red dot on a scout rifle

[FeuerFrei]

Looks to me like the reflex types sit higher even before the mount is installed- which is fine for an AR rifle but it seems to me the tube RDs can sit lower and closer to the barrel with a low mount. Does that seem correct?

How low/hi do you want to go? Height over bore makes a difference depending on how the stock/cheek weld adds up for you. You could look at something smaller in a reflex category. There's a but/tload of them out there these days.

Measure your height over bore and then see what's what. Iron sights get in the way of the dot? Higher dot may need a cheek riser to stop goose necking.

Tried a hand gun scope on it? If I were to set up a scout rifle that's where I'd look or just keep the oem sights as is sans extras. I like a rifle to be as slick as possible if I have to lug it around.

[tanks]

How low/hi do you want to go? Height over bore makes a difference depending on how the stock/cheek weld adds up for you. You could look at something smaller in a reflex category. There's a but/tload of them out there these days.

Measure your height over bore and then see what's what. Iron sights get in the way of the dot? Higher dot may need a cheek riser to stop goose necking.
...

If you look at the pic I posted earlier the red dot is quite a bit forward as the Eotech was too high and I did not want a riser. So, I mounted it quite a bit forward.

The pic below is a Trijicon on a low mount. Did not need a riser or any goose necking. I prefer the Trijicon.

[WWDHD?]

Had the same dilemma on my 308 gsr. Wanted magnification due to poor eyes, and not a fan at all of scout scopes. Look into the XS sight systems rail. Install it and you can scope your rifle as you would any other. Opens up every option to you

I've looked into that and I may try it in the future. I'm trying to exhaust the various forward-mount/scout optics set-ups to see if one works well for me as the rifle was intended.
If a RD mounted forward doesn't work out I'm not out that much money. It's fun to experiment.
Thanks for all the ideas.

[smle-man]

Had the same dilemma on my 308 gsr. Wanted magnification due to poor eyes, and not a fan at all of scout scopes. Look into the XS sight systems rail. Install it and you can scope your rifle as you would any other. Opens up every option to you

I just used Ruger rings and a Leopold 1.5-4x scope on my .223 GSR

[Rob454]

As you can see in the pic the forward mounted red dot does not effect performance. It is very easy do see, aim, and shoot.

[tanks]

Brain shot is aiming at a football.

[W.R.Buchanan]

A Red Dot on a Ruger Scout? Gosh I've never thought of that.



All my Carbines have Red Dot Sights on them, I can hit a man sized target every single time at 200 yards off a rest. About 8/10 at 300 yards. So how far do you plan to shoot. Mine is a .308 yours is a .223. Normal effective range for the .223 is 300 yards. I can go farther with a .308.

Mine also has an XS Rail mounted with an Integral Aperture Rear Sight. So if the optic cacks, I loosen one screw and take the optic off and I'm still good to go.



Randy

[WWDHD?]

A Red Dot on a Ruger Scout? Gosh I've never thought of that.



Randy

Today I got around to trying my GSR out to 100 yards from a bench (All Livermore allows) with a Trijicon MRO green-dot and .223 55gr ammo. I was using 8" splatter targets. Although the dot mostly covered the target at that distance I was consistently within the 8" ring and mostly within the 6". With the 2-7x scout scope I had before I was maybe more like within 4" ring or better with the magnification.
With some more practice I'm hoping to close these groups up a bit closer to the scope. Not to bad without the scope magnification. Placing the MRO as far back on the forward-set rail worked great for me and a much more open view of things over the scope.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The whole idea of the Dot Sight is "fast target acquisition."

Sounds like your dot is an 8 MOA dot which is more of a Pistol style sight.
Typically Rifle Dots are 3 MOA or less. But still you can get the idea with what you've got.

The problem with shooting groups with a Red Dot is indexing the dot on the target the same way every time. If you try to just cover the target with the dot the closest you will get group size wise is the size of the dot.

If your dot is round try sitting the edge of the dot at 9 o'clock on the side of the target spot. Your group should show itself at about 4" to the left of the target spot.

This group was shot with a Mini 14 at 100 yards during a re-sight in after removing the sight and repositioning it on the rail. POA was on the left point of the black diamond.



If your dot is a Triangle use the top point at 6 o'clock on the spot.

The hot tip with your .223 carbine would be to sight in dead on at 50 yards which will be 1" high at 100 and dead on again at 200 and 12" low at 300. Then you refine the zero at 200 until it is dead on.

You can spend as much as you want of these sights. The Trijicon and Aimpoint sights are the most expensive, adn if you are planning on going to war with your gun they are worth the money. However if you are not planning on going to war then a Bushnell TRS 25 at $60-90 is a simple option that works very well. I have 6 of them over the last 12 or so years and none have cacked yet. You do have to remember to turn them off or they will kill the battery. Plus that if it does Cack you can send it back or what I would do is buy a new one and then Return the old one that stopped working and act like it came from the factory like that in the new box!.

Once your gun is properly sighted in you should be able to hit a man sized target every single time off a rest at 200 yards. Your gun should be an MOA or very close rifle out of the box.

If all you are going to do is shoot groups at the range then a scope is a better option, but if you want to have fun or get serious which may be an option soon, then the red dot is the way to go.

Hope this helps you out.

Randy

[Devilock04]

I have a Vortex Strikefire II mounted on an Amega railed hand guard on my Mini-30. It’s fairly easy to pick up the dot and the gun seems pretty balanced.



I also have a similar set up on a National Ordinance M-1 Carbine with a Bushnell Trophy TRS-25 sight.