Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Offset red dot.

How many of you that depend on your AR’s work wise and/or competitively, use the offset mounts with a red dot and LPVO?

Legit, or an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist?

In competition they can be useful when you're presented with close arrays of hoser shots and then medium range or tighter shots without much movement between the arrays. But they'll also usually bump you into a different, theoretically more competitive, division.

For professional use I can only imagine a few times an offset dot could be useful.
1-You have an LPVO but your employer requires a backup sighting system.
2-You have an LPVO but want a passive aiming system for night vision.
3-Your optic isn't really a "low"PVO. I know some guys with 2.5-10 optics that have offset dots for emergency close shots.

All of those are legitimate reasons to have one, but I can't think of many more. I'm messing around with an offset dot for #2.

Not for duty or comp but my cousin runs 6.5-20 Leupold on all his AR’s and last winter in the snow, he started killing pigs buried up underneath cedar trees. Problem was they were close and fast so I told him about the offset red dot. Got him a mount and a dot and he really liked the setup, got him a few more pigs before the snow melted.

I tried it and it’s really awkward for me. I found I liked the dot on top of the scope better but really see no need in my case.

Appreciate the input.

Listened to a pretty good conversation between 2 guys that use their guns for work and they had completely differing views and was looking for more input.

On top would seem odd to me. The one guy running the offset was pretty dam fast going between LPVO and the dot with no real head movement.

I've got an RMR on top of an ACOG. It's not as bad as some make it out to be, but it's not great either. It's a good option if you've already got an ACOG.

Hey I saw the Fieldcraft video by Garand thumb and thought that looks like the ticket, bought a 45* offset mount and stuck a micro dot on. It's very awkward for me to turn inboard, so I even tried it on the left side like Stick did and they both suck for me. I'll just raise my head up if I ever go this route. But that's just me, lot's of folks make it look easy with the 45* offset.

Did not try it, just watched the guy and he made it look effortless and was preaching it was the way to go, his partner was calling BS. They are both pretty experienced. I don’t have a clue.


The guy running the offset said he use to run the exact same set up and did fine with it, but likes the offset much better.



Thanks again.

I shoot 3gun pretty often and a lot of guys in that game love the offset dot. I never could get used to it, but to be fair I didn't spend much time trying to learn it. I generally run a Burris RT6 1-6 LPVO. As I only use it for competition, I have no problem cranking the scope to where I need it. I can adjust as I run, or just take .20 seconds while transition targets to roll from 4x back to 1x or vice versa. I have zero experience using a rifle in a life or death situation so I can't attest to that, but in competition it seemed like an answer without a real question, aside from some of the top tier guys who may actually see a rankings difference by losing that .20 seconds to change scope zoom.

This was pretty much the crux of their arguments. Red dot guy keeps his scope at 4X and says he’s ready to engage anything, non red dot guy says if he needs more than 1X he’s probably going to have time for the switch. Red dot guy also says he has more options with barriers? I wouldn’t want either of them coming after me. Eta; red dot guy agrees you probably would have time to go from 1X to 4X, but if the situation changes quickly, will you have time, or remember to get back to 1X.

Was interesting watching and listening to them.

I can see most of those arguments have some validity. I don’t know how an offset dot gives more options with barriers, but maybe he’s had a few circumstances where it fit just perfectly.

My general notion agrees with your scope buddy. Leave it on 1x, which honestly can do most everything anyways. I used to shoot exclusively red dot and silhouettes at 400 were doable. Not the fastest but certainly doable. Crank up to a higher power when needed, crank it right back down.

Unless we’re talking about an actual war zone or end of the world, I can’t imagine many instances of self defense in which you’d use a magnified optic. To a court that’s probably going to imply you had ample time to either escape or find a method of disengaging, and you’ll hang for it.

They work well once one gets used to them being there.

The brother in law and a friend have rigs set up with a scope on top and the red dot offset and when shooting gets crazy in a bunch of hogs it does come in handy.

DD 1 oclock w a reflex works pretty good. Mounted on 90 degree area of FF handguard.
Head doesnt move, just roll the rifle a bit.

Was with them again this weekend. As Blue’ mentioned, the agency he was with before required a back up sight and that is how he started with it. My kid and I played around with his set up and it is pretty fast switching between them once you kind of figure it out.

I don’t know sh it about the “tactical” world, so it has been pretty neat watching them.