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Primary Arms Mini Reflex Sight
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- Reticle
- Battery Life
- Brightness settings
- Build Quality
- Value
3.9/5Overall Score
Specs
- Battery Life: 25,001 - 50,000 Hours
- Battery: CR2032 3V Lithium Coin
- Material: Aluminum - 6061-T6
- Warranty: Lifetime
Pros
- Price
- Weight
Cons
- Battery Placement
If you are looking for the perfect small-footprint red dot sight for your compact and full-size frame pistol, Primary Arms finally has an offering for you with the Primary Arms Mini Reflex Sight.
My test bed gun for new pistol red dot optics is my Glock 45 so for this review the Glock 45 MOS is what I’ll be using.
First Impressions
One of my first impressions of the mini reflex site was its small form factor and side buttons, hence the name mini.
It’s very compact, and it’s very sleek, but what caught me off guard was the quality of the overall build.
For $150, I was shocked at how much I liked it from the get-go and the reason I say that is I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of $150 red dot sight.
Especially from previous interactions with pistol dots and how much they cost. One thing this optic does is start to force pistol red dot manufacturers into making more reasonably priced dot options.
Overall, my first impression of the mini reflex site is fantastic. I’ve had a few bumps here and there with some screw compatibility issues on some other pistol optics, including Holosun.
So, I wasn’t a hundred percent sold, but just picking it up, holding it, looking at it, touching the membrane pads, and seeing the overall design, I was pretty excited about it.
Materials
The materials are the same as the Primary Arm’s Micro Reflex Sight, which is made more for a Glock 48 or small framed pistols.
So, diving into this a bit more on the material side, it uses the same material as the Micro Reflex sight. It’s the aluminum 6061 T6. Here is a little more on the 6061-T6
The numbering of aluminum alloys identifies the primary alloying agents and the other active chemical elements in aluminum.
primary arms classic micro topThe 6061 aluminum is often referred to as the “The Workhorse Aluminum” due to its corrosion resistance and its high heat welding properties.
The “-T6” is the thermal and heat-treated tempers measurement and the T6 means that it has been solution heat-treated and artificially aged.
Primary Arms Micro Reflex Sight Materials
I dove into that a little more on the other review, but to reiterate, the 6061 T6 is a coding classification and essentially a tolerance and metal rating.
Weight
The weight is incredible. This thing’s tiny. It clocks in right at 0.97 ounces. It’s not even a full ounce.
You’ll never notice the weight once you throw it on your pistol.
But with the lightweight design I was worried that the optic wasn’t going to be durable enough, but so far, so good.
You can rack your slide with it. I probably wouldn’t habitually rack the slide with your red dot, even on the Trijicons, but you can do it in a pinch.
I don’t make a habit of it just because I don’t think it’s the best option for racking your slide.
Reticle
The reticle on this Primary dot is a 3 MOA dot.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but comparing this dot to the micro-reflex sight dot, this one seems a little smaller.
It could be something to do with how much smaller the optic itself is and how much smaller the gun is to the sight picture and everything around it that makes the dot seem smaller.
The dot itself is very crisp and it works great. I had no problems with the dot and the sight picture.
It sits in a stock Glock 45 MOS just above the stock sights.
Now, if you wanted to get some suppressor height sights for it, the dot will probably align with the front post. So, I don’t think I would worry about changing the sights on this once you have your dot mounted.
Adjustment
Adjustment of the optic is pretty standard. The top screw will adjust your elevation. Turning it clockwise will take the dot upwards.
On the right side, you have a small screw that is turning clockwise, will move it right, and that will adjust your windage.
Some people are reporting that the right screw is hitting the plunger in the Glock, which could cause a malfunction. The screw would just be too long and should be a hair shorter. You can grind the screw or contact Primary Arms and they will take care of it.
Battery
Battery life on the Mini reflex is almost identical to the micro, according to primary arms.
I haven’t tested this long term, but I will say that the Mini red dot gives a range for the battery life, whereas the Micro is pretty dead set on 40,000 hours for a medium setting.
