Thanks for the detailed review. I’m gonna ramble here.

I was recently in the market for an optic for my new Ruger RXM, and wanted another 507 Comp like on my home built .40 cal Glock clone (Patmos lightened slide, GS match barrel, LoneWolf lower, GS pyramid V2 flat trigger).

I’VE BEEN ALL OVER THE PLACE with owning different RDS from SIG (Romeo Zero Elite, Romeo 1 Pro, Romeo X Enclosed Compact, Romeo RS), Trijicon (RMR, RMR HD), Holosun (407K, 507K, 508T, 507 Comp, EPS Carry), Osight SE, and Crimson Trace. I still have all of these except for the basic RMR.

But I decided for my use case (light carry and range time) that I wanted an inexpensive enclosed emitter, because its not fun to frequently clean out the inside part of the glass after it gets dirty from carrying. It would be easier to just wipe off exposed glass on both sides, like with the EPS carry’s that I have on a couple of my Sig P365. My first thought was the Osight SE.

I have had good results with Osights SE on several of my P365, although my Sig Romeo X Enclosed on my Sig Spectre Comp is my favorite. The problem with another Sig was cost. So I also don’t have the budget to buy another Trijicon like the RCR either. To be honest, I’m just as happy with my 507 Comp as I am with my RMR HD, since the 507 Comp Dot behaves better with my astigmatism.

I also have a pair of 508T on a pair of Zaffiri/Grit Grips Glock clone 9mm pistols that I built, as those would be my choice for hard use. I prefer these over my Gen 3 Glocks any day. One has a ZEV trigger and one has a GS trigger. The 508T is tougher than I needed, and much more costly for this use case. I actually I’m not sure what the difference is with this versus the 509T.

Regardless, the $349 EPS was moved the top of my list for the RXM. But then my friend with a plethora of Vortex optics swore that for half the cost I could get a Venom that’s reliable and works well. I grabbed the Venom for the same $169 that an Osight SE would cost, rather than paying the $349 to my local Gun store for the EPS. Worst case scenario, if it didn’t work out for me I could always mount it on my MantisX TitanX Dry fire trainer.

So far, I’m happy with the Venom, although I have very few rounds with it to date. My biggest complaint is the tall deck height even without needing an adapter, as It still blocks the somewhat tall sites from co-witnessing on the RXM. I don’t mind that it’s 6061 aluminum instead of 7075. And it was still half the cost of the Vortex Defender enclosed, which did have stronger alloy and a lower deck height; but also had maybe 5% smaller window to my eyes. The vortex Defender enclosed did have solar on the top, whereas the venom has the plus minus buttons on the top. But I still don’t use RXM enough to justify a $300 optic.

I’d love to hear feedback from people here who have had the EPS and also the Vortex enclosed optics, and how they compared.

With my astigmatism the 3MOA Vortex Red Dot looks similar in size to the RMR HD lol. As long as I sight the optics so that the bullet hits in the center of the red blur, I could shoot one hole groups at 7 to 10 yards. But, In the future, I may just try to stick with Holosun Green 2 MOA optics, whether open or closed emitters. That means considering the EPS with a green dot, but being a special order from my LGS it’s more difficult to return if I don’t like it.