Primary Arms has established a comfortable niche for itself in the optics market. They make affordable optics at varying quality levels. They’ve done a fantastic job popularizing the ACSS reticle design. They sell a little bit of everything in the way of optics, including red dots, prisms, LPVOs and binoculars.
Primary Arms has recently released a series of mini red dots in their Classic Series, and today, we are taking a look at the Classic Mini Reflex Sight and see if this budget mini red dot is worth your dinero.
What’s the Classic Mini?
The Classic Mini is a red dot that uses the Trijicon RMR footprint and is designed for your typical double-stack handgun of the full-size or compact variety. Classic Mini explains it well. You won’t find any solar panels, multiple reticle options, shake awake, or other fancy features we’ve seen become popular in the last few years. Although it shuts off automatically after twelve hours.
The Classic Mini is designed to be a solid, well-made red dot at a good, affordable price point. The body of the optic is aluminum, and the lens is glass. The reticle is a 3 MOA design and is predictably red. The optic’s use of the Trijicon RMR footprint is a smart move since it’s nearly universal these days. The optic is quite small and slim, but that comes at the cost of a bottom-loading battery.
There are two buttons on the side to control the brightness level of the reticle. There is no auto adjust, and the buttons are quite nice for the sight’s low price. They deliver a little tactile feedback and click nicely, so you know the adjustment is made. I like them more than most, and their size is just right. There are ten brightness settings in total.
The optic weighs less than an ounce, which makes it one of the lighter options. The RMR weighs 1.17 ounces, the Holosun 507C weighs 1.5 ounces, and the Leupold DPP weighs a mighty two ounces. Battery life can range as far as 50K hours on medium settings.
Zeroing and Shooting the Classic Mini
The Classic Mini might be designed with handguns in mind, but I went a different route. To see what it can take, I mounted it on my dolled-up Mossberg Shockwave. It’ll pop onto Glock slides, CZ slides, and many more, but a 12 gauge seemed right. The Shockwave is aptly named, and with the right ammo, it can throw quite a bit of recoil at the optic. When I got to the range, I realized I was glad I picked a shotgun because zeroing wouldn’t be the easiest aspect of the Classic Mini.
The adjustment graduations are 1 MOA per ‘click.’ I use the term click for lack of a better term as there are no actual clicks. There is no audible or tactile feedback as you adjust windage of elevation. Luckily, zeroing a Shockwave is pretty easy due to its short-range design.
I zeroed at 20 yards with some good quality buckshot and centered the dot on the center of the buckshot spread. Without clicks, I have a hard time being precise, and on a handgun, it can be a hassle to essentially bracket the target until it pops into place.
With the zeroing done, I went about shooting with various loads. This included some slugs, some reduced recoil loads, lots of birdshot, and of course, lots of full-powered buckshot. I still had some of those Ukrainian mini slugs, and had a blast slapping the target with them over and over again from 25 to 40 yards.
Dots on Shockwaves really make them a lot easier to shoot, and the Classic Mini was a simple slap-on upgrade. The zero maintained throughout my firing of a broad range of ammunition, and I even re-zeroed for those Ukrainian slugs. It occurred to me midway through that checking a buckshot zero wouldn’t require a ton of precision.
The Slug Zero
Admittedly it took me longer to zero the Classic Mini for slugs. The lack of clicks for the graduations were a pain. Luckily I got there in eight rounds. I was happy with every round staying inside the black of a B8 target. I zeroed at 25 yards, and from 50 yards could keep steel ringing over and over again.
After some more swapping back and forth to various full-powered buckshot rounds, I retested the zero, and without issue, the slugs slammed into the black of the B8. I couldn’t stand to drop that pretty furniture from WOOX on the ground for drop-testing, but alas, what’s one to do?
I dropped the gun, optic first, several times on the dirt surface of the range. Then again a few times on each side. After ensuring my precious wood furniture was OK, I checked the optic’s aim. It was still in place, dead-on and ready to go. I checked the zero once more with the light-loaded short slugs and the zero was still true.
So What?
The Classic Mini might not offer any fancy features or designs, but the general idea is to produce a well-made, simple optic at an affordable price point. The lack of plastic in the body and lens is very a good start. The red dot is quite bright, but also crisp and clear. A look through the lens shows a nice, bright, clear sight picture.
Primary Arms include a low-mounted Picatinny adapter and a rubber lens cover alongside the wrenches needed to remove and install the Classic Mini and to zero it. It’s a fairly solid package. With red dots becoming the norm on handguns, this offers an entry-level option at a low price. At the same time, it’s not like the crap Pinty puts out that will lose zero if you look at it wrong and fail if dropped a time or two.
The Classic Mini might not be the best option for duty users, but for concealed carry and competition use, it will get your foot in the door. It’s not fancy, but it works, and it’s affordable.
Specifications: Primary Arms Classic Series 24mm Mini Reflex Sight
Window Size: 21x17mm
Weight: .97 Ounce
Battery Life: Up to 50K hours
Battery Type: 2032
Reticle: 3 MOA Red Dot
MSRP: $150.00
Ratings (Out of Five Stars)
Clarity * * * *
The lens has a blue tint, but not egregiously so. The dot is surprisingly crisp for such a cheap optic.
Ergonomics * * * * *
Two big buttons make it easy to activate and change brightness settings. Plus, it weighs less than an ounce.
Ease of Use * * *
The Classic Mini has two faults. The first is the bottom-loaded battery, which won’t a big deal for most. The second is the lack of clicks for adjustments.
Reliability * * * *
The Classic Mini holds its zero, can take a drop, and is made of glass and metal. However, there is one issue worth mentioning. The auto shut-off after twelve hours might be an issue during a long day of concealed carry.
Overall * * * *
Releasing a good, well-made red dot sight at the same price as a set of premium night sights is smart. It’s not perfect and it’s not fancy, but it’s clear, durable, and easy to use. At this price point, it should be very popular and makes for an easy entry into pistol-mounted red dots.