I’m looking one for that can be used the standard military front sight. I don’t care if it uses magnification either way since it will be under 100 yards.

Not exactly sure what you're asking but I'd say first you have to decide what "co-witness" you want between your irons and your red dot. Take a look at this page to get an idea and go from there:

https://www.wingtactical.com/b...to-cowitness-sights/

...

Cowitness would be best.

Which red dot sight do you suggest?

Well if you got the money the Aimpoint T2 is considered by many to be "best of breed"...

Otherwise both SIG and Vortex make good cheap copies with unlimited lifetime warranties.

Then there's about 100 other brands making cheap red dots that I don't know too much about...

.

I have two SIG Romeo5's, a Vortex SPARC Solar and a few "legacy" Aimpoints(..which are bigger than today's micro red dots) and all have been great for me.

The only red dot I'd say to steer clear of is the Trijicon MRO as it's known to have parallax issues.

Just Google "Best Red Dot for AR15" and take the rest of the week off to do the research...

.

Whatever red dot you choose, do not pick a prism style optic, like the Primary Arms SLx 1X, because you won’t be able to use the iron sights with it. The front sight will be fuzzy because of the nature of the prism.

buy an aimpoint and be happy for the next 20 years. Any of them are fine, the PRO will be the least expensive. Buy a quality mount that has the front sight where you want it compared to the dot. I hate full cowitness suggest you get lower third. Change batteries occasionally then continue shooting till you run out of ammo or money or age out without sight issues.

I have an Aimpoint Pro on my Colt M4 carbine and I like it a lot. I guess it is full co-witness on the standard mount it comes with, which does not bother me at all.

There’s nothing wrong with the factory mount that comes with the PRO. I had one several years ago, and in fact, I preferred it to any other aftermarket mounts. If I were to buy another PRO today, it would stay that way.

Another vote for the Aim Point Pro model

I used one for years with type of mount in this add. It has a removable spacer on the mount to adjust the height to your preference.

Like this one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284140831251

I'll agree the PRO is a great option for the price. As someone who owns a T-1, If you're looking at that format (Now the T-2) I have a hard time recommending a $1000 red dot. The world has changed a lot since the T-1 was king.

Holosun has come a long way, a lot of folks dont like the idea of buying Chinese, but I really love their pistol optics and I hear really good things about the AEMS, I just dont have any time behind one.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
I have an Aimpoint Pro on my Colt M4 carbine and I like it a lot. I guess it is full co-witness on the standard mount it comes with, which does not bother me at all.

I have 3x 6920’s with Aimpoint Pros, using the standard mount and they all work great. For the price, they’ll serve you very well.

All but the little handgun-sized red dots can be used this way. It depends on the mount you select, more specifically, its height. I have an Aimpoint Carbine Optic, which already came with the correct height mount, on my own rifle. This is in the "medium" or "good value" price range.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeGLI:
I'll agree the PRO is a great option for the price. As someone who owns a T-1, If you're looking at that format (Now the T-2) I have a hard time recommending a $1000 red dot. The world has changed a lot since the T-1 was king.

Yes, at ~$500 the venerable PRO is still a great choice for a defensive rifle optic on a budget.

Alternately, if you want something smaller and don't need the T2's night vision compatible settings or its 25 meter diving pressure waterproofing, the Aimpoint H2 can be found for much cheaper than the T2. $650 vs. $1000. (Plus the cost of a riser mount.) It has the same quality/durability/longevity as the T2, but is "only" waterproof to 5 meters and it doesn't have the 4 night vision brightness settings.

https://aimpoint.us/micro-h-2-...6moa-standard-mount/

Or the older H1/T1 optics can still be found on the used market, though the protective covers on the H2/T2 are definitely nice to have.

