Gideon Omega
The Gideon Omega is an RMR foot print red dot optic that aims to be a budget friendly alternative to other large windowed optics like the Trijicon SRO. In fact, because of its affordable price, its often referenced on reddit as being the SRO we have home.
Incredible features at a Budget Price point
Let’s talk about all of the good things about the optic first. The optic has a huge window, and thats the main draw of the optic in general. With a 27mm wide lens and measuring 22.3 mm tall, it is large enough that it is comparable to rifle mounted red dot optics. It definitely is a huge lens, and its only surpassed in size in my experience by the more expensive Bushnell RXM-300 which I’ve reviewed in another video. The glass on this optic is crystal clear, some of the best glass clarity I’ve seen on any red dot optic from any brand, budget or not.
Gideon Omega
An excellent value if you’re looking for a large windowed, competition focused pistol red dot on a budget.
- Affordable
- Huge Lens
- RMR Footprint
- Great Features
- Single reticle option
- Turrets could be more tactile
- Limited Turret Adjustment Range
Available with a 3MOA dot, or 45 MOA Circle with 3MOA Dot
The optics has a few different reticle options, red or green emitters with either a 3MOA dot or a 45 MOA circle with a 3 MOA dot. I ended up going with the green emitter 3 MOA dot surrounded by a 45 MOA circle.
Gideon Omega has an RMR Footprint with included Pic Rail Riser
The optic comes out of box with a 1913 Picatinny riser with RMR footprint, which allows you to mount the optic to rifles, which is where I think this optic is going to ultimate land for me personally, but more on that later.
Gideon Omega is one of the few budget options with shake awake
The optic does have a shake awake feature. It will shut off after 225 seconds of inactivity and jump right back in with any motion in a few miliseconds. I did test this and it was seamless in my testing. This is a rare feature on budget optics.
There is a trade off with the shake awake on my model. The optic shuts off after 12 hours of inactivity to ensure very long battery life, as in the optic won’t turn on again if you shake it after 12 hours until you press a button. I did speak with Gideon about this point and it turned out this issue only affects a single batch of optics. I’ll discuss that more later in the review.
The Gideon Omega is Lightweight and Waterproof
The optic is really lightweight but also really sturdy. It’s made with 7075-T6 aluminum and weighs in at only 1 ounce.
The optic is also listed as being IPX7 waterproof.
The Gideon Omega has a Lifetime Warranty
And if all that wasn’t enough, Gideon optics are backed by a lifetime warranty. They will replace the optic for any reason except for intentional damage.
Additional Features, descent turrets, multiple brightness settings, and a convenient battery location
Notably, the Omega has tactile 1MOA adjustment turrets. This is rare on budget optics, more kudos to Gideon for that.
The optic features 10 brightness settings, 8 day time settings and 2 night vision compatible settings.
The battery compartment is located on the top of the optic, so you won’t need to dismount the optic to replace the battery.
Gideon Omega Durability
I can’t yet speak to durability quite yet, initial reports from reddit users as far as I can tell have bene positive. I only have 1 range trip on this optic with it mounted on a pistol at the time of review. So my round count on the optic is exactly 100 rounds of 9mm. I also have run it through a USPSA style competition match where I shot about another 100 rounds. It held zero just fine so far, and i’ll update in the comments if I have any issues longer term. Because of the reticle, which I’ll talk about later in the video. I am moving this optic to a 300 blackout rifle as a backup sight on that rifle. So I will have some experience running this on two platforms.
Gideon Omega
An excellent value if you’re looking for a large windowed, competition focused pistol red dot on a budget.
- Affordable
- Huge Lens
- RMR Footprint
- Great Features
- Single reticle option
- Turrets could be more tactile
- Limited Turret Adjustment Range
The Gideon Omega is extremely affordable
Let’s get to the best part now, which is price. The Gideon Omega MSRPs for $269.99, but at the time of the writing of this article it is on sale on Gideon’s website for $229.99. Furthermore, it can be frequently found from online vendors on the r/gundeals subreddit for even cheaper. At these low price points, the gideon Omega is a really intriguing option.
