Primary Arms is a prolific optics manufacturer. Their house-brand optics product lines span dozens of models of riflescopes, LPVOs, prism scopes, red dots, and magnifiers – along with a cavalcade of various mounts and accessories to support them. With only a half-dozen of the current models requiring a cash outlay north of the $1000 mark, and the overwhelming majority of their options sitting at less than $500 MSRP, Primary Arms tends to weight affordability, and they strive for value on a budget with the bulk of their glass. When they came to TFB and TFBTV’s recent GunFest, they brought three such optics along with them, some of their newest models. None of these were entirely new, never-before-seen announcements, as each has been discussed in some form here on TFB before, but they are examples of the Houston-based company’s latest offerings.

Primary Arms and Holosun have teamed up to offer this 507C variant with a special ACSS-based reticle option.

This product fact sheet illustrates the concept behind the chevron/ring combo reticle.

The first optic is a co-branded version of the Holosun 507C-X2. The Primary Arms take on this excellent pistol red dot is differentiated by its ACSS Vulcan reticle. Rather than the standard 507C’s simple dot reticle, this one features a 10-MOA center chevron coupled with a 250-MOA outer ring. This ring serves as an aiming aid, to help find the center chevron in the viewing window – which many shooters have issues with when they first make the jump from handgun iron sights to an optic. The idea here is that the outer ring acts as a visual guide – when you bring your pistol up to present and aim, if you see the ring in your window instead of/in addition to the chevron, it should help nudge you in the right direction to bring the aiming reference point to the middle, where it should be. Once the chevron is in position, the ring should be fully retracted outside of the viewing area, leaving your sight picture simple and straightforward. As your muscle memory develops with training and repetitions, you should hopefully find that you start needing the outer ring less and less over time. In this case, you can turn the ring off and carry on with just the center chevron by itself; this will also help extend the unit’s already-ample battery life, as will Holosun’s signature “shake awake” feature.

The MD-25 red dot has also received a recent reticle upgrade, now available with a chevron/BDC/horseshoe option.

The fact sheet shows the difference with the new reticle option, shown on the right.

Next up, Primary Arms brought along their MD-25 ACSS, a rifle-purposed red dot. This diminutive optic is intended for use with industry-standard micro-style footprints and mounts, like Aimpoint’s H- and T-series dots. The MD-25 has previously been available for a $169.99 MSRP with a 2-MOA red dot, but the newest version that was shown off at GunFest is a $20 reticle upgrade. Similar to the pistol optic discussed above, the ACSS-5.56 reticle replaces the previous dot with a center chevron. This chevron is accompanied by BDC references beneath, and an outer horseshoe. Weighing just 6.5 ounces and measuring only 3″ long, this micro dot should leave plenty of room on most long guns for a compatible magnifier mounted behind, which Primary Arms also offers, should your chosen application need that capability and flexibility.

The GLx 2.5-10x scope offers some much-requested features at an approachable price point.

If you liked the Raptor reticle but wanted something a bit more robust and fleshed-out, the newer Griffin MIL version might just be for you.

Last but not least, Primary Arms exhibited a new iteration of their 2.5-10×44 FFP GLx scope. This form of the GLx had previously been offered with their ACSS “Raptor” M2 5.56 reticle. The Raptor is a “Christmas tree”-style structure, which centers around BDC/ranging stadia descending from the central chevron, plus wind hold points extending out from the stadia in a generally triangular shape – hence, vaguely resembling a Christmas tree. The new variant at GunFest incorporated an adaptation of Primary Arms’ ACSS Griffin MIL reticle, thus providing a new combination of established optic and reticle concepts that had formerly not been available together. The Griffin further develops upon the Raptor’s Christmas tree format, expanding it into a full MRAD grid. This is intended to enable a precision shooter to calculate holdovers and adjust fire with the grid dots as reference points. This can save precious seconds versus physically dialing in adjustments, although the GLx scope’s turrets can also still be manipulated in the traditional fashion if you prefer.

See you at the range!

Photos courtesy of Primary Arms and the author.