TUFFORCE red dot sight, not my first choice.

TUFFORCE red dot site, not my first choice.

I have had a few months to really try out the TUFFORCE red dot type sight.  To start off on the good side, it is very inexpensive, about $60 street price (in such a manner as being easily affordable) and easily mounted to a Picatinny  rail with the included mount and hardware.

Being a co witness sight (where you can observe the T type red/green dot as you also index your iron sights) it was easy to get a rough zero before going to the range. It just put the T at the top of the front sight and it was zeroed at 100 yards. You have the option of a red or green T dot each with five settings of brightness. The red showed up great in low light while the green showed up better in day light.

I used the sight when testing the Barnes Precision Machine CQB 300 Blackout pistol. You can read that review by following this link 

That review was the third time I had the TUFFORCE red dot out. It held it’s zero using 5.56 and 300 BLK on an AR-15 and did make it easy to acquire a target. Half way through the review the scope body became loose at a seam close to the objective lens. At first I thought it was the mount that became loose as I saw the T dot was now canted. When I took a closer look it was actually where the body was assembled. This concerned me but I tightened it back up and all was good to go, even the zero. I finished out the day without other issues.

For the final outing I was using the optic and when the rifle recoiled the actual T dot flickered. I took the battery out and reinstalled it tight and the problem went away, for a while, and then came back. With a firm whack to the battery cover it would stay on for a magazine or so. I doubled checked the battery compartment to be sure it was tight and indeed it was. Even with a new battery the problem persisted. Finally I took a pair of pliers and tightened the hell out of the battery cover and that seemed to do the trick.

For the first several hundred rounds the TUFFORCE actually held up well and kept zero. I was cautiously optimistic that maybe an inexpensive red dot would be ok for informal range use and training. After further testing though I have determined that is not really the case. If you are just target shooting or looking to get a very inexpensive optic to get started then maybe this would be an option but truthfully I would put that $60 some dollars to a nicer optic.

I liked the co witness option and how the overall optic was set up externally, it is just not reliable enough to justify for anything other than informal target shooting. It is worth noting the TUFFORCE comes with a lifetime warranty so I expect at the price point if/when you have an issue you have the option to send it in. Though not my first choice for range us it did however help with my learning of patience.

Specifications