I like to say I was raised on the Acog due to my time in the Marine Corps. Before that I had fired plenty of guns, but never used a serious optic. Then and now I love the Acog and in a perfect world, I’d toss one on every semi-auto rifle I own. However, this isn’t a perfect world, and Acogs are expensive, so are Aimpoints, Eotech’s and other high-quality optics. Sure they’re worth it, but I can’t afford and don’t need a high-end optic on every rifle. I still want an optic, and I don’t want a piece of crap. What I want is something like the Bushnell TRS 32.
TRS 32
Once upon a time red dots and optics, in general, were either cheap crap or expensive high-quality optics. Then, something great happened, optics reached a middle ground. These new optics were often foreign made, but actually decent pieces of gear. The TRS 32 is one of these optics. The TRS 32 isn’t designed to go to war but designed to be an optic for plinking and even hunting at close range.
It is a simple red dot design with a 32mm objective lens. The dot is 5 MOA and there are 11 brightness settings. The optic weighs a little over 8 ounces and comes with flip down caps. It has unlimited eye relief, and has multi-coated lenses.
The TRS 32 can be purchased for about a hundred bucks on Amazon, and it’s a solid little performer. Again it’s not a go to war optic. However, it is water, shock, and fog proof. My purpose for this optic was for an affordable little optic for one of my fun guns.
The Scorpion and the TRS 32
My Scorpion rifle is a fun gun, a 9mm carbine that is a blast to shoot. It’s not for home defense, and my war has already been fought, so fun it is. The TRS 32 mounts perfectly to the weapon’s rail and it’s high mount allows me to utilize the Scorpion’s low profile iron sights. I wanted a red dot just to plink and play with and the TRS 32 looked interesting at a solid price.
The 30mm is quite high, but any single 30mm mount would work. The clamp holds the mount on via 6 allen screws. I used a little loc tite to keep it secure. The TRS 32 takes a single CR2032 battery.
Dialing it into the Scorpion was simple and I used a dime to dial in the reticle. Each click is a full 1 MOA adjustment. These are broad adjustments, but it’s a close range red dot, so a precise ¼ MOA adjustment isn’t needed. Everything about the scope is simple.
Shooting
The 5 MOA dot is pretty easy to see in most environments. The 11 brightness settings do allow me to ratchet it up on sunnier days to still effectively see the dot.It performs like a red dot is expected to. It allows me to make quick and accurate shots, transition from target to target rapidly and offer the advantage of a dot reticule over iron sights.
The TRS 32 does red dot things. It does them pretty well for a 99 dollar optic. The optic doesn’t shift zero, and the mount works pretty well. A 9mm carbine doesn’t exactly stress an optic. So for testing, I strapped it to my Mossberg 930 SPX.
Worked pretty well, no shifts, no sliding, and no issues.
Nothing wrong here. A few rounds of 12 gauge buck and bird couldn’t dissuade it to stop working. Overall the TRS 32 is a pretty solid sight that is a good choice for those fun guns in your life. I wouldn’t mind it for hunting at closer ranges with an MSR either. It’s affordable, easy to use, and a solid contender for plinkers and hunting rifles.
