Can this 13 year old Walmart Red Dot Still hold up?

Full review and where to buy: https://crackshot.tv/can-this-13-year-old-walmart-red-dot-still-hold-up/

I thought I’d do a fun video today and review the first red dot I ever purchased from my earliest days of gun ownership.

This Truglo Dual Color 30MM red dot is as vintage as they come. I purchased mine well over a decade ago for $50 from walmart back when Walmart used to actually sell gun stuff, and its still available on Amazon today.

The optic honestly isn’t as bad as you might think. I had it mounted for many years on an SKS, and it always held zero with the 7.62x39mm cartridge. But is this optic still relevant today?

The optic is built heavier than most modern red dots.

With a 30mm window, it actually has a pretty large window size. it featured red vs green options which was a popular feature at that time.

The larger 5MOA dot has also fallen out of popularity, especially on rifles. 2 MOA is pretty typical for rifle red dots nowadays. If you think about it, the 5MOA dot would cover a 5 inch target at 100 yards, and a 10 inch surface area at 200, so it is just way to wide for rifle shooting by today’s standards.

This optic is also quite heavy, weighing in at almost half of a pound, and that’s excluding any riser mounts.

Most modern red dots now-a-days weigh less than 5 ounces in weight.

The mounting hardware is also pretty dated on these. I’ve had the screws loosen up and need to be repeatedly re-tightened between range sessions. They definitely aren’t as secure as modern designs using hex screws that fit flush with the mounting hardware.

Also given the length of these red dots, you’d need a pretty long riser to really mount these comfortably on an AR-15.

That said, my particular optic has stood the test of time, but more recent reviews seem to indicate that perhaps the quality may have cheapened in recent years.

Are these optics still relevant today? Honestly no. They weren’t awful for their time, but they haven’t aged very well when you can purchase more modern choices like the bushnell TRS-25 for usually around just $10 more, which still has a sizeable 25mm window, but coming in at a much smaller package.

So I definitely can’t recommend these in 2024, but hey, if you want vintage like the Gen Z crowd. These have aged reasonably well and you can do worse for under $50.

I hope you enjoyed this vintage throw back video. Comment below if you ever owned one of these classics or with what your first starter red dot was.