Trijicon MRO Sight Placement

[Mountaineer]

I’ve been kicking around a sight for my Krieghoff o/u. It’s a 458 win mag. I seen the MRO red dot sight. As I looked through it I noticed the closer to my eye I held it the wider field of view I had. So why do you often see the sights mounted well down the barrel instead of 6 inches or so from your eye?

 

[Mark A Ouellette]

I’ve been kicking around a sight for my Krieghoff o/u. It’s a 458 win mag. I seen the MRO red dot sight. As I looked through it I noticed the closer to my eye I held it the wider field of view I had. So why do you often see the sights mounted well down the barrel instead of 6 inches or so from your eye?

To each his own...

Further away from the eye provides natural "sight alignment". When shouldered, the dot should be pretty darn close to your target.

Also, the rear iron sight acts as a recoil lug for the reflex sight mount.

Others prefer a wider field of view for their reflex sight.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Good question. I assume that it would be for the average shooters eye focus. I have seen them any where from the very rear of the barrels to replacing the rear sight.

 

[JGRJR]

These sights are designed to used with both eyes open. So field of view is not an issue for the most part. You want the dot to naturally come to your eye when you mount it but sort of float. One of the drills done to teach shooting with both eyes open is to place tape in front of the optic. Completely covering the front of the window. Then shooting with both eyes open. You find you can still hit things and have the complete field of view. It is a mistake to think you are only looking through the window on a red dot. That is why most get mounted as far forward as possible.

Also I am not sure what the recoil rating is on an MRO? Something like an MRO, Aimpoint T2 or Eotech are designed to be used on a CQB rifle with a relatively low recoil impulse. They are very rugged sights but I am not sure how much recoil they are rated for. Most of the pistol sights like an RMR are designed for thousands of rounds of the recoil impulse of a pistol slide hammering back and forth. I am just pointing out the RMR and MRO are both Trijicon but designed for very different uses. I would check with the manufacturer to see if the MRO is recommended for 458 level recoil. It could be fine, I just don’t know.

 

[Scrumbag]

I have red dots on a few long guns with a variety of positions:

Back of receiver (Both slug shot guns)

And one replacing the rear notch sight on my 9.3x62 which is further forward:

I would say the near eye option is perhaps easier to be precise with, the in front of the receiver design is perhaps faster for target acquisition.

I should also perhaps say that for the 3 above I've not had any choice with where to mount the the red dot but I have found both useable.

What I should probably do is mount try the red dot on the lever action and try in different positions on the scout rail....

Be interested to hear other thoughts.

Scrummy

 

[JBRC]

The MRO is rather bulky and really limits field of view. I recommend the RMR over the MRO. At a certain distance down the barrel the housing kind of just disappears. To far down and your eye start to pick up the housing and to close you start looking through just the glass blocking field of view. If you hunt in the rain you want an enclosed emitter like the Aimpoint T2. Exposed emitters tend to collect a bead of water and the dot goes away.

In the pic is a double with an RMR setup with what seems to be the best distance for most people.

When properly setup you can put tape over the front of the glass. Assuming you are right handed... your right eye will pick up the dot and your left eye will put the red dot on the target accurately. kind of crazy to think how the brain does this. This is a great way to train people who naturally close their left eye when shooting.

 

[Aussie_Hunter]

Following this thread with a lot of interest. I'm actually going to see my gunsmith this afternoon to discuss red dot mounting options on my new Rigby SSB. Pushing the rear sight out and replacing it with a mount for a red dot is the most obvious and easiest option but I had the same questions around the red dot potentially being too far forward. Also I'd like to be able to keep the irons on the rifle as a backup so I can take the red dot off at anytime and still use the irons if need be.

 

[Yukontom]

This is a 100 year old 450-400 3-1/4" by Charles Osborne. I simply did not want to deface it by drilling holes in the rib for a base but have old eyes that don't work well with open sights anymore. The solution was to custom fit a blank base to the existing rear sight dovetail and mount the RMR. It seems to work well and I'm working on getting loads regulated for a buffalo hunt in August. Almost there with a load this week that shot 1" at 50 yards. Field of view is not ideal but as noted above if you keep both eyes open it works well.

 

[Mountaineer]

I settled on a Leupold vxii 2x7. I had a gunsmith shape and install Talley bases into the solid rib in a dovetail configuration. It looks great and shoots great. Has anyone used the Barnes 458 cal 350 grain bullet on plains game?