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Is this red dot mounted correctly or is it sitting too high? For reference, here is a stock image photo of the exact rifle.




The rear iron sight platform can be removed and the red dot directly mounted on the upper receiver. Should I do that and get a Magpul rear sight or is this GTG? If so, any recommendations to sight it in correctly?

Thx

It's tough to tell just by eyeballing a photo. And it depends partly on your head/face geometry. But that looks like it's probably fine.

I suspect that combo riser/iron sight is intended to allow for a standard A2-style rear sight height. In which case, the optic mounted on it like that appears to allow for a roughly lower 1/3 or 1/4 cowitness. So that shouldn't be too high, or that much higher than a traditional 1/3 cowitness optic mount.

But if you do find it to be too tall, perhaps because you have a small head, removing the riser and just getting a standalone Aimpoint Micro optic mount with an absolute cowitness height would result in a slightly lower eyeline, which could help.


Besides, the trend nowadays within some of the "high speed" crowd is extra high optic mounts anyway, driven by a desire to be able to adopt a more heads-up shooting position, especially during CQB/room-clearing. These are nearly double the traditional optic mount height. It's different, and requires some practice/retraining, but even those overly high mounts aren't "too high" if that's what you've trained with.

For example, an AR15 optic mount intended for absolute cowitness puts the center of the optic at roughly 1.4" above bore, and a lower 1/3 mount puts it at roughly 1.6' above bore, while some of the new style of tall mounts put it at 2.9" above bore!

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Besides, the trend nowadays within some of the "high speed" crowd is extra high optic mounts anyway, driven by a desire to be able to adopt a more heads-up shooting position, especially during CQB/room-clearing.

The main draw for this, as I understand it, is the effect the more traditional posture has on rifle plates. As you lean forward to get down on the rifle, you tip your front plate forward more, which gives your vitals less coverage. The head up posture keeps the plate more vertical, and that's supposed to be in conjunction with keeping your chest squared up to the threat anyways. The guys who advocate this also push for having the stock not in your shoulder pocket, but high up on, or even hooked over the top of your plate carrier in the center of your chest. It's not just a posture, it's a whole "fighting system" approach, and heavily tied in with the use of NODs and passive aiming through an optic. That height also helps clear the top of the various LAMs that will clutter the sight picture through lower mounts.

In short, OP, if you can get a good cheek weld and you're happy with the sight picture, go for it. There's almost no current accepted standard on what's "correct" for height over bore. The upside of your setup is you have irons and can use that dot with it's native low mount without need of any particular height of mount or riser. Do you like how it's set up?

If you already own that particular style RRA "carry handle"/mount then go for it. But I wouldn't actively seek out that setup as it just adds extra dead weight. I'd go with a more standard separate Aimpoint mount and BUIS.

Thanks for the informative replies. I do like the setup but I've only shot iron sights on an AR-15 but with my older eyes, I decided to go red dot.

Yes a red dot on a rifle is a must-have.

I thought you were asking if that RRA mount was a good way to mount it... To which I would say there are far better mounts. :-)

It is not too high but that is 20 y/o tech. I used to run one back in the day. It is supposed to be a co-witness set-up with a low mount like the one you are using. I would sell it and get a BUIS and T1/T2 mount and be done. It will be much lighter as well.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
Thanks for the informative replies. I do like the setup but I've only shot iron sights on an AR-15 but with my older eyes, I decided to go red dot.

As many have said, there are much better mounts for red dot sights. If you would like to try that setup, I have one that was taken off a RRA rifle and never used you could have. Feel free to email me your address and I will send it off.

quote:

Originally posted by dking271:

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
Thanks for the informative replies. I do like the setup but I've only shot iron sights on an AR-15 but with my older eyes, I decided to go red dot.

As many have said, there are much better mounts for red dot sights. If you would like to try that setup, I have one that was taken off a RRA rifle and never used you could have. Feel free to email me your address and I will send it off.

^^^^^
THANK YOU!!! Emai forthwith.

Edited: I used my Gmail account but referenced my forum Yahoo email for security.

Thanks again!!!

One thing to note is that irrespective of height, get the optic mounted as far forward as you can on the upper.

^^^
That is easy enough. Does that make it easier to see the red dot?

Personal preference - I mount red dot and holographic sights as close as I can to the back-up rear sight. Similar to the aperture of a peep or M16 rear sight, I get a larger field of view through the optic that way.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
^^^
That is easy enough. Does that make it easier to see the red dot?

No, but it makes it easier to properly use it.

Mount the red dot somewhere between the middle of the upper receiver and the front of the upper receiver, based on personal preference. Mounting it at the rear of the upper receiver is not a good plan. Where you have it now could be fine, but try putting it further forward on the rail and see if you might like that better.

Keep in mind that a red dot is not a traditional rifle scope. You're not staring down a tube at a crosshair, and you're especially not closing your other eye.

Instead, you should have both eyes open and focused on the target. The rifle and optic should then be brought up so that the dot is be floating in your vision in-between your eye and the target. Focus on the target, not the dot.

(This is actually a bit harder to do with a setup like yours, with a fixed rear sight, as you're naturally going to want to try to use it like you would iron sights. This is one of the reasons why most optics are used in conjunction with flip-down rears, or no rears at all.)

Putting the optic at the rear of the receiver up close to your eye causes the optic body to obscures more of your target and your situational awareness from your peripheral vision, causes tunnel vision, and makes it more tempting to treat it like a traditional scope and focus on the dot instead of the target.

^^^
Thank you. I've learned a lot in this thread.