I have both. The scopes look almost identical if you take the logos off and remove the turret caps. Id bet money the same 10 year old Chinese kids assembled them just did so with different parts to match each companies specs.
I have only shot a few hundred rounds through each. So I'm not an expert on eithers usage but here is my take based on my experience with at least owning most good 3-gun scopes.
First off my favorite reticles are the Swarovski BRT and the new Leupold Fire dot BDC. They have a set of cross hairs with a bright center dot. That's what I prefer for up close fast hosing. They are pretty my like a red dot on 1x as far as I'm concerned.
The PA has a horse shoe with a dot in the center. The Vortex has a horse shoe with a small cross hair in the center. Personally I hate donut, horse shoe, or circle dot reticles. The outer circle/donut just obscures the target and my eyes don't pickup the central dot as quickly. So with these two my eyes sort through the extra stuff and find both central aiming points equally fast. I still prefer a single glowing center dot but you won't find that in this price range. So it's a tie on both scopes up close hosing abilities IMHO.
The BDC in each reticle is not made for 3-gun. Rather then have a simple Christmas tree shape like my two favorite reticles where the width of the BDC's bars represent windage hold points for 5-10 mph winds these two scopes have those useless bars that get shorter as they go down for use in ranging unknown distance targets. That's something you'll never do in 3-gun. We always know the target distances prior to engagement. So which BDC is better in these two budget scopes? I'd give the PA a slight advantage here. It has those little dots off out to the ends of the BDC bars which can be used for approximating your wind holds at speed on the clock. I also like the 4, 6, 8 indicators to give you a reference for which BDC bar you are looking at. I've gotten lost in my reticle at on the clock at speed previously. Shooting my 400 yard hold at 500 yards or vice versa. This number designator is a feature I think would be good on every 3-gun reticle. So the PA has a slight leg up on the useable part of the reticle. However the PA has all that tactile wannabe trash going on in there too. The stuff over on the right which I don't even remember what it is and those ridiculous dots for shooting at a moving target. That stuff is all marketing fluff so the average Joe can pretend he is GI Joe ready to be called up to save the world when he looks through his scope twice a year. So that clutter catches your eye and theoretically could slow you down fractions of seconds at speed because your eyes and brain take time to process what it sees and it takes time too separate the bullshit from the useful info. So I give the vortex a nod in reticle clutter department. The vortex does have a 100, 200, 300 aiming point which the PA does not. Those distances are where 3-gun lives and breathes. So definite advantage to the Vortex there.
So at this point I'd say the reticles are a tie from a 3-gunners perspective. If you plan to shoot matches every month with more shooting over 300 yards the PA reticle maybe better. If you're club shoots mostly 50-300 on long range then the less cluttered vortex with its mid range BDC aiming points may be best suited for you.
If you shoot enough 3-gun you WILL break your scope. These scopes are cheap. Chances are they will break sooner then a vortex razor, Leupold vx6 or even the delicate Swarovski z6i. So you need to consider the warranty these two scopes have. I just searched the PA site to find their warranty return info on my phone and couldn't find it. When I go to the Vortex site I don't even have to search. There it is on the front mobile page three clicks down. VIP Warranty. They fix or replace anything. I know a couple guys over there and they told me several ridiculous stories of customers pretty much being dumb and breaking they're scopes. The damage was zero fault of vortex but they replace everyone of them no questions asked. That's HUGE especially for guys like us who routinely drop, throw, and toss their riches down as fast as possible.
The one thing that has zero impact on these two scopes value is the amount of support these companies give all of us via the shooting sports sponsorships. Vortex sponsors this forum, more matches and more shooters then any other optics manufacturer out there hands down. I have yet to see a PA logo on a jersey or banner in a match video. To me. That's huge. My money always goes to those that support us.
Next up is the price comparison. The PA is $50 less. That's roughly 15% less. Is the vortex 15% better? Probably not. Is the vortex warranty 15% better? Most certainly! Is vortex 100% more supportive of the shooting sports. You bet your ass they are!
So if money is the only concern and you won't be able to shoot a match this month unless you save that $50 on a scope I would say go ahead and get the PA and come out and play. If you plan to piss away at least $50 hammering paper at 5 yards once you get this new toy go ahead and get the Vortex. You'll sleep better at night knowing you're supporting a great company and some fellow competing shooters at vortex and you won't have to explain to your nonshooting buddies that Primary Arms scopes are pretty good when you go to show off your new boom stuck and non of them have ever heard of PA.
Optics planet now sells both. I can save you 10% on either one.
