Vortex Venom performance when wet?

[kythunter]

Okay guys I'm thinking about putting a Vortex Venom on my 870 20ga. I've researched lot's of posts and reviews.
Lots of option for mounting to gun I get that and actual performance of the sight seems great. What concerns me is performance when wet.
For example crawling on a gobbler in a green field with the dew still on. Your gun and sight are going to get wet.
With or without a cover if the screen gets moisture on it either rain or dew does it affect the performance?
Can you see red dot if water drops are on the "screen" or does it distort the dot?
Any problems with fogging?

[howl]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDpL35xfPFY

[2Shooter]

It's not the lens you have to worry about it's the emitter where the red dot come out of!!! A drop of water on the emitter, will make it look like you have a star burst of red dots!!! I have 1 Vortex Venom, and 7 Burris FastFire III's! They are both really good sights, but I like the see through cover on the FF3, so I would go with the Burris FF3 for that reason!!!

[GLS]

Steve, what surprised me in the video was that water was sloshed all over the top of the Venom and the dot remained undistorted. Is the emitter on the Venom covered preventing distortion? The FFIII sure isn't covered. Gil

[kythunter]

The link took me to a video of the Trijicon RMR. There is a video of a Venom being submerged in a barrel of water with no problems afterwards.
From what I've read the Vortex is waterproof with o ring protection, the Burris FF3 is too I believe.
I'm curious about real hunting experiences in the elements. I don't want to spend $225-300 for a sight setup and have it fail during a hunt.
I understand that anything with batteries can fail but want to know about the durability/performance when wet.
Thanks

[guesswho]

I've hunted mine in the rain several times with no issues. I usually put the cover on it and remove it if I need to shoot. Worse case is I have to take a glove and wipe the lens, like you would a scope of water is on it. But performance wise I've had no issues at all.

[2Shooter]

Gil, that got me wondering what would happen to the FF3, and the Venom if the emitter got water on it. I saw a guy that got happy with spray gun oil, and got it on his emitter on a FF3. Looked like 10 red dots. So I took a Q-tip, and keep putting water on the emitter of both sight till I had a puddle of water in front of the emitter. Both had what looked like fuzzy little tiny dot images, but the red dot was still just as big, and bright!!! The only thing I noticed different was the Venom you couldn’t see the red dot on the bottom 1/3 of the lens with the water on it. Looked fine every where else. Go figure I know there is a difference in oil, and water but I thought it would do the same thing!!! I know if the emitter gets to much dust, or pollen on it it will cause the red dot to get fuzzy looking. You can’t go wrong with either sight!!! I like both of them, I just like the see through cover on the FF3. But I also like the 10 manual adjustments on the Venom.

[GLS]

Another wrinkle to consider is the refractive index of water affecting dot placement on the window. The refractive index of air is 1 followed by a string of zeros and after the zeros, numbers. Water is 1.33. Whether or not a small drop of water is enough to shift the dot affecting aim is something I am not interested in experiencing. As you do, I leave the cover on in wet conditions. There's enough to worry about with a bird out front than to add another layer on top of it. Gil