Angled iron sights seem to be fairly popular on guns used for close and longer range shooting, especially competitions. I’ve got a Docter mounted on the angled plate of a Spuhr mount, and although that’s mostly because I didn’t have anything else to do with it, it does serve a close range backup purpose. I’m curious how common that might be, i.e., using a small nonmagnifying optic rather than angled irons. If you do that what is your choice of sight?

are we gaming here, serious use, what? Primary optic?
With the advent of 1-8x optics I'm not using this strategy anymore for gaming. For serious use I use an aimpoint and don't need anything. Not sure if that helps.

Article about some SOF guys in Afghanistan using offset RDS with 1-6/1-8 optics. Faster than dialing to 1x.

http://www.defensereview.com/t...mbat-crossover-part/

Personally I use offset mechanical 'irons' (magul pros and KACs), as humidity / fogging is more of an issue in the south, when coming from a cool AC house or vehicle to a humid environment.

It's very easy and quick to do, and like a light on a CCW pistol, an offset sight (RDS or Irons) cost you little to nothing in size & weight.

Thanks, RHINOWSO, for that article; very informative.

As for the purposes I’m asking about: anything that would warrant an offset sight or sights. That would normally be with a high power scope for longer ranges and a nonmagnifying iron or optical sight for close distances.
As I asked in the first post, I’m curious how many shooters who use angled offset sights rely on nonmagnifying optics rather than irons.

Over beers, this setup sounded like a great idea to me and my varmint hunting buddy. So on a whim at a gun show I bought a cheap angle mount and a $60 no-name RMR just to see if I would like the setup on my LAR-8. It turned out to be a real pain to sight it in, but now that I finally got it "good enough" I leave it on the rifle. Just one more thing to make a heavy rifle even heavier. This is the only rifle I have with this setup and have no plans to convert any others.

In practice I have used it exactly one time (and missed) but could have a few other times. Those other times was because it's a training issue for me. When the gray foxes or coyotes suddenly appear 10 yards behind me at night, I'm too busy crappin' my pants to remember to use the damn RMR.

I've been looking into the offset RMR myself, I just haven't gotten around to ordering the mount.

The big advantage I can come up with is that you would have a high viability single focal plane sight picture and you can keep both eyes open.

I've got a set Magpul offset irons. Some times I find myself shifting the rifle around to get a good sight picture.

One day, I'll get around to testing it and see if it actually works well for me.

I had one on my AR to back up a fixed 4x IOR Valdada. It was great for competing - right up until I got to a stage that required a left-handed shot around a barrier. I could not get it rotated to see it (was mounted 45 degrees right of scope).

Now using a 1-6 Kahles, and just dial down to 1x for either eye...

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:
I could not get it rotated to see it (was mounted 45 degrees right of scope).

I’m curious why that was.

I tried using the Docter sight I have mounted at 45° right on a bolt action to aim around the left side of a barrier. If I lean far enough out (not the best tactically), I can use my right eye and right shoulder. If I switch to my left eye and hold the gun in the same relative position but against my left shoulder I don’t have any problem picking up the red dot.

I have had a EOTech on a 45 degree mount and an ACOG TA31 sitting on the top rail for about 10 years. It is a duty gun, started with this set up on a Colt AR and about 7 years ago I switched it over to a Sig 556 and it has been on there ever since. It is a duty gun. I really like the ability to pick the appropriate site for the task at hand. On SWAT clearing rooms the EOtech shines as I never took to the Bindon concept with the ACOG. I have it sighted in at 15 yards. The ACOG is sighted in at 50 yards. The point about the initial sighting in of the optic on the 45 degree mount is true it takes some rounds to get in where you want it. Making corrections always requires a combination of windage and elevation, you maybe an 1 moa right but getting you back in the bull is not simply a windage correction. It is something to be aware of by no means an issue. I couldn't more pleased with the setup. After all these years, canting the rifle is second nature to use the EO, and having both optics mounted there is built in redundancy without co-witnessing.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:
I could not get it rotated to see it (was mounted 45 degrees right of scope).

I’m curious why that was.

I tried using the Docter sight I have mounted at 45° right on a bolt action to aim around the left side of a barrier. If I lean far enough out (not the best tactically), I can use my right eye and right shoulder. If I switch to my left eye and hold the gun in the same relative position but against my left shoulder I don’t have any problem picking up the red dot.

Honestly, lack of practice. I just had not gone left handed around a barrier with the red dot. So trying it for the first time in a match worked just as well as expected.

It is really fast for straight up shooting, cant it for close up, flip back vertical for distance.

Okay, thanks for the explanation. I wanted to ensure I wasn't missing something.

To me there are a couple of critical things to understand when it comes to using and zeroing angled offset sights (RDS or Mechanical).

The first is are the sights directly over the barrel when you rotate 45 degrees? Magpul and KAC offsets appear to be directly over the barrel when mounted on an AR15 and rolled 45 degrees; however if mounted to a SCAR or other weapon with a different rail height over barrel, they will be not be over the barrel. RDS mounting options will vary as well. This affects how easy it is to zero the weapon as well as hold overs closer / further away from the zero range. I was able to zero the KACs on my SCAR 17 at 25 yards, but when shooting beyond that, the combination of the sights being offset to the left (not directly over the barrel, due to the higher rail) may hits difficult beyond that.

As someone mentioned, zero adjustments will be more complicated (depending on how you have the rifle set / oriented).