I've had aimpoint, battery life is great, but I think I prefer the reticle of the eotech. Any other pros or cons of either? Any thoughts on vortex red dots?

This is really tough to address, simply because it is very subjective.

Personal preference of mine is Aimpoint as well. I too enjoy the long battery life. I also like the fine 2 MOA dot. Very effective for close engagements and effective on target out beyond 100.

EOTechs are optimized for CQ more than intermediate range, but that is mostly because of the reticle. That 65 MOA ring is great for home defense, because whatever the donut is on, is basically where the round is going to go.

However at distance, the Ring was problematic for me. It seems more distracting than an aid to be effective.

I guess the best thing to do would be to determine, what you would be using it for the most.

Home Defense = EOTech. Accurate, Dependable, and very effective.
General purpose sight = Aimpoint. Also accurate and dependable, they take abuse very well. This is NOT an excuse to intentionally abuse your optics, but if were to be subject to heavy use, I would be taking the Aimpoint.

T1
done
discussion over

Ha! Charles thanks for the input, but I can't just type something with no explanation.

How would a vortex sparc II compare? I am kind of wanting a dual purpose, I realize I wont get the best of both worlds. Are the savings of the sparc II worth it over the aimpoint?

What will you be doing with the optic? I use an Aimpoint T1 in American Defense mount. Absolutely love the optic, I've never turned it off before and still going strong like the day I got it. It is on my self defense/ hunting/ SHTF gun so I want an optic I can put through hell and back and know that it will work every time. However if you're just using this as a plinking gun I'd look at the Primary Arms microdot. Same form factor as the T1 but a fraction of the cost. They test their optics on 50 Beowulf AR's and have great customer service. I actually run one of their micros on my 22LR upper almost exactly the same as the T1 except of course the battery life and durability but it will hold up to 223 plinking no problem.

Here is a pic of my regular SBR with my T1 on it and one of my 22LR upper with the PA micro on it.

Home defense/pigs.

I have run most of the sights on the market, including those listed here, and the EOTech are what's on my rifles. The 557 coupled with a FTS magnifier, allows engagement from 0 to 300+ very well, but there's nothing wrong with Aimpoint, especially 100 and in

I love my aimpoints. The battery life is the biggest pro for me.

aimpoint, the EOTech has too much going on for me and the battery life on the aimpoint is a plus too