UPDATE : 3/18 Since reviewing this optic, it has started losing zero
I just got back from the range this weekend with this optic still mounted on the PSA Dagger. This is my third range trip with this optic installed, it was doing great prior. I’d estimate that I have about 250 rounds through the gun so far. The dot appears to have started drifting towards the end of the shooting session. The shift was difficult to tell, but noticeable towards the end of the range session. It appears that it might have a very similar problem to what I had with the swampfox liberty model (that looks extremely similar to this except for slight body style differences), which started not holding zero at around 500 rounds, and the problem got worse and worse until it was jumping a couple MOA every shot. I will re-zero, and will update here again the next time after my next range trip.
UPDATE 4/30: After taking this out to the range again this past weekend, the optic shuts off after each shot. I’m now relegating it for usage on my SIRT 110 as an optic to use for dryfire.
Cyelee Wolf Pro : Can It Kill Holosun?
The cyelee wolf pro is marketed as a higher tier offering from the Cyelee red dot lineup. At a $186 price point, it is competitively priced with other RMR pistol optics on the market. But how well does it stack up against the competition? Today we’re going to give our honest and unbiased review of this pistol optic.
Optic was Provided by Manufacturer for Review
Now full disclosure, Cyelee provided this optic to us for free for testing. Manufacturers will sometimes send us free stuff to get our opinions on it, but we are in no way compensated by the manufacturer for reviewing their products. Our goal is to make sure we educate consumers on products well, and while we can’t afford to review every product that comes on the market, it is helpful when a manufacturer sends us something for free. 95% of products featured on our channel or blog we purchase out of pocket. We don’t have a relationship with Cyelee outside of agreeing to review this product. We do our absolute best to structure things in a way that we can remain unbiased.
Coupon Code for CRACKSHOT.tv Viewers and Readers
That said, Cyelee gave us a coupon code to provide to our viewers that will include 15% off if purchased on Amazon. You can use code this code on either the Wolf Pro in this video, or the Wolf 2 used in last week’s video. Use code CRACKW15 to get 15% off. We don’t get anything from Cyelee if you purchase. We do have an affiliate partnership with Amazon for products purchased using our links, but this is a general affiliate relationship with Amazon and completely separate from Cyelee. We have no formal or financial ties to Cyelee.
Cyelee Wolf Pro
Use code CRACKW15 to get 15% off
Does this beat the cheaper Cyelee Wolf 2?
Okay with all that out of the way, lets get onto the review. So last week we reviewed the cyelee wolf 2, which I actually really, really liked, especially at the price point of $117. The Cyelee Wolf pro cost almost $70 more, so is it worth it?
It may or may not be for you, but lets dig in to what we like and don’t like about the optic.
What you get with the Cyelee Wolf Pro
So lets talk about first impressions first. The cyelee wolf pro is an RMR footprint optic. Its marketed as a budget red dot option that punches above its weight. So it made sense to test this out on one of my favorite pistols that you’ve seen in tons of my videos, the PSA dagger, which is a budget pistol that also punches above its weight.
One of the nice things about the Cyelee Wolf pro is they include a ton of screws for a variety of different mounting situations. I was shocked. So many screws. One unique thing was this set of screws which is wider to fill the mounting holes in the optic, but threaded on bottom to fit tight to the slide. I’ve never seen mounting screws like this, but these make a ton of sense.
A little bit of blue loctite on the screws, and a sidebar, I started using the loctite stick blue loctite, and it is so much better than the liquid stuff. We were off to the races.
Range Performance of Cyelee Wolf Pro
So I took the wolf pro to my indoor range, and I have to say, my first impressions were good. The optic performed well. I ran a variety of drills throughout the night. The optic never lost zero. It was actually near zeroed out of box, similar to the way Holosun ships their optics. I don’t know if that was coincidence or if that’s standard practice for cyelee, but it was nice to have a dot that wasn’t miles off from the get go.
Glass Clarity on Wolf Pro is Quite Good
I might be crazy here, but I think the glass clarity was slightly better on the wolf 2. Don’t get me wrong, the glass is plenty clear, but I remember being like jaw dropped by how clear the wolf 2 glass was. The wolf pro is still very clear, and it could just be that I was looking at a USPSA target versus a paper target, but still, props for very clear glass.
Similarity with other more expensive optics
Once you got behind the optic, I immediately has some deja vu with the Swampfox Liberty & Justice models. I had to do a double take and rewatch my old video. The optics look different from the front, but they are very similar when you get behind the glass. There are some major design differences in the bodies, but there is also another striking similarity that i’ll highlight in the video.
