Vortex Optics - Crossfire

All, 

I have been meaning to get to this sooner but life got in the way. As I was re-entering precision pistol shooting my budget was limited and being a bad year to decide to come back due to demand, inflated pricing and limited to no available loading supplies. I really needed to be frugal with my available funds. Having used Aimpoint Micros in the past I was a bit spoiled with the compact size and weight of those little buggars! However $800 per copy was not a frugal idea, at all! 

So what options did I have? There were certainly some knockoffs available fairly cheap but they made me nervous as something one needed to depend on! I ran across this Vortex Crossfire and was intrigued by the price point (under $200) and reached out to them. Stating I would be slide mounting this on a .45acp should I expect any problems? I was assured the Crossfire would hold up to any recoil the 45 would throw at it. So I ordered one for my Marvel conversion on a Rock River built dedicated lower, since I was unable to acquire enough components to start loading 45. 

This Crossfire has performed flawlessly on my 22 for over 3000 rounds so far. So now Perry was a few weeks away and I finally had enough components to load some rounds! I ordered the second Crossfire to mount on my Rock River wad gun and began loading. Initial testing of optics was promising! My performance on the other hand was not! I had not shot 45 since 2013!I was using bullets I was unfamiliar with, these new coated bullets were interesting and an unknown element for me. I was second guessing my loads and my abilities as I struggled to achieve a reasonable degree of accuracy with my new equipment. I started with load development, different charges, crimps, bullets and seating depth and finally seemed to have some rounds that had a consistent velocity around 800fps. Loaded a bunch and started practicing! Had a local match coming up and was excited to see some people that I had not seen in years and shoot in a match again! 22 match went awesome! CF match not so much....

During SF my rounds were all over the paper, but at least on the paper and in scoring rings! Match jitters? We all know this game is 90% mental and having confidence is paramount to ones success, my mental game was gone at this point! Leaving me only 10% to work with.......... during timed fire my dot disappeared, gone, shit and an alibi. Got the dot back on during reload and while firing my alibi dot gone again! The provided me a couple minutes to swap out battery during which time I discovered my sight rail seemed to be rocking around? Struggled through rapid fire and considered calling it a day! Nope going to keep going thanks to some great hosting the match they allowed me to do some service on the gun and reattach the site rail and fire some rounds for a quick sight in. Struggled thru 45 with some real erratic scores, certainly building my confidence now!!! Last rapid tire lost the dot again and fire the last 4 rounds blind! I would not recommend this to anyone, just sayin' 

Left for home perplexed as to what was going on but glad to see some friends and shoot, albeit poorly but fun none the less. Contacted Vortex and was told to send it in and they will get a look at it and back to me ASAP. Perry in two weeks! I ordered another Crossfire as there was not much of a chance getting mine back before Perry. While removing the failed dot from the Rock River I noticed two very distinct wear marks in the bottom of the mount! Here I discovered the two screws on the back of the rail were not flush with the top of the rail, there protruded slightly! Enough so that the dot was basically only sitting on those screw heads and moving around under recoil! This explains a lot!!!! So the dot was sustaining double recoil due to it sliding all over. This may have lead to its failure, so I notified Vortex of these findings and included them with the postage paid label they email me to return the dot under warranty. 

So this story is coming to an end I assure you! 

I filed down the two screws and attached the new Crossfire to my Rock River and headed to the range to zero it in. Had one night of league shooting before heading to Perry, my confidence and lack of trigger time weighing heavy on my mind. My performance at Perry was less than stellar with my 45 but happy with an 866 in .22. The Crossfire has performed flawlessly since being installed, held its zero and I am very pleased with this optic!! All the rounds at Perry including team matches, 60 rounds a week for league and an 1800 match. 

Oh and Vortex was awesome and sent me a replacement for the failed unit and had it to me before leaving for Perry. 
Repair ticked said customer states loss of dot under recoil. Confirmed loss of dot under simulated recoil, replaced unit. 

Great customer service and really a nice product at a fair price. Give them a shot if you're in the market for some optics. 

I finally received some Zero 185 SWCHP and 200 SWC for loading! Time to go work on my mental game......