Red Dot Sight (Review or Test or Eval)
Leupold Freedom RDS Review
The Leupold Liberty RDS is built for optimum shooting success in no-matter-what conditions.
June 23, 2020
The red-dot market is saturated. Every major optics visitor offers one; some offer many. Choosing what's best for you lot volition depend on the chore at hand. For personal defense, a pocket-size red dot will do. For hunting, glass clarity and toughness go important. For jumping out of helicopters and pond through alligator-infested swamps, you'll want a red dot that can withstand punishment and be waterproof. Leupold'due south Freedom Red Dot Sight (RDS) is fabricated for those who wait their red dot to withstand rough and tumble atmospheric condition.
Leupold introduced the RDS sight earlier this year in two models: one with standard-MOA adjustments and 1 with a bullet-drop-compensator (BDC) turret. Receiving a sample for evaluation, it'southward weight and robustness stood out. The RDS is made of 6061 T6 aluminum and has a beefy 34mm main tube. It comes mounted in Leupold'south own AR mount, which has a substantially thick base. The underside of the base has iii ribs machined into it to mate similar a puzzle to a Picatinny rail. This affair is designed to be knocked around and stay in place.
Looking through the RDS will give you a true 1X view. The 1-MOA red dot is just the right size for accuracy at longer distances where a larger cerise dot could obscure a target. I found at the right illumination setting for the environment, the scarlet dot was very well-baked.
The red dot is also daylight bright and tin can be dimmed past pushing on the Leupold logo located on the battery housing. If y'all start with a dim dot and push the button repeatedly, the effulgence will increase. When it reaches its maximum brightness, the red dot flashes. Bike backwards from bright to dim with repeated pushes. I typically similar a dial with numbers representing the power of the illumination and having an offsetting position in between, but I quickly got used to Leupold's design.
Powering off the RDS is like many electronic items. Press the illumination push for several seconds, and the sight goes off. If you're concerned about battery life, don't fret. The RDS includes a movement detector, which will put the red dot to sleep after five minutes. I tested this feature, and at five minutes, the lite starts blinking and so disappears. Moving the sight revives the dot instantly.
Quality In Every Inch
Looking through the RDS, its field of view (FOV) is similar to other 1-inch objective lenses. The RDS has its own proprietary coating called the Twilight Red Dot lens system, which Leupold touts to provide better color consistency and lens clarity than other red dots. Every bit a photographer, I know quality glass and coatings when I peer through a lens. I found the colour coming through the RDS true to the surround simply several shades darker. It'southward similar putting on a light-shade polarizing filter. This may audio similar a bad affair, but what's important here is the end result, which is an image with richer colors, richer mid-tones and better dissimilarity for a loftier-definition image.
My other red dots tinge the image with a blue hue, and although the image through the drinking glass is close in brightness to the surround, the mid-tones are weak. When I compared the Leupold with my other two red dots of like price, the other ruddy dots appear washed out. This is most notable in total daylight. When shooting single-colored targets on the range, the difference may not matter, but if y'all're hunting or shooting for accuracy, a clearer, richer paradigm is a distinct advantage.
One of the selling features of the optic is that it goes through the same arduous testing as Leupold'south military scopes. To survive the drib test and farthermost temperatures they put them through, you know this optic will take the corruption of banging around in the dorsum of a truck, sludging through muddy trails in an ATV or those bitter-cold Minnesota winters.
The optic is waterproof, nitrogen purged for fog proofing and is scratch resistant. For a $390 optic (MOA version), it's impressive that you won't have to worry nearly the electronics declining or losing your cipher. In the rare chance that it happens, Leupold backs the RDS with a 100-percent guarantee. But send information technology dorsum to Leupold for repair or gratuitous replacement, even if you're not the original owner.
Turret Differences
Removing the cap on the MOA turret reveals a large rubberized dial with easy-to-read numbers. The turret is finger friendly and can be turned by mitt instead of with a tool. It offers 12 MOA of meridian gain per rotation. Technically, you can dial height gains to shoot out far distances, simply since it lacks a zero feature, it complicates things.
What'south better is to shell out the actress $130 and become the BDC model that comes with a BDC turret tuned to a 55-grain .223 Rem. bullet traveling 3,100 feet per second. With this turret, the large numbers represent yards in hundreds. To adjust for 250 yards, put the large number on the dial to 2.5 and shoot. For a nominal fee, you lot can get a custom BDC turret tuned to your load data.
The RDS surprised me. I expected the RDS to be a good optic and on par with my other similarly priced and sized red dots, merely the clarity of the RDS is superior. Testing the durability of the RDS was outside the scope of the commodity, so I can't state that it will take harsh abuse. But for the price and guarantee, it would exist a no brainer to supervene upon one of my current red dots with the RDS. If given the choice, I would choose the BDC version and tune it to a hunting load.
Leupold Freedom RDS
- Type: Blood-red-dot sight
- Magnification: 1X
- Length: 5.iii in.
- Weight: 7.2 oz.
- MSRP: $390 (MOA version); $520 (BDC version)
- Manufacturer: Leupold, leupold.com
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Source: https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/leupold-freedom-rds-review/377605
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