The Holosun 507c V2-GR is the very first MRD (micro red dot) that I’ve purchased, on top of this fact, it’s the first optic I’ve ever mounted to a pistol. I picked it for a few reasons. First being the three reticle options. The second, most important one, is that I’m colorblind. With limited use, I’ve had issues with red reticles wanting to wash into the background for me. Since I have an easier time seeing green I figured this optic would be a good fit for me. The last and least important reason is the sideloading battery tray.
Before kickin’ things into gear it’s important to mention that this is an older model that has the enlarged vertical buttons. Newer models are going to come with smaller horizonal buttons that are, in my opinion, worse.
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The Review
With the Holosun 507c you’re going to be getting a nice hard plastic case inside of a white cardboard sleeve. Inside of the box you’re going to find the optic, picatinny rail mount, a cleaning cloth, an owner’s manual, as well as adjustment tool for the dials.
Specs
Height: 1.15 inches
Length: 1.78 inches
Width: 1.15 inches
Weight: 1.5 ounces
Body Material: 7075 T6 Aluminum
Finish Type: Black Anodization
Battery Type: CR1632
Battery Life: 50,000
Waterproof: IPX-8
Brightness Settings: 10 daytime, 2 night vision
Footprint: Trijicon RMR
Fortunately you don’t need the adjustment tool and you can use a small flat head screwdriver to the same effect. All around the Holosun 507c V2 comes with some pretty nice features for it’s price point. It has an auto-off feature, auto-adjusting brightness (that you can shut off), dual power via a solar panel on the top of the optic, and three different reticle options. It is important to mention that the solar power seems to require a dead battery to complete the circuit.
Windage & Elevation adjustments are 1MoA per click and can travel approximately 50MoA in range. Holosun claims that the optic has 1x magnification and is parallax free.
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The Reticles
With the Holosun 507c V2-GR you’re going to have the ability to cycle through 3 reticle options by pressing on the “-” brightness button for 3 seconds. Your choices are: 32MoA Donut (EoTech style reticle), 2MoA dot, or the 32MoA Donut with the 2MoA dot in the center.
From my research I was really enticed by the 32MoA Donut because it was supposed to be training wheels, if you will, for people transitioning over to optics on their defensive firearms. In my experience the 32MoA Donut and 32MoA Donut with 2MoA dot were counterproductive.
When it came to zeroing the pistol I had the hardest time using the aforementioned options at the 10 yard mark. For whatever reason (probably the novice-ness) I couldn’t zero the optic to save my life until I switched over to the 2MoA dot on its own.
After zeroing the optic I continued to struggle with the 32MoA Donut at ranges from 10-25 yards, in fact, at 25 yards I could not hit a 6″ steel plate to save my life (literally).
Once I switched back over to the 2MoA dot all of my issues went away. I was able to not only hit the 6″ plate at 25 yards with consistency, but I was able to begin building up my cadence.
Battery Life
To see how good the battery life was for the Holosun 507c V2-GR I never shut it off and I never changed the battery in over a year’s time. During this time I did have the auto-off feature enabled to be able to give that a test as well.
Running at the brightest setting for the better part of my ownership I’ve not had to change the battery out and the optic hasn’t just died on me when I went to check or use it. I’ve also not experienced any flickering.
The auto-off featured has also worked flawlessly. For one month of my ownership I let it sit undisturbed in my closet. Before touching I visibly confirmed that the emitter was off and as soon as it felt any movement it came to life.
Is It Parallax Free?
For those that aren’t familiar with the term, parallax is the effect when you look at the reticle from different angles, and the reticle appears to be in a different location from each different angle. While I don’t believe we will ever see a 100% parallax free red dot, the Holosun 507c V2 is definitely not parallax free at all. As I move my head around the the dot definitely does move around on the glass.
As you can see, sort of, in the reticle pictures. The optic was stationary in-between each of the pictures, yet the reticle moved around based on where it was in conjunction to the camera.
Also, getting pictures of reticles on a cell phone is difficult.
Is The Optic Magnified 1x?
As far as I am able to tell the Holosun 507c V2-GR is magnified 1x, but it’s nearly impossible to see that magnification if the target is ~5ft away or closer.
Reliability/Durability
When it comes to pistol mounted optics I’m far from an expert. I also don’t have a lot of disposable income to be able to brutalize optics to test how durable they are. At this point with JustPews I still rely on the information from other content creators & instructors. For optics specifically I only visit Aaron Cowan from Sage Dynamics. Aaron is the epitome of what a subject matter expert is, especially when it comes to testing optics.
So, to see how much of a beating this optic can take, here’s Aaron’s review:
Now that you’ve seen Aaron’s video, I’ll say that for the 600 rounds I have with this optic between two pistols I haven’t had any issues. I have not had any flickering, the auto-off feature has worked properly, and the auto-adjust has remained off.
That said I did have what I would consider a failure which can happen with all open emitter optics.
While zeroing the Holosun 507c V2-GR on the Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact it was raining fairly hard with the wind blowing against my back. At some point water had gotten inside of the glass in such a way that it was being hit by the emitter and refracting into other water droplets. This resulted in there being multiple dots and it was nearly impossible to figure out which dot was the actual reticle.
I would say this is an extremely rare occurrence while being used, but I can imagine it wouldn’t be too rare if it sat unguarded in a duty holster. Like I said before, this can happen with all open emitter optics, so if you’re open carrying for whatever reason, make sure there’s a hood over your optic.
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Conclusion
The Holosun 507c V2-GR is feature rich, I don’t think anyone can deny that. It uses the de facto industry standard footprint (Trijicon RMR) and it quite literally has all the features that all consumers are looking for in a carry optic. Beyond that, there’s one extremely important question I need to answer.
Did I, a colorblind shooter, benefit at all from the green reticle?
If you’re colorblind, you understand that two individuals with the same colorblindness will probably see the world differently. So, with red/green colorblindness (deuteranopia for the nerds out there) did the green reticle help at all?
I would say yes. From looking at the reticle into a field on a bright sunny day, to shooting in a storm, I haven’t had the green wash out on me at all.
If you aren’t colorblind I would definitely save some money and go with the standard Holosun 507c; whether or not the buttons will suit your fancy on the newer models is another thing.
Other pistol seen: Walther PPQ 5″ M2
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TacCat
Michael AKA TacCat got his start on Facebook as a meme lord while his original website took a backseat. After getting the zucc he decided it was time to get a new project started...