Chad Wallace

November 21, 2021

Review, Swampfox, Red Dot, Green dot, RMR

Swampfox Liberty green dot

Chad Wallace

November 21, 2021

Review, Swampfox, Red Dot, Green dot, RMR

Swampfox has been making a name for themselves over the last few years. Over these years, they have been greatly improving their optics lineup. One of these is the Liberty green dot, an open reflex mini-sized dot sight. The Liberty is a welcomed improvement over their previous mini red dot. It is essentially a new streamlined, updated, and improved version.

The Liberty covers all the normal bases when you think of a mini red dot, or green in this case. It’s small (size below under FNBs). It uses a RMR mounting footprint. The RMR footprint is what I think should be a standard. Because of this footprint, many aftermarket companies make pre-cut slides for most of the popular pistols out there. Making it an easy process to get the sight mounted up and in use. It also gives various mounting options for if you were to use it on a rifle. The Liberty is made from 7075-T6 aluminum, and then anodized. Pretty typical in today's market. Of course it has no magnification, or 1x, and is parallax free. The window size is 16x22mm, which works well for something like a carry pistol.

Besides all the “normal” mini dot stuff, the Liberty has some useful upgrades. First off, it is a green dot. Yes, you can also get red if you like, but this one is green. The dot is 3 moa, a really good size for a pistol. It has 10 brightness settings, all accessed by 2 recessed buttons, on the left side of the sight. Swampfox also put a CR1632 battery in a top mount, so no pulling the sight off to change the battery.

Auto on/off is one of the best improvements Swampfox made to the Liberty. They call this “Shake ‘N Wake”. What the Shake ‘n Wake does is automatically turn the sight on and off. After around 4 minutes of non use, the sight goes into a power save mode. To power up the green dot again, just move the sight. The movement it takes is very minimal. Just tapping on it with your finger will wake the sight up. It also wakes up on the last brightness setting that you had it set on. So if the Liberty is on the highest setting, it wakes up there, and so on. If you really want to turn the Liberty completely off, you can hold the brightness down button for 3 seconds to turn it off. Then you must touch the brightness up button, to turn it back on and into the Shake ‘N Wake mode. I personally really like this function. The sight is ready to go when I need it. It has always displayed the green dot when I pick up the pistol it is mounted on. Battery life is stated at 4000 hrs on the medium setting. Since it has the Shake ‘N Wake function, the battery actually lasts longer than you would think. Swampfox says to change the battery about once a year. I don’t know if I’d go that long. Maybe every 6 months. The batteries are super cheap anyhow. I have had the original battery in it for 3 months without any problems. I also leave it on the second to the highest brightness setting.

Sometimes sights, like the Liberty, can be prone to accidental droppings. This doesn’t always seem to do anything to the sight, but sometimes it can. So Swampfox came up with their “Ironsides” protection shield. The shield is made from 304 stainless steel. 304 stainless is pretty darn strong from my experience. The Ironsides literally wraps itself around the Liberty. It leaves a tiny space around the optic to help keep the Liberty from the abuse of drops and other impacts. It does this without really adding much size to the total package. Thankfully I haven’t dropped it yet, but I do feel protected if I do.

Since Swampfox knew that I might mount the LIberty on a number of different pistols, they included their “ultimate red dot screw pack”. The screw pack contains a plethora of red dot mounting screws. Both different thread pitches, and lengths. They also include a few extra long screws for “custom mounting”. Of course I had to cut a couple of the extra long screws down to get the Liberty and Ironsides to mount up on the Strike Industries slide. But that’s what the longer screws were for. The screw pack is a nice thing to have around, especially if you mount up a lot of these size sights.

Dot reflection can be seen right on top of front sight. Dot in center is actual dot and very clear.

Now, you probably are wondering what my thoughts are on the green dotted Liberty. It works well. The green seems a little nicer to the eye, not as harsh as red. I can still pick up the dot easily. There is a small reflection of the dot in the bottom of the viewing window. This is a little annoying. The reflection is not near as bright, so it's not like you can mistake it for the dot. I really like the Shake ‘N Wake feature. The green dot is bright enough to be seen in direct sunlight, a good thing. The window is super clear, without any real noticeable tint. The Ironsides shield is great, I’d definitely say it’s worth the extra money. The Liberty also uses a RMR mounting footprint, so there are plenty of mounting options available for it. I’d say the Liberty is a good little mini green dot sight.

Swampfox has done some good stuff with the Liberty. The Liberty is leaps and bounds better than Swampfox’s first mini red dot. Between the Ironsides protection and green dot availability, you have plenty of options to choose from. Go check out the complete line of Swampfox optics over at their website.

