The Vortex Spitfire 3X Prism Scope Review

Vortex is one of the few companies to have entered any already established market with a bang! Having been around for just over a decade, since 2002, many may think that it has been in existence since the early 1900’s.

In fact, today many people are more acquainted with Vortex than they are with Leopold with a good number of those who haven’t been in the industry for long having hardly heard of the Aimpoint and Eotech companies.

The Vortex Spitfire 3X is one clear testimony of what the company has been doing over these couple of years to earn itself a place in the already established market. With this Vortex Spitfire 3X review, I doubt whether you will think twice about such an incredible product.

An Overview

The Spitfire features two flavors namely the 1X and the 3X options, with this review mainly putting emphasis on what the 3X is, what it is not, what it can do and what it cannot do.

The Spitfire 3X has specifically been designed for the AR platform, basing its design around the 5.56 X 45 cartridge for rapid shooting under both the long and short ranges. It provides the shooters with holdover as well as range references between 0-500 yards.

The Specifications of the Vortex Spitfire 3X

  • 15.4 ounces overall weight with battery and mount included
  • 12.2-ounce product weight exclusive of the mount and battery
  • 5.5-inch length
  • ½ MOA adjustment graduation
  • 120 MOA maximum windage adjustments
  • 2.8-inch eye relief
  • 3X magnification
  • 31.5ft/100yds field of view
  • 100 yards parallax setting

Special Features of the Vortex Spitfire 3X

1. Optical Features

Fully Multi-Coated Lenses

The lenses are fully multi-coated with multiple anti-reflective coats. All its air-to-glass surfaces have therefore been painted to reduce light dispersion while improving light transmission. This is one of the primary reasons why the product gets lots of credits for producing bright and crisp images.

Prism-Based Optic Design

The much sought after prism-based design is a hero in the delivery of sharp optics thereby allowing for unique reticle designs and constructions, which will be visible even without illumination. The cost of running the product thus becomes cheaper and the product ends up being so versatile is it can be used under an array of conditions and situations.

2. Construction Features

Durable Quality Construction

It features a single-piece compact and lightweight chassis that is not only rugged for durability but is also compact for portability. The chassis features a highly durable and low glare hard anodized matte finish for durability. The low-glare feature is a must have if you don’t want to startle the game and interfere with your hunting performance.

Fog proof

With a Nitrogen gas purging, there will be no fog forming in the internal parts, especially the lenses. Fog doesn’t only interfere with the products durability but also affects your overall performance as it will limit you on when to use the scope. With the nitrogen purging, you will use your scope no matter the temperatures

The Vortex Spitfire 3X has been designed to operate within the -22 degrees to +122 degrees F temperature ranges.

Waterproof

It also comes with an O-ring seal that has specially been designed to keep dust, debris, and moisture out. All these are performance reducing vices that must be kept out if you want to always use your scope at all times and for long lasting durability. It is the O-ring feature that makes the scope usable when it's raining or even when you need to hide in the sand.

Waterproof

It also comes with an O-ring seal that has specially been designed to keep dust, debris, and moisture out. All these are performance reducing vices that must be kept out if you want to always use your scope at all times and for long lasting durability. It is the O-ring feature that makes the scope usable when it's raining or even when you need to hide in the sand.

Shockproof

It is the ruggedness of the body that makes it capable of withstanding any form of shock such as impact upon falling as well as recoil shocks. The scope will thus not easily lose its zero and will be used in any terrain.

4. Weight and Dimensions

It weighs 12.2 ounces. This is heavy, yes, but in comparison with others and its performance ratio, the weight is worth it. It is also not excessively heavy to bother you much, especially if you have strong muscles and a strengthened core.

The sighting accessory measures 5.5 inches long with the height being 1.54 inches. This is pretty compact bearing in mind that it features a 32mm objective lens.

5. Convenience Features

Red/Green Reticle Option

With such an option, you will have the choice of choosing a dot color. At daytime, the most preferred color is green, though some people will still use the red color option. On the other hand, the green color option is almost unusable at night with the red option reigning supreme at such a time. This red/green reticle option can, therefore, be said to be a key player of making the scope to be a versatile day and night sighting device.

Brightness Adjustability

Vortex provides shooters with five adjustable brightness levels. This allows the user to get the best images regardless of the lighting conditions

Variable Mount Heights

Out of the box, it features a lower 1/3 co-witness 40.4 mm height from the base surface through to the optic center. If you desire to have a lower 30 mm mount height, all you need to do is to remove the mounting riser.

Performance

The sight mounts so well and tightly on the gun’s rail with its accompanying factory mount. The reticle appears somewhat cluttered and complicated. It has holdovers that are referred to as crossbars which are first observed as being large but grow smaller when they descend. A total of four crossbars will be observed, which have been designed for placement across an average 15-inch wide shouldered man.

All in all, the different adjustment levels and options the product comes with and its rugged quality construction make the scope to be a formidable candidate for the best most versatile scope on the market. This is because it performs well under short and long distance sighting alike, under low and high light levels as well as under almost any weather and terrain conditions.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Quality Reticle Performance: Featured is a nice & guarantees brightness at any setting. The reticle is etched into the prism and disregards the use of a BDC/simple rangefinder and the use of batteries.
  • Efficient Performance: This can partly be credited to the quality reticle, the crystal clear lenses as well as the overall construction quality
  • The Best Product for the Buck: Under $300, there is no other product that produces better performance than this Vortex sighting accessory. In fact, it is better than even some of the higher end products. It, therefore, can be termed as the best or excellent value high-quality gun optic device.
  • Versatility: It comes with accessory rails that come in handy when offset optics is to be mounted together with this optic device.

Cons

  • The 12.2-ounce weight is rather quite heavy when compared to some other sighting accessories
  • It takes a whopping 5.5 inches of rail mounting space

User Reviews

After zeroing, most of the Vortex Spitfire 3X reviews gives it credit for being an amazing gun sighting accessory. Its clear glasses and light transmission may not be realized by amateurs but it is what results from such clear glasses and light transmission: accuracy and clarity, that they are all buzzing about. The scope locks pretty well and features an overall great external construction. The only downside that a few customers are suggesting would have been improved are the turrents which aren't the best for some users, especially those who have used higher end scopes as can be denoted from what they are making comparisons with.

Conclusion

This Vortex Spitfire 3X review shows us that the Spitfire is a great optic device, featuring a high quality construction and performance all at a great price. It is tough enough thus versatile for almost any form of serious work such as law enforcement or even competition among others. It is highly dependable when it also comes to tactical scenarios and self-defense, thanks to its fast target acquisition ability. If you are having a budget of about $400 or less, go for this scope, which will hardly cost you $300.

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