear diopter for adjusting the reticle to your eyes, because everybody's eyes are a little bit different, so when you lock down that optic that looks horrible, you want to make sure that that reticle is very nice and sharp, most natural looking image, the best looking reticle, that sort of stuff, so it's adjustable for your eyes.
Very briefly talking about the field of view on the SLX 1-10, at 1X you have 110 feet field of view at 100 yards, which I consider to be very good. It doesn't really matter all that much at 1X, where it really starts to matter though is when you crank up that magnification, and remember we have a lot of it, so at 10x we still have a decent field of view compared to as if we're only starting with 80 or 90 feet field of view, you appropriately or proportionally have more field of view as you go through that magnification ring, so you want to start off with a good number, so it doesn't get tighter and tighter the more you actually need it.
Getting into some of the other features of the optic, we need to talk about eye relief and eye box, I believe on the website they claim like 3.2 to 3.5 inches of overall eye relief, fortunately, like most 1X LPVOs on 1X it is pretty good, so you have probably not the most forgiving out there, but it's pretty good, you can get about two inches to about four and ahalf of perfect eye relief, and then any closer, any further you're going to start to get some scope shadow window in there, so very forgiving on 1X, not the most forgiving out there, but decent, and remember we are talking about a 1-10.
The eye box, it's pretty tight, it's not bad, it's probably about a half inch in all directions when you have your head in the proper location, and you'll still get a full image before you start to get egregious scope shadow. With most LPVOs as we start to crank up the magnification and with this optic we have 10x top-end magnification so it does go up quite far, the actual eye relief tightens up considerably, you maybe have only an inch forward and back where you have an acceptable sight picture, that's going to be perfect for a very small window where it's going to look good, and any further forward or back you're going to start to get some scope shadow, and if you're off to left or right you won't be able to see anything as the eye box itself at 10x becomes very, very tight, you maybe have like an eighth of an inch in all directions where you can see through the optic perfectly.
What that means is when you're at higher magnification levels, if you're trying to shoot from an odd position, not like just a stable prone position, it's going to be quite difficult to get a good sight picture through it, that is common on all LPVOs, especially noticeable when you get into the higher magnification ranges like 10x on this guy. To compare it quickly to the Athlon 1-10x, one area where I think the Athlon 1-10x was better is that same feature set basically, same size, weight, 34-millimeter main tube, 1-10x magnification, it was a little bit more forgiving at all magnification ranges, meaning it was a little more usable overall. One of the downsides of this optic is it is goingto be less usable than other 1-6s and 1-8s on the market, and if you don't need 10x magnification then you're kind of getting punished for no reason.
Getting into the glass quality on the SLX 1-10, it is an overseas manufactured optic glass, it’s manufactured in China and it's going to be basically on par with most other Chinese manufactured LPVOs, it's good enough, the clarity is there, the brightness is there, it's all very usable. Another downside of having a 1-10x LPVO usually is that towards the top end of the magnification range you tend to get a little bit of optical degradation, a little bit less light transmission, a little bit less clarity, so on and so forth, it doesn't look quite as crisp as other optics will on lower magnification, so it is definitely usable glass quality, definitely acceptable, when we were taking it on this 10 and a half inch 762x39 out to about 450 yards. When we were shooting that it was a low light situation with rain, very bad conditions, sun was going down, it gets very dark here. So, conditions were not great and the light transmission, the clarity, it's all right, but it's certainly nothing to write home about. It is something that you are going to get a lot of advantage when you go into higher end scopes that are manufactured outside of China, Philippines, Japanese, German, so on and so forth, we are going to get a lot of advantage in sub-optimal lighting conditions, which we were definitely in when taking this out to distance.
Getting into the reticle, the reticle is basically perfect, I have no issues with it whatsoever, they come with a couple different versions, the Raptor reticle, which is kind of like your standard BDC, and then I believe this one here is the Griffin M10s, which is specifically for this optic, so it is a one by one mil grid Christmas tree, which is perfectly fine. The reason why I selected this reticle is that I basically knew I was going to put it on a 7.62x39 for the heck of it, so that I could use a mill grid, which is going to be translatory to basically every caliber and barrel length, ammunition choice on the market. Plug it into a ballistic calculator and you can get your hold or if you have a rough idea you can then use the Christmas tree, the one by one mill grid at distance to, if you spot your impacts, to adjust within the grid itself. Very usable, very translator, you can put this optic on any gun and it's not going to be a BDC that doesn't lineup perfectly because you have a very good mil grid that is very usable.
