When I was selected to do this review I had a number of reactions. The first thing I was tempted to do was to go online and see what everyone else was saying about this optic. Thankfully I resisted that temptation. I want this review to be my review. It wouldn’t be very fair to Primary Arms or anyone else involved (including the reader) to just paraphrase or restate what other people have said. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen nor read a single other review.

In the days after I received the scope the weather was horrible. We had about two weeks of nothing but cold drizzly rain and ankle deep mud. During that time it left my mind racing. I, like many enthusiast shooters have never been in the special forces or even in the military. I am not a cop or a SWAT officer. That said I realized quickly that I am missing out on a big aspect of recreational shooting, that being doing more CQB type shooting.

I grew up on guns but as a kid I was shooting tin cans off a fence. The idea to shoot ‘far’ but still hit the target has always been ‘where it’s at’. From that stems hunting and ballistics and many other aspects of shooting out to whatever distance. This basis forms my own and others general impressions of firearms sports. That said it’s never really crossed my mind to storm a building to take out a bad guy or to have a battle from opposite sides of the street. I realized very quickly that I am outside of my element when talking about CQB, but that said, studying it, learning it, and somewhat practicing it is not only a whole new level of fun, but it will make me more knowledgeable and a better overall marksman.

Now in steps the CQB scope to open my mind and world up a little bit more. My first impressions are that the thing is pretty much solid. The build quality and image clarity is good. Don’t be mistaken though, I will tell you straight what I like, don’t like, and what I would like to see.

There is no question about it that you are getting a quality piece of hardware when you get this scope. The mount I received was not a QD mount. That said, I am somewhere in between ‘I don’t care’ and ‘I don’t really like’ QD mounts. The mount I received was solid as was the entire scope, which is a compliment of the overall build quality. If you are worried about build quality you can stop now. The turrets are capped and the adjustments are crisp. The absolute only part that I didn’t like was the flip up caps. The front one was a bit sticky but might get better with some break in. I ended up just taking them all the way off. I personally would prefer a bikini cover instead, but it’s hardly an issue and not a deal breaker by any means.

The reticle is nice and crispy. I REALLY like the idea of it being etched. For the most part I am not a fan of red dots although there might be a rare exception. If you are up in the air between a red dot of similar price and something else…I would take the Primary Arms all day long every day instead.

Using the scope as is had some very good points and others that I would like to see improved. It works fine as is and if I haven’t said it enough already, this thing is a great build. If I bought this sight unseen I would feel like I got more than my money’s worth.

The reticle has a lot of features. First thing are the horse shoes. I personally found them to be simple and of very good use. The side ‘range finder’ hash marks…umm… I still don’t get those. They don’t get in the way, but they also haven’t added much so it’s a wash if they are there. That said in order to ‘range find’ with this you have to slightly pull off target to use that feature. I don’t like that. With a 2.5X magnification, at farther distances this could be a big deal. Throw in doing some kind of proprietary calculation to figure out how far your target is, not to mention trying to see those microscopic drop compensation dots it will make your eyes and brain both hurt.

The drop compensation dots are tiny. They are smaller than a grain of salt. They really are hard to see, and depending on the background and lighting it’s just something that can get ‘washed out’ very easily. In a ‘real’ case of needing to use it it would be for targets of opportunity only when you can really take your time. That said I am confident that I could hit a man sized target out to 200 yards with this scope. Without a doubt this is doable, but that is not this scope’s bread and butter.

You have ‘lead dots’ which supposedly is calculated to be able to lead a target that is running at full speed…this is assuming they are running side to side I guess. It’s a great concept but those dots are bigger than your bullet drops but so small I still couldn’t see them very well either unless they were placed over a very contrasting background. (The same thing is true for the ‘range finder’ as well as the bullet drop compensator.) My vision is better than 20/20 and those three elements of the reticle were hard to see unless conditions were better than average, which is probably the biggest weakness of this scope overall. Illuminated or not it just depends on what you are putting them up against as a background and in what kind of lighting conditions. The horse shoes have no such issues. I like the horse shoes.

Speaking of the horse shoes though, they work exceptionally well as they are now, but I would like to offer an idea for improvement. If you look at the photos I took you can see the sight picture. The make shift target was chosen because it’s the only bright yellow contrasty thing I could find (a yellow gas can). The dimensions of the target are approximately 15.5 inches by 15.5 inches. I marked off 25 yards, 50 yards, and 100 yards respectively with the same target. If you look at the 100 yard target shot based on rough calculations the inner edge of the small horse shoe covers about 10 inches across. At 50 yards the small horse shoe covers about 8 inches across. At 25 yards the big horse shoe covers about 15 inches across. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to this. If they made the center dot slightly larger (to where it could be easier to see), and made the small horse shoe where to covers 18” at 100 yards. (I say 18” because this is the average width of a human target shoulder to shoulder) Maybe add a fine horse shoe that covers 18” at 50 yards (this could also double as your ‘runner’s lead’), and the large horse shoe to cover 18” at 25 yards…you would be zeroed, range finding, AND on target quickly and visually without using some kind of odd formula.

100 Yards





50 Yards





25 Yards






I am a big fan of simplicity and to me this scope has some features that are more difficult to use in practical situations. While they can be useful in some situations it seems to me to be a little bit of marketing more than practicality.

One other final improvement that I personally would like to see is a larger tube size. An additional ¼ to ½ inch added to the actual tube diameter (and glass size) would in my opinion make this a stronger optic. It might add a little weight but it would also add a great deal of function.

As it stands please don’t misconstrue my constructive criticisms as saying this scope is a bad scope. It’s not. Knowing what it is and what it’s for I personally would own one of these. Undeniable good quality workmanship is present across the board. I love the 50 yard zero. I can tag man sized paper targets out to 200 yards with this as it sits. I haven’t tested beyond that. 100 yards and within the zombies just wouldn’t have a hope.

This scope is not designed to be a tack driver. That’s not what it is. To me having super fine barely visible ‘specks’ being used as bullet drop compensators are in theory more accurate but they conflict with the overall purpose of the scope. It is battery powered and batteries die, but that said the etched reticle works no matter what. Despite my desire to BMOS (build my own scope) this is a very quality buy.