Or there's the new budget Aimpoint Duty RDS which is only $500 and comes with a mount. It's their smaller format equivalent to the full size/30mm format PRO. (PRO is their budget version of the older Comp M3; Duty RDS is their budget version of the newer Comp M5.)

https://aimpoint.us/duty-rds-r...-39mm-multi-reticle/

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
There’s nothing wrong with the factory mount that comes with the PRO. I had one several years ago, and in fact, I preferred it to any other aftermarket mounts. If I were to buy another PRO today, it would stay that way.

Well, I disagree slightly. The mount itself is solid and a quality mount. It just has two issues: its funky height and its yuge knob.

So if you have/buy a PRO and plan to use the included QRP2 mount, I would highly recommend investing the additional $40 in this SKD PRO riser, which solves both.

https://skdtac.com/skd-aimpoin...2-riser-pro-comp-m4/

The included PRO mount is a funky in-between height between the standard Absolute cowitness height and Lower 1/3 cowitness height. As a result, it's tough to get a magnifier to match up correctly with it since it doesn't conform to the industry standard heights. And if your other ARs have optics at more standard heights, you have to readjust the natural head placement you've trained when you're using the PRO's nonstandard height.

In addition, absolute height or this funky near-absolute proprietary height are not very popular nowadays, with most AR shooters these days wanting their optics at least Lower 1/3 height, if not taller.

This SKD riser lets you get a different height on the included QRP2 mount, for lower 1/3 cowitness (1.73") or even higher with the taller options (1.93/2.04/2.26") if you're one of the ones that likes the new hotness Unity-style ultra tall super heads-up shooting at the expense of not having any iron sight cowitness.

And importantly, this riser also allows you to turn the base of the included QRP2 mount around to put the ginormous mounting knob on the right's ejection port side, which prevents it from punching you in the sternum when the rifle is slung or scraping your knuckles while manipulating the charging handle with your support hand.

Well worth the small investment. I have the 1.73" riser on my PROs.

quote:

Originally posted by Marlin Fan:
Cowitness would be best.

I think most people are more happy with lower 1/3 height cowitness when using a red dot with a factory AR15 front sight base. The lower 1/3 puts the sight in the lower half of the window so its has more visibility and not so crowded a sight picture.

Yep. On both handguns and rifles, the ideal red dot/iron sight cowitness is for the sights to be as low as possible in the optic window while still being usable if needed.

You want them obscuring as little of the optic window as possible.

They're backups to the optic, and you should be looking over the iron sights (or having the iron sights folded) when using the red dot.

Absolute cowitness is a vestige of the early days of fixed rifle sights and less than reliable red dots, and has fallen greatly out of favor these days. Many optic/mount manufacturers no longer even offer Absolute height.

I have a few different types on my guns from the Sig Romeo5-not a bad basic optic, a Primary Arms Prism-won't be compatible with co-witness and a Holosun510C- similar to the newer Eotech without the price.

I have had others like Aimpoint, which is really nice and I should have kept, Eotech512- which was nice but bulky and I had a C-More rds- another I should have kept but I will get another as they are great for quick sighting for me.

I’m interested in getting the Aimpoint CompM4S Red Dot Sight. What else should I get with it?

The CompM4S is an excellent - if pricey - red dot option.

It already includes everything you need for use on an AR.

Just use quality lithium AA batteries (like Energizer Ultimate Lithium AAs). You don't want cheap alkaline AAs leaking and ruining your $1k optic.


Also note that the CompM4S uses the same QRP2 mount as the budget Aimpoint PRO I discussed in my earlier, so it has the same minor drawbacks.

Don't get me wrong... This QRP2 mount is totally functional out of the box, and you may not even care about the drawbacks I discussed. But if like many QRP2 users you find that the big knob being on the left side bothers you, or you wish you had just a little bit more height for the optic, you may want to eventually replace the factory riser piece with that SKD 1.73" riser I linked in that earlier post at some point (since they're currently out of stock).


Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is a folding rear sight if your AR currently has a fixed rear sight. Once you've installed an optic, the iron sights are backups, and should be folded (if possible). The fixed front sight you mentioned in the OP isn't as big of a deal, as it occludes less of the optic window.