Cons with the Gideon Omega
The optic isn’t perfect though, so let’s talk about the cons. The cons I have with the optic are really knit-picky, especially at the optic’s budget price. They don’t affect my recommendation of this optic, and I would actually say this is definitely the red dot to go with if you’re doing a budget range build because of all the Pros.
The Gideon Omega’s Turrets aren’t as loud and tactile as I’d like, it was hard to track the clicks on the firing line
For the turrets, I will say that they are functional and tactile, but the detent in them is a little weak. At an indoor range, I definitely could not hear the clicks given all the other noise. So adjusting by feel was a little difficult too as the feedback while turning the detent is not very strong. It’s also important to note that the flat blade profile is very thin. It is not compatible with a holosun adjustment tool, but was compatible with the included key, and the bushnell tool that I have. In a pinch the tip of a pocket knife would be fine as well. Again, super minor gripe on the turrets.
The model of Omega that I have had a 12 hour shutoff. This is no longer the case with newer models though.
As I alluded to earlier, the shake awake shuts off after 12 hours of inactivity, so you’ll have to re-activate it with a button press. This is a minor gripe, as it can make the optic problematic for concealed carry contexts if you aren’t used to turning the optic on from storage. If you conceal carry this optic, you’ll have to press the button after pulling it out of your gun safe as part of your process every time you holster. It is possible that you might forget this step if you’re in a hurry.
Again, this can be completely eliminated if you make it a part of your process to check your dot before holstering daily, which honestly is a good practice that you should be in the habit of doing anyway, so like I said, very minor gripe.
Gideon explained that this was built into the LED hardware made by a third party supplier. They have since updated the design in future releases of the optic so it only affects this particular batch of Omega optics. Gideon has great customer service and if a customer is concerned about the 12 hour shut off, you can contact Gideon and they’ll arrange a replacement.
As of the writing of this article, but after the above video was edited, Gideon’s latest batches no longer have this 12 hour shutoff, so this will not be an issue on newer batch optics.
The Gideon Omega has a fairly limited adjustment range
The last con that I have noticed is that the optic by default is centered elevation and windage wise from the factory but can only be adjusted 45MOA in any direction. This is about the equivalent of a max adjustment of just over 5 inches at 12.5 yards.
What I found was that out of box, the reticle was adjusted pretty high up versus my point of impact. I walked the dot in shooting from a resting position. The turrets definitely work and I was able to get dialed in. However, for a absolute cowitness, I was at the maximum adjustment setting, and this was on a pistol that has an extremely low height over bore. I was running this on a brownell’s optic with RMR cut, which has recoil lugs and is cut to be as low as possible. This is what I love about Brownell’s slides. They cut them maximally deep to just above the extractor, allowing you to cowitness with low irons.
But what that means is that if you mount this on something with a higher height over bore, like a shallower direct slide cut, or even a plate system, I’m not sure that you’d be able to achieve an absolute cowitness.
Now this isn’t a problem if you’re a fan of suppressor height backup sights, which is by far most popular. Something I’ve been doing lately, although, I haven’t done it yet on this build, is replace the sights with the lowest possible profile to maximize my window, so blacked out dawson precision sights have become a staple on most of my guns, or running low profile red dots like the Holosun EPS with standard height factory sights on a direct slide mill. This allows me to co-witness my red dot exactly with point of impact without irons obscuring my sight picture. The irons truly become backups, and it is much like running no irons at all for dynamic shooting. Although most of you run suppressor height sights and adjust the dot to be intentionally above point of impact. If that’s the case it won’t be a problem for you.
Again this is a minor gripe, as I technically was able to get the optic to cowitness with point of impact, but with other typical slides this might not have been possible with a 10 yard zero.
