I’m well aware that several folks aren’t keen on Holosun solely based on the company’s national origin and the location of where they’re products are made. However, it’s very difficult, it not impossible, to objectively dismiss the fact that Holosun is producing high quality, durable, and reliable pistol mountable red dot sights at very attractive price points all while continuing to innovate at a faster pace than any other optics company I can think of. The highly anticipated 507COMP is which just hit the market and has virtually become unobtainium is no exception to that. I’m not kidding. This pistol mountable red dot sight is flying off the shelves and finding one in stock is quite the undertaking. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one and, well, here we are.
The Holosun 507COMP is the newest addition to the 507 series line up designed specifically for competitive pistol sports. It retains the durable multi-reticle pedigree of the 507 line up, but introduces a noticeably larger window and a brand new reticle. I’ll get into the details very soon, but for now, let’s just say it’s pretty freaking neat and is certainly living up to the hype that built up around. Is it the Trijicon SRO killer some folks are claiming? I don’t know that I would go so far as to call it that, but for some I suppose it could be just that. Heck, even Ben Stoeger had a little video on it saying the SRO was dead to him and that he would be buying 507COMPs instead whenever he needs another competition pistol optic at least until something better comes along.
The MSRP on this optic is $435 for the red variant and $470 for the green variant. The street price for the red one, which is the one I got my hands on, ranges from $370 to $435 with an average of $383. In the world of competition pistol mountable optics, that’s pretty competitive. Especially, when compared to the SRO which averages around $555. At this point, I’ll do my best to refrain from comparing the 507COMP to the SRO and save that topic for a future post.
Getting back specifically to the 507COMP, the complete package includes:
- A pretty basic plastic foam-lined box wrapped in a four sided paper-based sleeve,
- a manual for the optic,
- a warranty registration card,
- a lens cloth,
- four (4) pairs of Torx mounting screws of varying lengths,
- an installation and adjustment tool,
- the red dot sight with a preinstalled CR1632 battery.
As is the case with the other Holosun 507 series (and the 407 series) optics, that’s everything that one needs to mount the 507COMP to a milled slide or an optic mounting plate with an RMR footprint.
As one might guess, the 507COMP shares a lot of similarities with other 507 series optics. It is an open emitter design that uses the same housing material. The battery tray is located on the right hand side and allows the CR1632 battery to be changed without dismounting the optic. The windage and elevation adjustment dials are in the same locations as are the illumination control buttons. As such, I will refer readers to the reviews of the 507C and the 507K which cover those features in detail rather than hashing them out in this post again. Instead we will focus on the differences which are the window and the reticle.
I assume the lens is made and coated with the same materials used for the lenses for the other 507 series optics and perhaps even with the same processes. I don’t have a way of confirming this assumption, but I think it’s a safe one given the edge to edge clarity and the tinting look identical to my eyes. Nevertheless, that’s a subjective assessment with a fair chance of being incorrect. Regardless, the lens clarity, while not perfect, is very good. If one looks really hard, then one might be able to see a minuscule amount of distortion near the edges of the lens. It’s so slight that it’s hard to tell if the distortion is from a parallax effect, an ever so slightly higher than 1x magnification, or simply due to the way light bends through the angle of the lens. In all honesty, the distortion is virtually unnoticeable. The tint from the coatings does have an ever so slight bluish green (or maybe greenish blue) hue to it. Is it enough to matter? Perhaps, but it’s about the same amount of tint based discoloration that’s found on the other optics in this product line.
What is different about this lens is its size which measures 1.1″ wide and 0.87″ tall. Given its predominantly rectangular shape, it appears to be extra wide. Part of me wishes the lens would have been just a hair taller and by a hair I mean 0.05″ taller. My rationale for that wish is that I’m more interested in maintaining awareness of the dot’s (or reticle’s) vertical movement than having more lateral space. This desire may very well dissipate as I spend more time shooting with this optic, but this is a first impressions review after all and this wish materialized at the moment I looked through the optic while considering the types of competitions I partake in which are USPSA, Steel Challenge, and IDPA. With all that said, it’s a big window. Certainly big enough for a competition optic.
The multi-reticle system is new to the product line and was creatively named CRS which stands for Competition Reticle System. This reticle consists of a 2 MOA center dot, an 8 MOA ring, a 20 MOA ring, and a 32 MOA ring. Like the other multi-reticle systems in the product line, the reticle system can be configured in multiple ways. If one counts the combination permutations, there are a theoretical 15 possible combinations (or 16 if we include the all off combination). However, not all of the combinations are available as we are limited to eight configurations. I was initially bummed about this, but I got over it really quickly after cycling through the available configurations which requires pressing and holding the minus labeled button for three (3) seconds to switch to the next available configuration. That means that if you decide you want the previous reticle setting you will need to press and hold the minus button seven additional times which takes a minimum of 21 seconds. That gets really tedious really quickly. The available reticle configuration settings are as follows: 2 MOA dot only, 8 MOA ring only, 20 MOA ring only, 32 MOA ring only, 2 MOA dot and 8 MOA ring, 2 MOA dot and 20 MOA ring, 2 MOA dot and 32 MOA ring, and 2 MOA dot plus 8 MOA ring and 32 MOA circle.
I’ve been a big fan of the multi-reticle system available on the other 507 series optics for quite some time for a few reasons. First and foremost, the ability to turn everything but the center 2 MOA dot off makes it easier to dial in a very accurate zero. An accurate zero can be challenging and frustrating to achieve with larger dot only optics (which I tend to prefer) especially as the zero distance increases. Beyond that, being able to turn off the center dot and use the outer ring only can assist with running the pistol faster while maintaining acceptable accuracy so long as the targets remain within 25 yards which comes in quite handy in action pistol type competitions. Granted 25 yard head box A-zone hits can be a little sketchy. I still need to play around with the settings a bit, but I suspect I’m going to develop a preference for the 20 MOA ring only setting for IDPA and USPSA while developing a preference for the either 8 MOA ring only or the 2 MOA dot plus the 8 MOA ring for Steel Challenge.
The overall construction looks solid and I would be surprised if the HS507COMP turned out to be less durable than its other 507 series counterparts. However, I’m not about start torture testing this dot to find out. I’ll leave that to other folks. My plan is to continue running this optic on the Shadow 2 for the next few months at least. Assuming it continues to perform well for me, then there is a very strong chance I will use this optic at my next major USPSA match in mid October instead of the SRO. Time will tell.
Circling back to the 507COMP being the SRO killer? I’m not sure. I think it certainly has the potential, but I haven’t run it enough to cast a final vote on that. I will follow up with a comparison post between the two optics very soon which should help y’all start forming an opinion as to whether or not the 507COMP is the SRO killer for you. At this point in time, all I can say about the Holosun 507COMP is that it is promising to be a solid option for a competition pistol optic. If one is in the market for this type of optic and doesn’t want to cough up the dough for the SRO, then this is a good bet at a much better price. Frankly, even if one is in the market for an SRO, it’s worth giving this Holosun a good hard look.