Durability and Manufacturer testing of the Wolf Pro
Overall, verdict is still out on how well this will hold zero over time. Cheaper red dots mounted to pistols have a tendency to shake loose the emitter over time. Cyelee’s rep told me that these are simulated recoil tested to 1500 repetitions at 1500 Gs. In the wolf 2 video, I showed this table that i found online showing a conversion of Gs to common rifle loads, so if the Cyelee testing is accurate they are testing it at an intensity much higher than what you’d experience from a pistol. I do have several mags of ammo through this, but less than 250 rounds. I’m going to continue to keep this mounted on my Dagger and I’ll probably run this in my next USPSA practice match.
I will post an update for you if I have any reliability issues as I do in all my videos if after filiming I run into a problem, so check for a pinned comment if this ends up being the case.
Performance of the Wolf Pro
The optic performed well. Running bill drills I was able to pick up the dot fast enough and transitioning between A zone boxes was easy. Overall, it performs as well as any of my other red dots including higher end options in terms of usability. The optic is fairly low profile and minimalist. The body is pretty average in thickness, it doesn’t sit low enough that you could cowitness standard height sights, like say the Holosun SCS or EPS models, but the overall profile is fairly sleek.
Nice Features of the Wolf Pro
The optic does have some nice quality of life things that are upgrades over cyelee’s other offerings. The battery pull out tray is a really nice conveinece thing. While the unscrew top battery system on the Wolf 2 is also convenient, battery tray implementations like those found on Holosun or the Sightron SRS-2 are ultra convenient.
Body is Designed to Protect Glass while Taking a Beating
The shape of the body is also a smart design. It has a slightly curved front. The curved design hypothetically prevents damage to the glass since the glass is recessed further back. It actually reminds me a bit of Vortex’s defender line in that design choice.
Wolf Pro Setting Lock Feature
The pro model also has a unique setting lock feature for the red dot setting. Pushing both buttons at the same time will lock the brightness to your preferred brightness setting. This is supposed to help prevent the optic settings form changing during concealed carry. This is a unique feature that I honestly haven’t seen on other optics, but its like a solution seeking a problem. I’ve never once accidentally unintentionally bumped the brightness buttons on any of my other optics in multiple years of concealed carry.
Wolf Pro Turrets are the weakest point on the optic
The last thing to discuss here are the turrets. I’m not a fan of the turrets, and I wasn’t a big fan on the wolf 2 either. The turrets are set up very similarly to Swampfox’s Liberty and Justice models, or Primary Arms Classic series red dot. They do have flat blade adjustment which I like versus some obscure sized allen wrench. However, click adjustment is always preferable to no clicks. The marketing sells these as being infinite MOA.
Click Adjustments are better than “Infinite MOA”
Let me make the case for click adjustments. You want clicks to correlate to MOA adjustments so you can have repeatable elevation and windage adjustments. Now granted, you aren’t changing these values on the fly for a pistol. However, having click adjustments makes it very easy to zero if you know what you’re doing. You can hypothetically fire a group, do some algerbra, adjust, and if your optic is accurate you’ll be spot on the next grouping. Not having clicks means you have to fire a group, guess, fire another group, guess again, fire another group, and waste a lot of ammo walking the dot into zero.
On a pistol red dot, typical 1/2 MOA adjustments correlate to 1/2 an inch at 100 yards, 1/4 at 50, 1/8 at 25, and therefore 1/16th of an inch at 12.5 yards, which is about where you want to zero the pistol to a 50 yard maximum point blank range with most grains of 9mm.
So the only way “infinite” MOA would really make a difference is if you’re a precision shooter who needs to be able to adjust more precisely than 1/16th of an inch. That said, it doesn’t matter much once you’re zeroed.
Conclusions on the Wolf Pro, Does it Kill Holosun?
Other than that though, I do like the optic for the price. Cyelee does seem to provide pretty descent value optic at an affordable price. I would say this is most comparable to Swampfox’s offerings, except the Cyelee offering has a few better features like the side battery compartment and the body design. It definitely beats out the Primary Arms RMR offering, which I’ll review in a future video.
I will say though, if you have the extra money and you’re buying for a carry gun, consider the Holosun 407C, as it doesn’t cost much more and it is a duty proven optic. If you’re putting this on a range gun, give this a try, or potentially even consider the Wolf 2 red dot I reviewed in another video.
I don’t think Cyelee’s offerings kill holosun for EDC or Duty usage. However, they are a good alternative if you want to save money across a collection of range pistols. This is where Cyelee really shines.
Overall I plan to keep mine and I look forward to running it in a few local practice competition matches. I hope this video was helpful to you, if it was please consider subscribing. Check back next week for another great video. Have a great day!
Cyelee Wolf Pro
Use code CRACKW15 to get 15% off
