TFB Review: I Tried To Destroy My Riton Optics 3 Tactix EED

It says it there in the title and long story short, I haven’t killed it yet. Today we’re talking about a familiar yet new(ish) face to the enclosed red dot world – the Riton Optics 3 Tactix EED (Enclosed Emitter Dot). This optic is new for Riton but may be familiar to those who are also familiar with Nutrek Optics who is the OEM manufacturer for both the new 3 Tactix EED and Viridian RFX45 Enclosed Green Dot. While I think it’s personally fair to call the two optics more or less the same, they do differ in a few ways besides the color of the dot, and to better showcase those differences I was able to get Riton Optics to send me a copy of the EED for testing and evaluation. After testing some of the most durable products in optics like the new Trijicon RCR, and RMR HD, I wanted to see what a more “budget-friendly” option like the EED could offer me as a pistol shooter. Country of origin aside, I think it’s worth testing out the EED to see what it’s capable of and how it holds up to my level of destructive range antics.

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As previously mentioned, there is no denying that the 3 Tactix EED and the Viridian RFX45 bear a striking resemblance to one another. However, while the RFX45 features fancy lightning cuts, one included mount and uses a green emitter, the EED comes with two mounts to adapt its Native ACRO footprint to either Glock MOS or RMSc. In addition, the EED also features a more efficient red-colored dot and comes in at a full $110 less than the RFX45.

The 3 Tactix EED is priced very reasonably at $349.99 directly from the Riton Optics website. I chose to mount mine on my Glock 45 MOS pistol and the mounting process was pretty straightforward as Riton not only includes the correct adapter plates but also sets of hardware pre-treated with thread locker.

The buttons are simple and easy to use, have satisfying clicks to them to indicate that you’re actually adjusting the brightness of the optic, and also feature fairly good glass clarity for an optic manufactured in China. The coatings have a slight blue tint similar to a Holosun optic and the window has very little distortion even around the edges of the optic’s fairly small 21x15mm objective lens. The dot brightness gets fairly low making it pretty easy to use during overcast or other low-light situations, but feels somewhat lacking on the brighter end of settings with other enclosed red dots like the RCR, ACRO, and MPS handily beating its maximum output.

Myself and fellow TFB Writer Lucas D took our handguns to the range and did a healthy series of drills with them and this is where a majority of my testing took place. In total, I have probably 500-750 rounds shot with the EED, but I’ve also taken the optic beyond the shooting range and banged it up real good against the bed of my truck, on some steel plates, and even submerged it in water for a bit to test out it’s enclosed capabilities. I’m pleased to report that the optic is properly purged and sealed off so water and dust ingress shouldn’t be a worry.

The optic managed to stay zeroed, on target and secured to my pistol throughout the entire first two range sessions I had with it. Getting the dot zeroed on the pistol was easy enough and the optic features 1 MOA windage and elevation adjustments meaning that like other enclosed red dots, it’s optimized for pistol use rather than carbine use. However, if you do happen to mount one of these on a carbine to use as an offset red dot, it will likely get exposed to a lot more abuse and that’s why I took my EED red dot and smashed it around a bit.

The results of this beating turned out better than I expected. The optic remained on, and the glass was well protected from all the impacts I subjected it to while it was on the pistol but unfortunately, the thread locker wasn’t capable of keeping the included MOS plate secured to the pistol. The only reason we noticed this was because we had knocked the optic and pistol around a bit, and then quickly returned to shooting. Right around the end of our range session we finally determined that the optic would need to be re-seated, and re-treated with Loctite. Since then, the optic has been re-mounted and works as intended with just a few extra dings and scratches on it.

The Riton Optics 3 Tactix EED isn’t the fanciest, most durable, or even the most affordable enclosed red dot out there (that prize goes to the Swampfox Kraken at $250). The EED does, however, offer you a versatile option that already includes two of the most popular mounting footprints out there, and also holds up to average everyday range abuse, and then a little extra. I certainly wouldn’t swap this optic out for any of my Holosun or Trijicon carry optics, but some of my other range pistols that are lacking optics will likely keep using the 3 Tactix EED until it dies – which might take a lot longer than I initially expected.

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