In the center of the reticle we have a very small, very, very small chevron, which works well for me, and this isn't, some of the other optics on Primary Arms have a much bigger center chevron where it will obscure more of the target. In this, because you're not dialing, so you're using the mill grid for all of your holds, the chevron works very well in between one, 200 and even out to 300 yards without obscuring much of the target, and does give you a very fine point for zeroing or accuracy testing purposes. On the outside of the chevron you have your horseshoe, which works very well, basically inside of 15 yards if you put it on the target and pull the trigger you're going to be getting an acceptable hit, obviously that's going to depend on your target size.
Because this is an ACSS reticle it doesn't quite stop there. We also have auto ranging inside of the mill grid itself, so I believe you have horizon auto ranging within the mil grid, you have auto ranging brackets on the left and right side of the reticle, and you also have holds for moving targets. The reticle does all of the things that you want it to do, personally this combination in a 1-10x optic, you have a mill grid for when you're at 10x, taking shots beyond 300 yards, three, four, five, six, seven hundred yards, so on and so forth, that mil grid is going to be very easy to use, very quick to adjust, if you spot a miss you can very quickly adjust using that mil grid, and for up close work you have a very small chevron, which is very precise, something that I like, plus an outer horseshoe, so it's a very good blend of speed and precision up close, and then the mil grid for distance with the auto ranging features, should you need them.
Overall, while the glass quality and the eye box and eye relief is kind of all right, it's definitely fine for the price range, I do think that the reticle is a step above basically every other optic in the market in this price range, I don't think you can get a better reticle set, a better feature set from a different optic currently. Maybe you don't need all those features, but it is nice to have, for a sub 500-dollar optic.
Getting into the last part of the testing, is going to be usability and durability, usability on the optic kind of like I mentioned on 1X is very good, you're really not going to have any issues working around, cover, odd positions, so on and so forth, it is a very usable optic. The 1X quality itself is decent, it's not the best 1X, even in this price category, I think the Vortex Viper, which is about the same cost as this, has the best 1X combined with the best illumination for almost like a red dot like experience, it is actually a lot bigger and heavier than this optic at a 1-6 versus a 1-10, this also has a much better reticle for distance, so there’s definitely pros and cons there. The 1X though is definitely all right, it is perfectly usable, the illumination is fine, the reticle works well for shooting quickly, for being more precise if you need to, so on and so forth.
The 1X itself overall is flat enough, it's good enough, there's really not too much to say about it other than it was definitely usable, not the most forgiving eye box and I relief on the market for an LPVO though, and as we mentioned earlier, when you do crank up to 10x magnification that I box and eye relief really tightens up, so if you're not in a very stable position, if you're trying to shoot from odd positions or just not being very stable, it's going to be much harder to get a proper sight picture through it, so 1X pretty darn good, on 10X it is less usable, so just keep that in mind, given your intended use case for the optic.
Last part of that is going to be durability where basically we want to do a drop test on the optic to see how it performs. To be clear, the scope mount was torqued down appropriately, but we did a single drop from shoulder height onto kind of dirt and rocks, mostly gravel. Before we do the drop we want to confirm our zero, so we did three rounds at a medium-sized steel target at 100 yards, just to confirm that the zero was on, which it was, we do a shoulder height drop and then after the drop we want to confirm or check if zero shifted. At 100 yards we're shooting at a medium-sized steel target, and it unfortunately shifted off target at 100 yards.Then I went ahead and set up a target to see where it had shifted, so basically it should have shifted at about 36 yards whereas setting up a target just to see where the zero had actually moved to, it had moved about four inches up and to the left at 36 yards, so at 100 yards it would be a whole foot up and to the left.
This mount, this Aero Precision ultra light, it is a lightweight mount, I'm not sure how strong and durable it is, it's definitely not the toughest mount on the market, so that could be a variable, something we might need to check, but zero did shift about 12 MOA up and to the left, which caused it to miss at 100 yards. So, as far as durability goes on the SLX 1-10, it is something that I will continue to evaluate on it, as I do want to see if it was a mount issue or scope issue, we will probably test that at a later point in time.
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At the end of the day, what you're getting with the SLX 1-10x28 is you're getting a very good feature set, the reticle is very good, the glass is okay, the 1X is okay, size and weight is what I would consider to be very good for a 1-10 34-millimeter, we did have a shift in zero after the drop test, that is something that we will continue to evaluate on the optic, the optic didn't die, there was no damage to it whatsoever, but the zero did shift and we'll try and figure out what that shift was caused by.
Overall, sub 500 dollars, if you're looking for a 1-10, this has got to be one of the options that you're going to look at, simply for the reticle set, if you need that 10x magnification you probably want a very good reticle to go along with it, and the Griffin M10s with the mil grid system is a very good reticle system. If you're not looking for that reticle and 10x top magnification you're obviously not goingto be looking at this scope, if you only need six or eight X on the top end, usually those scopes are going to be a little bit cheaper and a little bit more usable overall, so this is going to be, if you're looking for that 10X magnification, a very good reticle to go along with it.
