Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight
The Crossfire Red Dot sight from Vortex Optics offers reliability and performance in a compact, lightweight and affordable package that remains functional under all conditions
Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight
The Vortex Optics products are well appreciated for their good price-to-quality ratio: offering the same level of functionality and reliability of other famous competitors, yet remaining affordable for the vast majority of shooters out there.
The Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight, is one of the company’s latest entry in the field of small-sized red dot sights – a tendency launched by Aimpoint of Sweden in 2007 with the "Micro" line.
The evolution of optical technologies now allows the industry to produce red dot or reflex sights that can be as small and lightweight as they can be, and yet sometimes even outperforming their older, larger-sized precursors.
The package content
The kit includes two heights base mounts
The Crossfire Red Dot sight was introduced to replace the SPARC II in Vortex Optics' catalogs, and distribution started in Spring 2018. While chiefly conceived for sporting, leisure shooting, defensive or tactical applications on handguns, modern sporting rifles and carbines or service weapons, the Vortex Crossfire will also be a hunter's best friend when mounted on more classic rifles or shotguns, particularly for those hunting specialties where fast target acquisition at close range and quick follow-up shots are the key to success.
The Vortex Crossfire is built around a machined 6060 lightweight aircraft-grade aluminum alloy that's barely 6,35 cm (2.5") long for an overall weight of 147,4 grams (5.2 oz). The body is protected from scratching and corrosion by a matte black hard anodized finish, and is nitrogen-purged and O-ring sealed.
Both lenses are 1.1" tall, manufactured out of high-quality optical glass and fully multi-coated on all air-to-glass surfaces for resistance against dirt and scratches and to improve light transmission. The objective lens also sports an orange anti-glare finish and is angled to be perpendicular with the red dot emitter.
The 2 MOA red dot itself is powered by a single disposable, commercial CR2032 battery, housed in a O-ring sealed compartment within the adjustment turret, providing eleven positively indexed positions for as many brightness settings. At a medium brightness setting, the Vortex Crossfire Red Dot sight offers up to 7,000 hours of battery life.
The dot can be set for windage and elevation via two capped turrets positioned respectively on the right side and on top of the sight body. The top-mounted elevation adjustment turret is also protected by a bulwark that also makes it snag-proof.
Any flat-headed tool (eg. a coin or a screwdriver) can be used to adjust the dot for windage and elevations on a 100-MOA range. The 1-MOA clicks are well perceptible and audible for a fine adjustment.
The Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight offers an infinite eye relief and, just like most red dot sights out there, is virtually parallax free. However, while it is compatible with add-on magnifiers, its short focal length makes so that parallax errors may indeed manifest when coupled with a magnifier, so the use of magnifiers with the Vortex Crossfire Red Dot sight is not recommended.
The Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight is issued with a lens cover, a lens cloth, a torx screw and a see-through machined aluminum mounting base, allowing the use of the sight in either a low mounting position or in a lower 1/3 cowitnessing position – very popular with AR-15 variants.
The small size of the Vortex Optics Crossfire Red Dot sight make it viable as a primary or ancillary sighting system on most handguns and long guns, with no significant increase in overall weight and no particular loss in functionality if compared to many famous competitors.
Being sold at an average street price of €150.00 in Europe and with its MSRP set at $219.00 in the United States, the Vortex Crossfire also shows that the price of these sights can go down along with the overall dimensions.