Just bot one for one of my sons. Comes with caps and mounts.
Check all the Athlon scopes, I have 5 of their H1]ARGOS BTR GEN2 6-24×50 APMR FFP IR MIL it has a small dot for center in the reticle. and they are awesome, also, your looking for so much stuff on your AR, are you going to war, keep it simple, I also have a Arken Zulus 5-20 with range finder , it's really awesome, one shot zero, day or night and automatically adjust your cross hairs for yardage, no need to figure out what to adjust, put in your ballistic info in it's program and it's all done for you in a second. Check them out. with inferred range finder. Shot chipmunks at 20 yds., and 80 yards very accurate.
You want to much from one rifle, do a thermal on another AR in 223 or 6.5 Grendel. My SHTF AR is a 18" LWRC dmr M4A6 with a 1x6 HD SWFA with Dudeck Defense 45°offset iron night sights, the best quality b.u.i.s made imo. SWFA cantilever mount is very good for the money as well. A LPVO in 8x or 10x would be better though imo. The blueforce gear Victor's 2 pt sling is the only sling to consider. If you can afford it, the 2x10x30 Mark 5 M5C3 would be the best optic to put on any AR. For cheap SWFA 1x6 HD or a Vortex Strike Eagle or Tango MSR.
Second this! My elite tactical SMRS II Pro 1-6.5 is a great piece of glass on my go to AR. I think I paid 600 used with a badger mount. I also have a sig 556 with a Trijicon accupoint and the SMRS compares easily with it if not better. For a less expensive build I run a Swampfox arrow head 1-10 and their Justice RDS in a 45 offset. Its not bad (and they have a good Mil/LE discount). It's really only at extremely low light that it can't keep up with any of my more $$$ glass. Son runs a Strike Eagle and he says the Swampfox is better to his eye. If I read the OP correct, for a dialable optic on a student budget, I'd probably look at the primary arms SLx series. The 1-8 and 1-10 are both on sale right now.