Firearms Insider Reviews - 8 Key Points

Claim to Fame:

Mini green dot sight with protective shield (Ironsides)

Target Market:

Those looking for a mini green dot that has an RMR mounting platform

FNBs (Features & Benefits of this product):

Liberty

3 MOA Dot
1x magnification
Shake 'N Wake auto on
Auto off after 4 minutes
22 mm window
10 illumination settings - up/down buttons
CR 1632 battery
IPX 7 water resistance
1.78”(length) x 1.09” (width) x 1.0”(height)
Weight - 1 ounce
7075 T6 aluminum construction
Parallax free
Multi-coated lens
90 MOA adjustment range

IronSides

SUS 304 blackened stainless steel construction
Includes 6-32 x .393"/ T10 screws
Other mounting screws are available in the Ultimate Screw Pack

What other aesthetic options or finishes are available?

Red dot

What others are saying?:

4 out of 5 stars @Swampfoxoptics.com

So far, so good. Basically a budget DPP on the RMR footprint. Very solid idea. Lots of great features here. Bang for your buck this is hard to beat. Durability has been great so far, I have one riding 45° on a rifle and one on a Glock 21 (.45) that I had the slide cut for. They have been holding up fine. My faith in them grows the more I use them. My only complaint is that the windage and elevation adjustments do not have clicks. This may or may not bug you, but it bugs me. Also a shield for the justice would be cool, it would really hammer home the budget Delta Point pro angle.

Our Rating:

Pros:

Top load battery
RMR footprint
Shake n Wake
Clear
IronSides shield

Cons:

Dot reflection
No clicks on windage & elevation adjustment screws
Battery life

Score: 7.50 Good

Favorite Link: Gun Guys Garage

Community Reviewer

June 28, 2020

Swampfox, Review, Red Dot, Glock

Swampfox Wolverine slide and Justice red dot combo

Community Reviewer

June 28, 2020

Swampfox, Review, Red Dot, Glock

Written by: Rusty Odom

This review is on the new Swampfox optic Justice 27mm red dot pistol sight and the Steel City Wolverine combo. Let me start by saying I am an average Joe shooter with a huge interest in firearms. I am always looking for the latest greatest item or something to improve on an older firearm to make me a better shooter. For this review I chose a Glock Gen 3 model 22 in .40 S&W to convert to 9mm. The firearm was purchased some years ago for around $295 and it was a local police trade in. I tossed it in the gun safe, knowing one day I’d do something like this to it.

The Swampfox Justice red dot and Steel City Wolverine slide combo. The slide is in a distressed green pattern and is available for the Glock 19 and 17 Gen 1-3 only. The slide comes with the channel liner already installed and with suppressor height fiber optic sights. They are in the combat configuration (rear sight in front of the optic), the slide is smooth with no machine marks on the outside, except in the area of the optic cutout. The threads on the mounting service were nicely tapped and debured. When mounting the optic it is a nice snug fit. It also comes with 3 sets of screws and Allen keys to mount the optic. The slide has great machining in the front for a good grasp to reload with wet or sweaty hands. It’s texture is just the right combination of aggressiveness, not to be uncomfortable when sharply grasping the gun. It has a lightning cut above the barrel, I assume to reduce weight. I have a concern of dirt or debris getting into it and causing issues in a real world situation.

The optic is clear and crisp, it has an 27mm window and is made out of 7075 aluminum. There is a Liberty version that has a smaller window of 22mm. These are duty rated and have a new and improved hood over their last model. It has a top load battery that takes the CR1632 battery. Not Chad’s favorite. It weighs 1oz without the battery, its height is 1.04”, length 1.78” and width 1.24”. It has the normal parallax free, fog proof and ruby coated lens.

It claims to have a greater battery life and new and improved shake a wake motion sensing illumination. The slide and optic are both for the RMR mounting option. Assembly of the slide is straightforward, just like your normal Glock slide would go together. A Brownells Glock completion kit was used for final assembly.

The initial sight in was done by co-witnessing the dot and the front sight post. Once the impacts were on target I did a ⅓ co-witness, raising the dot above the front sight post to declutter the sight picture. The slide had a few failures to feed, but after some lubrication and some dry fire, it ran flawlessly. The optic is easy to pick up, with some practice, for someone that is new to the red dot game. So far I have fired 350 rounds of 115 grain 9mm with no problems after the initial FTE. I was able to keep all the rounds in the 10 ring at 10 yards. Even with astigmatism the dot was clear with some adjustment of the intensity level.

In my honest opinion I do believe that this will make a great setup for someone that wants to put an optic on their Glock and doesn’t want to have their slide cut, or wants the benefits of having one frame with two different calibers. After my initial testing and what I know of some of the other optic I own from Swampfox, this appears to be a quality red dot. The slide is nice and clean, the battle worn or distressed coloring gives it some character.