This is a Spike’s Tactical 300 Blackout pistol with 8.5″ barrel. It delivers fairly impressive external ballistics, but it’s still an AR pistol and requires specific training for effective use. When a friend came by with a registered short barrel lower (also Spike’s by a pleasant coincidence), we put it together and the result proved very useful.
It is light and handy, especially with the short 20 round Lancer magazine. Having a stock makes using a scope practical. Given the short range purpose, the best scope would be an unmagnified, illuminated prismatic usable with either etched black reticle or red/green illumination.
Vortex Spitfire is “always on” as the etched reticle doesn’t require a battery for visibility. Unlike a real red dot, it does have a specific eye relief distance (with a generous eyebox), so having the stock is a big help. The optic has no knobs on the left, so the left eye isn’t occluded and binocular vision can be used during sighting. My only wish for the next version would be for the addition of a vertical reference line to avoid canting at longer ranges.
Folding metal sights of good quality are present, but the robust 1x optic makes them almost superfluous.
The model, Jordanne Calvin, was unfamiliar with firearms at the start of the photo shoot but was able to handle the short carbine competently after very brief instruction. That’s a good illustration of how easy the short, lightweight shoulder weapon with an optic is to use.