The range on the mini reflex sight is set at 25,000 hours to 50,000 hours, and depending on what setting you have it on, that will give you a certain number of runtime hours.
Anything over the five or six setting would probably net you the 25,000 hours, which is still an incredible amount of time, but that’s just something to keep in mind. Also, know that this is only $149 optic, which is incredibly affordable.
Durability
As always, I don’t have a true durability test. I did not destroy one of the optics to test it, but it is an all-aluminum housing with rubber touch membrane pads.
Much like many others on the market, it feels as solid as any Holosun or Trijicon optic out of the box.
Now, will it hold up like those? I’m not sure because I haven’t put it through the testing those have been. If I get another one, I may try that for… science.
Sight Picture
Having a solid sight picture is extremely important because at the end of the day the target is what you should be focusing on while shooting.
So having a massive option or dot block your line of sight is not ideal to accurate shooting.
Even the manual for this optic tells you, “To achieve a clear, crisp dot, look through the sight and focus on the target, not the dot.”
Operation
Turning on the optic is as simple as pressing the “↑” button located on the side of the red dot.
From there you can adjust the brightness with the ↑ and ↓ buttons.
To turn the red dot off, press BOTH buttons and hold for three seconds. This will turn it off and save your battery.
You don’t need to turn it off if this is your carry gun but if you plan to store the gun for a while without using or shooting it might be best to turn it off.
Mounting
The one slight setup I had with the Mini Reflex was mounting it. It does have the Trijicon RMR footprint and the stock Glock MOS plates work well.
The only issue I had was with the included screws that screw the optic to the mounting plate.
They were just a hair too long and if you tightened them down too far it would cause the optic to push up. This is an extremely easy fix and there are two options.
First, Primary Arms had great support and sent out new screws that worked flawlessly. They shipped them quickly and were extremely easy to work with.
Option two, grid down the screws every so slightly to get them to not push against the top of the gun’s slide.
You could do both of these options if needed. I also could have had a set of screws made on a Monday.
Either way, once I had the screws the mounting was simple and painless. All I had to do was put on the Glock-supplied MOS mounting plate and screw it onto the pistol. Once that’s on your screw the Mini Reflex directly to the plate and viola!
Primary Arms Mini Reflex Sight Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on the mini reflex sight are simply this, you cannot beat this red dot sight for the money.
I say that having owned a Trijicon RMRs, Holosun 407Cs, Primary Arms, you name it, Delta Point Pro. I mean, you name the optic, I’ve probably either owned it or used it a fair amount.
I’m not one to consider myself an extremely budget-minded shopper for guns and accessories.
I have one hobby, and that’s guns. I don’t really care about cars, etc. Computers and guns are really my forte. That’s what I spend my money on.
So, when I got this optic, I didn’t think I’d fall in love with it because I have a lot of extremely, extremely high-end options available to me because this is my hobby.
I was really shocked at how much I liked this red dot. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go to a Trijicon over this if money was not an object.
But, if I had to equip five different pistols that all needed this smaller optic footprint, I would definitely not hesitate to go to the Primary Arms mini reflex sight. This thing’s going to do what it needs to do.
The only thing that concerns me is that it’s not stood the test of time just yet, but neither have many of the Holosuns or many of these other new pistol dots.
I trust Primary Arms’ testing process. They would not have released this if they could not find a major issue after a significant amount of testing.
Overall, I would not hesitate to buy this. It’s a $150 investment, but it won’t break the bank. They have an incredible warranty and an awesome support staff. For this price, it’s hard to beat.
I haven’t yet, as I just got it Fri. But I’ll def be calling them this week.
On a G-48 MOS the supplied screws are both the same length so the right side screw impinges on the plunger rod when it’s fully seated, making the plunger rod immovable, which WILL result in malfunctions. So I’m not sure how you got yours to work (assuming you shot it at the range with the sight installed).
No bueno.
Have you reached out to Primary Arms? You can likely grind down the right screw with a Dremel but if you don’t wanna go that route, I’ve always had really good customer service from them.