I’ve used a lot of Swampfox optics over the years. They tend to offer excellent performance at a good value, and they back it up with solid warranty. One of the most recent sights I’ve been working with is the Liberator II dot sight. I picked this sight up in the summer and have been using it for around 6 months now, including on my 10mm PCC that I covered her on Shooting News Weekly back in October.
Let’s take a look at what it has to offer and how it’s performed.
The Liberator II
As the name implies, this is the second rendition of Swampfox’s Liberator sight. I have three of the original Liberators, one on my Solo 300 .300 Blackout pistol build, one on my 9mm CZ Scorpion SBR, and another on a .300 Blackout AR SBR. I’ve been running those for four or five years now and they’re still going strong. I just had the Solo and CZ out this weekend in fact.
The original Liberator had a battery life of 3,000 hours, which honestly isn’t a lot by current standards, although for regular range use it was never an issue for me. I replaced a battery last weekend, but I haven’t done it often. With that said, more battery life is always better and Swampfox is using a new generation of emitter technology on the Liberator II. That’s more than tripled the battery life with a current run time of 10,000 hours of constant use at a medium setting.
On top of that they’re also using what they call their Shake N’ Wake technology which is going to make that battery life stretch even farther. The optic will shut off after 245 seconds of being completely still. I didn’t time that to the second but it shuts off after a few minutes if you leave it alone.
The old Liberators shut off after four hours of inactivity and didn’t have the Shake N’ Wake feature. When you pick the gun up and the sight detects movement, it turns back on at the last illumination setting where you left it. So with 10,000 hours of steady on use, and the Liberator II turning off when you aren’t using it, you aren’t going to be changing batteries very often at all now.
The Liberator II comes in a couple of variations. You can get a red or green dot version with a 2 MOA dot, or a Multi-Reticle red dot version that offers four different options. I had the Multi-Reticle version for testing. You can have a single dot, an open circle with no dot, crosshairs, or a completed circle dot. Switching between reticles is easy. You just hold the up illumination button for three seconds at a time and cycle to the reticle you that want.
The new high-efficiency emitter on the Liberator II also has a crisper, more refined reticle than the previous generation. There are ten brightness settings, eight indoor/outdoor settings and two night vision device-compatible settings. Brightness levels are adjusted by the side-mounted push buttons on the left side of the optic.
The Liberator II uses a common T-2 footprint, and comes both a low mount and absolute co-witness mount. The mounts will work on any firearm with a top-mounted 1913 Picatinny rail.
What’s in the Box?
You get a nice package when you buy a Swampfox optic. The optic comes in a hard plastic, foam lined case that protects the optic, which is nice. You get the Liberator II optic itself, a CR2032 3V battery, a lens cloth, a set of flip up covers, a sight tool for installation and adjustment, both a high and low Picatinny mount, and a decent manual. Basically everything you need to mount the sight and be ready to go for the range.
Range Time
I mounted my Liberator II on a the 10mm build I did using a Foxtrot Mike lower half and Faxon upper parts. I used the high pic mount and ran with just the optic, no back up irons on this build. Installation was easy with the provided sight tool. When it came time to select a reticle, I ran with the circle and dot option for my testing.
My Liberator II was fairly close to point of impact at 25 yards with my 10mm. I had to do some minor adjustment, which was easy to do. The adjustment caps on the Liberator II have ridges in them so that you can adjust your windage and elevation settings with with the cap, no extra tools are required. Sight adjustment is one of the few areas where I give the Swampfox optics a ding. There are no positive clicks to tell you how much you’re adjusting the dials, so there is a little bit of guesswork there. It’s not a big deal, the dials move smoothly and I’ve never had an issue with sight in, but I do prefer to have positive clicks that I can feel when I do optics sight in.
Once I was sighted in, I proceeded to run my 10mm build through a series of drills. Okay, I’m lying. I mostly shot at reactive targets and cans. The reticle is crisp and bright and was easy to see against the dirt backstop of my range. Adjustment for light conditions is easy with the side mounted buttons and there was plenty of range available to adjust from dim light to bright sunny days. While I didn’t really do drills per se, I did do multiple target engagement moving between reactive targets. I’d also track them as they bounced and hit them again either while they were still moving, or when they’d come to rest. The circle dot reticle worked well for rapid target acquisition.
