Save your money for the Aimpoint, it will pay for itself before you know it. The cheap sights will just suck money out of your wallet and drive you crazy, and youll just end up paying for the better sight down the road. If I had what I wasted on cheap red dots when I first started looking at them, Id have a couple more Aimpoints now.
Ive been running M2's/ML2's on both my AR's and AK's (and a couple of others) since they were the "new" model, and they are still going strong now for around 12 years of pretty steady use and abuse. They are like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep on going and going......
The Aimpoints also wont break the bank feeding their battery habit. Mine are pretty much "old school" now, and I leave them on 24/7/365, and change the batteries once a year. The new ones I believe, are up to about 9 years on a battery.
Also dont get caught up on one or the other. Get both. With lever mounts, you can have either at a flip of a lever or two, and swap them at will, with no lose of zero. I have one AR that usually wears a Leupold 1.5x5 on an old ARMS lever mount, and a back up, pre zeroed Aimpoint on an ARMS M68 mount. Best of both worlds.
