Description
The Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot is item 180092, and the single most important thing to know about it is what it does not have: there is no BDC dial on this one. They build a near-identical sight that does ship with a bullet-drop-compensating elevation dial, and the two are easy to confuse.
Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot versus the BDC version
Both sights share the same 34 mm tube body in black, the same 1 MOA dot, the same battery, the same adjustment range and the same supplied mount. The only published difference is the elevation turret. Item 180092 has plain finger-click elevation with a resettable index ring. Item 180093 arrives with a BDC dial calibrated for holdover.
Buy this one if you intend to zero it and leave it alone. Buy the BDC version if you want a ranged dial on top. Nothing on the outside of the box makes the difference obvious, so we are spelling it out here.
Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot: dot, glass and adjustments
The Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot is a second focal plane red dot with a 1 MOA dot, illuminated across eight brightness settings from a push button. The illumination is rated daylight bright but not night vision compatible.
Adjustments are 1/4 MOA finger clicks in both planes, with 80 MOA of total travel each way. That is 23 MIL, or 233 cm at 100 metres, and 15 MOA per revolution. There is no locking dial; you rezero by resetting the index ring.
A CR2032 runs the sight for a published 1600 hours on low, 1000 on medium and 300 on high. Motion Sensor Technology switches the illumination off after five minutes without movement and restores it the instant the rifle is handled.
Size, weight and the mount
The sight weighs 6.9 ounces on its own, 5.43 inches long, with 3.27 inches of total mounting space split 1.22 inches front and 0.84 inches rear. Objective and maintube are both 34 mm, the objective housing is 1.64 inches across and the eyepiece 1.54 inches.
The mount is included. There is no published combined weight for the sight with its mount fitted, so we are not going to estimate one for you. Eye relief is unlimited, as with any reflex or tube-style sight.
Honest notes on the Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot
This is a 34 mm tube sight, not a slide-mounted reflex. There is no published footprint standard for it, because it does not sit on a footprint. It goes in the supplied mount, on a flat top receiver. If you were hoping to put it on a pistol slide cut for an RMR or DeltaPoint pattern, this is the wrong optic.
There is also no published housing material for this model. Retailers list one anyway. We will not print a figure the manufacturer does not state, on this or any other spec.
One more caution. There is a third Freedom RDS page on the manufacturer site, a discontinued item measuring 5.27 inches rather than 5.43. It is neither this sight nor the BDC version, and old reviews written against it do not describe what you would receive here.
Who this sight suits
AR builders who want a dot with a mount already in the box, hunters working inside a couple of hundred yards, and anyone who prefers a 1 MOA dot for precision over a coarse dot for speed. It is designed, machined and assembled in the USA and guaranteed to perform for life.
Skip it if you need night vision compatible illumination, a pistol footprint, or an elevation dial you can spin to a known range. The last of those is exactly what the BDC version is for.
Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot full specifications
- Item number: 180092
- Reticle: 1 MOA dot, illuminated
- Magnification: 1x
- Focal plane: Second focal plane
- Objective and maintube diameter: 34 mm
- Click value: 1/4 MOA elevation and windage, finger click
- Total elevation travel: 80 MOA (23 MIL, 233 cm at 100 m)
- Total windage travel: 80 MOA (23 MIL, 233 cm at 100 m)
- Per revolution: 15 MOA elevation and windage
- Rezero: resettable index ring; locking dial: no
- BDC dial: not included on item 180092
- Battery: CR2032
- Battery life: 1600 / 1000 / 300 hours low / medium / high
- Brightness settings: 8, push button, daylight bright, not night vision compatible
- Motion Sensor Technology: five minute auto-off with motion wake
- Weight: 6.9 oz, sight only
- Total length: 5.43 in
- Total mounting space: 3.27 in (1.22 front, 0.84 rear)
- Objective length: 1.58 in; objective diameter: 1.64 in; eyepiece diameter: 1.54 in
- Eye relief: unlimited
- Mount: AR-specific mount included
- Housing material: not published by Leupold
- Warranty: lifetime guarantee
Manufacturer specifications are published by Leupold. Compare it with the rest of our optics range before you decide between this and the BDC model.
Ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop. The Leupold Freedom RDS 1×34 Red Dot carries the lifetime guarantee, with no warranty card and no time limit.
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