I used the Liberator II in conjunction with a 3x magnifier as well. It worked well for initial sight in, and when I did shoot groups from the bench. I used my old Vortex magnifier and it paired up perfectly with the Swampfox optic. While the base optic is crisp and works well at fast engagement, my 50something year old eyes appreciate that it works with a magnifier for shooting groups and further distances as well.
The optic would indeed shut off after a couple of minuets when left unattended. Which I appreciate since I frequently forget to turn off old generation sights and have ended up with a lot of dead batteries over the years. The Shake N’ Wake works perfectly though since every time I picked the PCC up again the sight was on when I went to use it.
Wrap Up
If you look at my various builds over recent years, you’ll see I have a good number of Swampfox optics on them. I have other optics from Aimpoint, Holosun, and other brands that I like as well, but when you’re outfitting a lot of builds that can get pretty expensive. One of the things I’ve grown to appreciate with Swampfox is that they offer a solid optic that works, at very affordable prices. The Liberator II is only $149.00 MSRP for the base Green or Red dot models and $189.00 for the Red multi-reticle version I tested. They have a great first responder discount if that applies to you too.
I’ve had good results with my Swampfox optics and the new Liberator II just improves on that with with better battery life, the Shake N’ Wake feature, and a brighter, crisper reticle. If you’re in the market for a new optic for your favorite build, and would rather not pay as much as much for it as you did for the gun to begin with, give Swampfox a try. They come with a lifetime warranty, and if you buy direct from them they even have a 30 day, full money-back guarantee. If you don’t like the optic for any reason they’ll replace it or refund your money. You literally have nothing to lose by giving them a shot.
Specifications: Swampfox Liberator II Red Dot Sight
Adjustment Click Value: 1 MOA
Dot Size: 2 MOA
Magnification: 1x
Lens Diameter: 22mm
Illumination Positions: 2 NV, 8 Daylight Visible
Brightness Adjustments: Up/Down Digital PressUp/Down Digital Press: 800Gs
Waterproof: 1 Meter/ IPX7Max
Battery Life: 10,000 hours with typical use
Dimensions: 2.55”(length) * 1.68” (width) * 1.62”(height)
Weight: 3.49 ounces (no mount)
Lens: Multi Coated Ruby Red
Shake ‘N Wake: Auto On / Off
Specialty Coatings: Anti-fog, hydrophobic, anti-scratch
Parallax: Parallax free beyond 33 yards
Eye Relief: Unlimited
Chassis: 6061-T5 aluminum
Windage/Elevation Movement Range (MOA): +/- 45MOA/ Total 90MOA Range
Included Mounts: Low Profile and Absolute Co-witness
Footprint: T2
MSRP: $149
If ya go with a SwampFox optic … because the question always seems to come up about where optics are made…
SwampFox optics are made/manufactured in China. ‘SwampFox’ (AKA SwampFox Optics, AKA SwampFox Tactical Optics) is the ‘American distribution direct-to-consumer brand name’ for products of a China OEM company (Shanghai Changhong Optoelectric). This OEM makes optics (and components) for many of the big name leading firearms optics companies (for example, the Vortex Diamondback Tactical FFP rifle scopes are made by Shanghai Changhong Optoelectric). SwampFox does have engineers and designers interactive in the design and manufacture of the optics. ‘SwampFox’ as a company entity of the Shanghai Changhong Optoelectric American branding, the company headquarters, is located in the U.S. in Englewood, Colorado and was founded in 2018. China OEM’s started doing the ‘direct-to-consumer’ thing many years ago, it bypassed the ‘middle man’ concept and lets the China OEM simply market their products directly under specific brand names, for example, Primary Arms optics are a China OEM optic. Today, 100% of all firearms optics on the market, at a minimum, contain some components that originated in China (yes, even those in use by the government, and big names like, for example, EoTech and Aimpoint).
Personally, based upon having been fortunate enough to have been able to procure many different optics for free including SwampFox optics and having been able to use them myself… If I were going to mount a SwampFox optic for regular general use, and including a ‘home defense role’, I’d choose their Raider 1×20 Micro Prism and not the Liberator II. The Liberator II does cost less than the Raider though and its actually a pretty good optic for the money.