Cowitness - a first for me.

[VortexOptics]

I’ve read on here that sometimes irons and red dots cowitnessed will not align themselves together. I thought there was no mother****ing way this was possible.

Turns out it is.



How in the world? That steel is 300 yards away. The dot is off by about 4 MOA in windage at least. I am not too concerned with the elevation since they are zeroed at different distances but the windage is crazy.

How on earth is that even possible?

Out of curiosity - why do you want the irons to match up with the red dot? Your irons and red dot are two totally different sighting devices. Just because you can see your irons through the red dot window doesn't mean they need to be used. If your red dot is sighted in and shooting accurately by itself then it's working exactly as it should. If the irons then are also sighted in and shooting accurately by themselves then they're working exactly as they should as well. The two systems were never designed to be used together at the same time. One is a primary and one is a backup if SHTF. If you have fixed irons and they don't match up then certainly that would be annoying as far as someone's own OCD goes, but if both work fine independently of one another, then you're in good shape.

[Dr. Bullseye]

You do see some video reviews of red dots where the guy reviewing says something like --I really haven't zeroed the red dot, I just lolly-poped it on top of the FSP.

[VortexOptics]

You do see some video reviews of red dots where the guy reviewing says something like --I really haven't zeroed the red dot, I just lolly-poped it on top of the FSP.

*Face Palm* - At that point they should just save themselves the money from buying a red dot and go irons only unless they're just really lucky. You can take a red dot that is nowhere near sighted in and just manipulate your face/eye enough to make the red dot appear to lolly-pop on top of the irons. At no point in simply moving your face and eye position around are you making the red dot any more or less sighted in (There is no effect on point of aim/impact with that). Red dots are sighted in to a certain spot regardless of where your eye position makes the red dot appear to be in the optic's field of view. Likewise, if you actually go to sight in the red dot with the turrets and just try to move the red dot around in the optic until it lines up with your irons, there's no guarantee that's going to be anywhere near zeroed in. You might get it all perfectly lined up with your irons while looking through the sight, then move your head or eye a bit, and now it's not lined up anymore.

Bottom line - the red dot is a stand-alone aiming device that should be sighted in completely separately from any other secondary aiming device on the firearm. Same goes for the irons or any other secondary aiming device. Think of them separately, look at them separately, use them separately and if they both work the way they should when used by themselves, then they are working exactly right.

[markm]

This is why Irons are set to an individual shooter, and why Iron Sight ARs don't make good "pool" weapons.

The same gun zeroed for one guy, won't have the same zero for another guy depending on how they're positioning their body/head on the gun. I've seen different POIs when switching from prone to sitting on my iron sight ARs.

[MWAG19919]

Just one reason why I prefer lower 1/3 over absolute cowitness

[Eurodriver]

Just one reason why I prefer lower 1/3 over absolute cowitness

Ditto. I’d be annoyed if I had to look through the sites all the time.

Out of curiosity - why do you want the irons to match up with the red dot?

I don’t.

[Coal Dragger]

Is this a free float rail mounted front sight or a barrel mounted front sight?

My SR-15 has a fair amount of left windage on the rear iron sight to get zero at 50/200 yards, but the Nightforce 1-4X24 on the upper receiver required very little windage to zero. So the rail is off centerline ever so slightly near the muzzle, probably just a bit of tolerance stacking between the upper, rail timing shims, barrel extension, and rail. I still have windage left over on the rear and it zero’d so I’m not overly concerned.

I would venture a guess that if I slapped an RDS on top there would be a similar variance to your photo.

[ebone]

Just one reason why I prefer lower 1/3 over absolute cowitness

this.... OCD would kill me, if they weren't perfect

[T2C]

Zero the windage on the RDS at 300 yards.

[Eurodriver]

Is this a free float rail mounted front sight or a barrel mounted front sight?

My SR-15 has a fair amount of left windage on the rear iron sight to get zero at 50/200 yards, but the Nightforce 1-4X24 on the upper receiver required very little windage to zero. So the rail is off centerline ever so slightly near the muzzle, probably just a bit of tolerance stacking between the upper, rail timing shims, barrel extension, and rail. I still have windage left over on the rear and it zero’d so I’m not overly concerned.

I would venture a guess that if I slapped an RDS on top there would be a similar variance to your photo.

It’s a barrel mounted FSB.

Zero the windage on the RDS at 300 yards.

I can’t tell if you’re serious. In case you are, this has a 10.5” barrel and there’s always a 6+ mph wind.