Last week Dan and I visited Gunsite Academy as part of Crimson Trace’s RAD Rapid Aiming Dots launch. We did a bunch of training and shooting with CT’s new RAD optics line mounted to both pistols and rifles, and managed to snag some footage along the way:
In addition to the RAD Max, the Radian Weapons Model 1 AR-15 was also equipped with a CMR-301 light+laser, which was awesome. The Gen5 GLOCK 19 MOS was rocking a RAD Pro and a CMR-207G light+laser.
To see ’em in action, click play on the embedded video above or click HERE to watch it directly on Rumble.
It works, but no better than any of the other offerings available. $399.99 is paying for the Crimson Trace name.
To be clear, those prices are MSRP. Retail will be lower.
ehhh they’re pretty darn nice, $399 is the most expensive model in the entire line, and for the most part they’re priced very competitively with major brands. For example, in the article I posted from the event, someone commented that these are basically priced at Trijicon RMR prices so he’d just go with that, and I replied “RAD Pro, which is the one that’s comparable in size to the RMR, is $299. RMR starts at like $459.” When they told us the MSRPs at the event, they were lower than I was expecting.
The CT Pro models also have the auto brightness adjust light sensor on the front, which is an advantage over many others on the market as it more correctly adjusts for the brightness of your target instead of for where you are (e.g. shooting from a shaded spot at a sunny target).
that was me talking about RMR. You can find the cheaper models, or the better models on sale, for a good deal less on sale. It remains to be seen if the street prices are significantly lower than MSRP. It also remains to be seen if CT made good products that will last a long time. I’ve heard some interesting horror stories about their micro sights already, so that’s got me a little gunshy about their product line. They went from laser grips to about a hundred skus of scopes and red dots out of nowhere in about 2 years time. That’s too much expansion without a legacy of quality for me to just throw money at without letting somebody else be the beta tester for a while. Even trijicon had problems when they started making the MRO and needed a good 80,000 out the door before they figured it out
So do the pro models with shake awake still also have the 8 hr auto shutoff feature?
Negative. They shut off if they’re totally still for a couple of minutes and come back on instantly if there’s any movement basically at all. But they do not turn themselves off to the point where you have to push a button to turn it back on. They only “sleep.”
CT made a point of saying that it doesn’t take much movement to wake it and it’s super freakin’ fast, as in there’s zero chance anyone could pick the gun up off a counter and look through the optic fast enough to witness it coming on haha.
Thanks for the reply, the product page says both which is confusing. The auto off stuff would be a deal killer so good to hear
A gunny sack full of skunks cleans out a room.
Love the dialogue string: “is the dog friendly” “does it look friendly” “bang, bang” “I’m not the ATF”
It looked like it was smiling! 🤷♂️
Did I miss something? Watched video but no mention of how they performed or differences between models or specs. ???
This wasn’t a review. Stay tuned.
what is the battery life of one of these in ‘sleep’ mode? Don’t want to be replacing batteries every 3 months.
In sleep mode pretty much indefinite. The 20,000 hour estimate is with an average amount of use. That’s over 2.25 years. I keep two CR2023 in my range bag and don’t change the battery on range use stuff until it fails, but for any red dot that I rely on for self defense or hunting I swap the batteries annually. Those coin cells are cheap.
Where are these manufactured? Asking for a friend.
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