The hottest thing in optics has been pistol red dots and the hotness within the segment is enclosed emitter designs. These are standard reflex red dot designs that are fully enclosed. The advantage here should be obvious.
The enclosure protects the emitter from dust, dirt, water and other crap that can and does find its way onto and around your handgun when you’re using it. If it gets on your emitter…no visible dot. The tradeoff is the larger (and slightly heavier) boxy housing optics makers use to enclose everything.
Riton’s entry into this burgeoning market is the very reasonably priced new 3 Tactix EED (enclosed emitter dot).
Some will recoil in horror at the sight of what at first appears to be a mailbox-sized enclosure perched atop your EDC or home defense pistol. It may remind you of something you’ve seen before, in a galaxy far, far away.
Relax. Once you mount it and start to use it, the 3 Tactix EED is much less jarring. It’s a very capable, extremely reasonably priced (compared to the competition) enclosed red dot that does what it’s supposed to do.
Yes, it’s bigger. That’s the price of it being fully enclosed and protecting the emitter. If you want something smaller, get a traditional open emitter design like Riton’s 3 Tactix MPRD 2 red dot.
The 3 Tactix EED’s HD glass is multi-coated to reduce glare and maintain a waterproof enclosure…which is, after all, the whole point here. It uses the same mount as the Aimpoint ACRO, basically a plate with the equivalent of an inverted ARCA Swiss-style rail that the sight then clamps onto.
Riton ships the 3 Tactix EED with two of the most-used mounting plates, one for guns with RMSc optics cuts and one for GLOCK MOS mounts along with the necessary screws, an Allen key, and an adjustment tool.
The Riton 3 Tactix EED’s battery compartment is accessed from the top of the aluminum housing. That adds a little height to the overall package, but keeps it slimmer than other designs with side-mounted battery compartments. It takes a standard CR2032 battery, is rated at 50,000 of usage and has a shake-awake feature to preserver your battery life.
Zero adjustments are on the top (elevation) and the right side (windage).
Brightness is adjusted using rubberized + and – buttons on the left side of the housing. These work really well and aren’t easily changed by accident.
The aluminum housing is, of course, waterproof. That’s pretty much the point here. Is protecting the emitter really that big a deal? No, assuming you know that you’ll never be shooting outside in the rain or dropping your gun in the dirt.
I’ve had it happen to me. I’ve been shooting out in the rain with an open emitter red dot. One drop on the emitter scrambles the LED image bouncing off the front lens of the optic. Instead of a nice clear 3 MOA dot, you get lots of smaller flecks bouncing back at you. All you can do at that point is use your shirt tail to try to soak up the water in there enough to restore the dot image.
Here’e the view through the 3 Tactix EED. It’s clear and bright. The dot is well-defined with no halo or flare. The characteristic blue tint is slight here, though it’s unusual. It’s hard to tell in the image above, but the view gets gradually more blue as you look from top to bottom.
I”m not sure why that is, but it didn’t cause me any problems. I shot outdoors in full sun, under clouds (as above) and indoors. I never had a problem picking up a clear dot.
The 3 Tactix’s dot brightness is constant. It doesn’t adjust depending on environment or the brightness of the area in front of it. I generally prefer that, but your mileage may vary. The adjustment range is more than wide enough to get good, useable dots in any conceivable lighting situation.
Is it bigger than a standard reflex sight? You betcha. Is it too big to carry on a regular basis? It wasn’t for me. I don’t know why it would be too big for you.
Maybe it isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as a more sleek, traiditonal open emitter design, but it keeps grime and schmutz out of your way and ensures you keep on shootin’. If that’s important to you, the 3 Tactix EED is a very affordable way to make that happen.
Specifications: Riton 3 Tactix EED Red Dot Sight
Dot Size: 3 MOA
Objective Lens Diameter: 21.8mm x 15.8mm
Lens Coating: Fully Multi-Coated, Full Wide Band, Waterproof Coated, Low Light Enhancement
Eye Relief: Unlimited
Click Value: 1 inch
Adjustment Range: 90 MOA
Height: 1.14 inches
Length 1.74 inches
Width: 1.06 inches
Weight: 1.48 oz.
Battery: CR2032
Battery Rating: 50,000 hours
Night Vision compatible: Yes
Footprint: Aimpoint ACRO, includes RMSc and GLOCK MOS plates
MSRP: $349.99 (about $235 retail)
Ratings (out of five stars):
Reliablity * * * * *
I froze it, sprayed it, and dunked it. It still worked. And I couldn’t get it to fog by changing temperatures. And because the emitter is enclosed, water and dirt don’t affect the dot image…which is pretty much the whole point.
Clarity * * * *
Good, but uneven. Most multicoated red dots have a blue tinge to them. The view through the 3 Tactix EED is clear and bright, but there’s a graduated blue tinge that increases from top to bottom.
Value * * * * *
This is where the 3 Tactix EED stands out. There are lots of other enclosed emitter designs out there. Some are smaller, some are about the same size and weight. But the Riton is at least $100 less at retail than competitors like the Holosun EPS carry, the Aimpoint ACRO, the Steiner MPS and others.
Overall * * * *
The Riton 3 Tactix does exactly what it’s designed to do. It’s not small, elegant, or streamlined, but it gives you a clear 3 MOA dot in virtually any lighting conditions and it does it for a little over two bills.