Okay, so that’s it for the cons guys. They’re very knit-picky.
Gideon Omega
An excellent value if you’re looking for a large windowed, competition focused pistol red dot on a budget.
- Affordable
- Huge Lens
- RMR Footprint
- Great Features
- Single reticle option
- Turrets could be more tactile
- Limited Turret Adjustment Range
Personal Preference: I would choose the dot model over the Circle Dot if running on a competition pistol
Now this is not a con, I would classify this as personal preference, but I don’t really like the circle dot running on a pistol. The reticle is noisy for close range pistol shooting, and for that purpose, I should have just picked up the regular dot model. But for rifles this reticle makes a lot of sense. I was going to run this in a match that I have later this month, but I decided against it as I found a use case where I think this optic will really shine.
How the Gideon Omega compares to other Budget Red Dots
I was interested in the green circle dot model primarily because I wanted to see if it would work well with my astigmatism. In my experience in a different review video, the Cyelee wolf 2 worked great with my astigmatism, and i had that mounted as a backup dot on my AR-10. That is true of this optic as well, its great for my astigmatism. Which made me realize this would be the perfect backup option on a different AR based build.
In another view video I’ve reviewed the Holosun 507C. Holosun optics have a 32MOA circle. Even on the holosun optics, I generally found myself turning off the outter circle because it obscures close targets. At 45 MOA, the circle on this optic is larger. That made it difficult to shoot very precision with my pistol. For similar reasons, I don’t like large dot 6MOA optics. My preference is 2-3 MOA generally. But if you think about it, the 45MOA is perfect for rifle builds, as 45MOA correlates to nearly 4 feet at 100 yards. Therefore that can be used to roughly gauge distance on a rifle or pistol caliber carbine.
The Gideon Omega is a great choice as a CQB Rifle solution backup
So as I said earlier, I think this optic makes a lot of sense as a fast close range solution on an LPVO equipped rifles.
Conclusion
So overall, I really like this optic. This particular optic was provided to me by Gideon for free for this review, but I will most likely pick up another one at my own expense with just the regular dot for my pistol. It definitely is a contender if you’re on a budget and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this pistol for range usage. If you’re looking for a heavy, duty usage optic, you will probably want to spend a little more money than this. However for most civilian contexts, and that is where Gideon is really trying to corner the market, this is a great option and definitely a contender to consider.
Gideon Omega
An excellent value if you’re looking for a large windowed, competition focused pistol red dot on a budget.
- Affordable
- Huge Lens
- RMR Footprint
- Great Features
- Single reticle option
- Turrets could be more tactile
- Limited Turret Adjustment Range
A note about Gideon from the Bible
I want to make one last note about Gideon optics and that is the branding. I wanted to separate that out from the merits of the pistol red dot itself. Gideon is a company that is open about their faith and here at CRACKSHOT.tv we have to really commend that. In an era where there is pressure to remain silent, Gideon puts their belief front and center unapologetically.
I want to take this last minute to remind you about who Gideon from the Bible was as I think its deeply encouraging.
Judges 6:12 “When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
and then further in Judges 6:15 this is Gideon’s response
“And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”
Gideon is a reminder to us as Paul clarifies in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
Our Message to the 2A Community, Don’t Lose Focus on What Matters Most in Life
And the reason I bring that up is this, the 2A community gets this wrong. We’re so focused on the physical aspects of strength as if preparing for what could happen or could be is life’s greatest pursuit. Yet we are in a fight today, a real war, one that cannot be seen but has been raging since the creation of the world. God has a purpose for each and every one of his people. Most aren’t tier 1 operators. That is okay, your identity and self worth isn’t wrapped up in how bad of a dude you are, its in how sincerely humble and after God your heart is. If you are a Christian, your battle is not of this world, it is to slam back the gates of hell through the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I do appreciate this about companies like Gideon optics for that reason. Let’s do it in our own lives as well.
