My 5-25 Vudu Review My H59 reticle Vudu came in the mail yesterday, thank you Burdy here on the Hide for selling me one of your “extra ones”. If you don’t want all the nitty-gritty details skip right down to the
SUMMARY. Before I get to my observations, a little bit about me: 25 years ago in college I was going to school for photography as well as business, ended up going to a prestigious art school in Detroit for a few years where I learned a lot about camera lenses, (although most of the technical aspect is forgotten by now). While I don’t consider myself a lens snob I do prefer quality lenses over cheaper glass, but as I like to say, every scope fits functional needs for its price point, and some better than others. I probably owned more than three dozen scopes over the last eight or nine years, S & B, Minox, Steiner, Kahles, US Optics, Leupold, Hawke (airguns), Athlon, Weaver Fixed, IOR Valdada, Vortex, Burris Nightforce, SWFA, the list goes on and on. I have a lot of fun trying out different optics on different rifles.
There’s a Guardian match in TN I’m taking my son to this weekend, his first big bore, and I wanted to get this mounted quickly to use as our backup gun. He’s running
my DTA within S & B PM II 5-25 H59 reticle, and I wanted something similar ready to go on our backup DTA. I mounted it in 34 mm Badger Ordinance extra high rings and it sits at perfect cheek height for us.
EOTECH VUDU 5-25x50 H59 Packaged nicely, take a look at the photo of the packaging, it presents well and the shipping foam is more than adequate.
Accessories: sun shade (shown attached for overall length perspective in loading bench photo with EOTech box it came in), CR 2023 battery, elastic scope cap covers, throw lever, lens cloth, EOTech promotional stickers, manuals, etc. Also, for some reason they give an extra windage cap (maybe a packaging mistake?).
Clarity: this is probably the point most people are most curious about. It is definitely not up to S & B, Minox, IOR, US Optics (the “good” ones), even Kahles clarity. And at its price point, it’s not supposed to compete there. When I look at it side-by-side next to my S & B and Minox, the image is slightly “dull” on edge clarity, and lacks the contrast/punch of the higher-end glass. I would put it a tick under the nicer Nightforce, Steiner, Leupold, and Vortex. But definitely a step above my midgrade Athlon, Burris XTR II, SWFA fixed 16x. It does seem to lose just a little more clarity as you move up in the 22-25 range, but it’s miniscule compared to others I have and honestly, I think most of us competition shooters don’t shoot regularly in that zoom range anyway. One of the more amazing things is that it doesn’t tunnel AT ALL. I was half expecting this based on the size, but it’s just not there. Finally, I noticed no color aberrations in the glass. Everything came through color neutral.
Parallax/focus: turns smoothly, not too hard.
Eyepiece diopter adjustment: turns smoothly and more than adequate for my ailing eyes.
Illumination: push button rubber covered "nibs" on the outward end of the Parallax/focus knob. They don't interfere with focus so they're fine.
Zoom: another reviewer mentioned this, but it is somewhat wonky the entire eyepiece rotates. If you look at the photo everything from the numbers to the diopter adjustment ring rotates. Not bad, just different. Turning the zoom is smooth, just enough resistance.
Reticle: Horus H59 on this version. Edge to edge clarity of the reticle is excellent when diopter adjusted. At max 25x zoom the bottom of the reticle hits the 8MIL line. Fully opened to 5x shows the entire Horus reticle “tree”.
Knobs & Clicks: how do you describe something like this? When compared against my other high-end scopes it’s not too harsh and clicky, but not too muddy. Goldilocks would say it’s just right. The windage cap doesn’t bother me, since I’m running the Horus anyway. Regarding zero adjustments: it’s interesting to note, the windage you screw out & adjust with the coin, but the elevation is actually adjustable with your fingers. If you look in the photo, you actually screw out the tiny knurled piece near the top cylinder to pull up on the turret. Just a little different. I like that you don’t need tools, but then they should’ve set up the windage like that too. Maybe it had something to do with the zero stop, (which I’ve not played with yet). My elevation clicks line up perfectly with the index mark. After I had it zeroed, I dialed it straight back to 660 (my furthest target) and elevation was spot on. I’ll have to do more thorough box testing when I have more ammo and time.
Form factor: I know this is its big selling point. I like the small size and reduced weight for a 5-25.
SUMMARY If you’re going to be looking at this type of scope it’s obviously going to either be the H59 reticle, size or glass clarity. I think coming out of the gate EOTech nailed this one pretty good in those aspects. For its price point it definitely sits well in terms of glass clarity. Is it going to replace a higher-end optic: No. You still need to go into the $2700 - $3000+ range to get some of your best glass. But it definitely seems to be a step above what I would call similar price competitor, especially when you factor in the size and weight. I think it would be a perfect fit for long-range setup AR’s. For the price point and features I’d consider it a good deal on a nice 5-25.