Left side mounted RDS

[Bean]

Not a question about precision shooting as the rifle is a Mini-14. I have a Leupold AR 4-12x on her, a bit much but it was in the safe and my eyes need magnification beyond 75 yards. So I thought I'd put a red dot on it for closer work. Not enough real estate for an angled 45 degree rail mount so I put it at 3:00 on the scope. It looked like it would work out great. A slight tilt of the rifle and the rds was easily visible and directly over the bore, cheek weld maintained. Worried about it getting banged with ejecting shells, I left the rubber cover on the rds and put some tape over that. Sure enough, three rounds, three holes in the tape and marks on the cover.

I tried mounting it at 12:00 and it's way too high. I have to lift my head completely off the rifle to see the dot. What the heck, I'll try it on the left. Tried it at 45 degrees to the left and that's not too bad. Tried it at 9:00 and found I don't have to move my head or tilt the rifle at all to see the dot using my left eye.

So finally to my question: At ranges below 75 yards how much difference will it make if that red dot is a couple of inches to the left of the bore? I'm thinking of zeroing the dot at 50 but am certainly open to suggestions. ("sell the Mini" doesn't count)

 

[WindstormSCR]

as long as you zero it the way you shoot it, should work fine. the only thing I'd be careful of is make sure your dominant eye (if you're RED/RHD) isn't catching weird info from still looking through the scope or similar.

another possible option would be to use some method of mounting the offset in front of your ejection port/pattern, either by using a gooseneck rail or the forward part of the scope tube instead of having it set back. since RDS have no eye relief that should work just fine too

 

[Bean]

as long as you zero it the way you shoot it, should work fine. the only thing I'd be careful of is make sure your dominant eye (if you're RED/RHD) isn't catching weird info from still looking through the scope or similar.

another possible option would be to use some method of mounting the offset in front of your ejection port/pattern, either by using a gooseneck rail or the forward part of the scope tube instead of having it set back. since RDS have no eye relief that should work just fine too

Thank you very much. No room at the front of the scope unfortunately. I'm going to make a trip to the range today and try it out. Once I get the two optics zeroed I'll see how my eyes handle the transition between them.

 

[Tictacticaltimmy]

What red dot and what mount are you using? I shoot rifles righty but am left eye dominant and curious about just such a setup....

 

[WindstormSCR]

What red dot and what mount are you using? I shoot rifles righty but am left eye dominant and curious about just such a setup....

I can highly recommend the arisaka offset mounts if you have the available rail space, though I'd still suggest right offset over left offset, as it's much easier to transition to and learn to use, even for LED/RHD (which I am) plus adjustable for 35degree or 45 degree offset as preferred

 

[Bean]

I'd have to agree with Windstorm, when I had the rds mounted at 3:00 on the scope the transition was really easy with just a twist of the rifle. T-Rex also makes a nice rail mounted 45 degree offset, but I don't think it's adjustable like the Arisaka.

That being said, my test at the range yesterday went very well. With both eyes open the 2.5 moa dot was easy to pick up. I did need to scrunch my neck down just a bit from the scope position, but that's probably not a bad thing as my right eye was not getting confused by a scope image while using the dot.

I'm using a Leupold Deltapoint Pro, great deal from Blackhawk Armory. NIB for 344. You can certainly spend less but I try not to buy products from totalitarian dictatorships. The mount is from UniqueFire and is billed as a flashlight mount. Definitely from China unfortunately. Eratac makes them in Denmark but as theirs are more than ten times the price I wanted to do a proof of concept before investing in one.

You'll find a discussion of scope mounted options here: https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...rail-on-top-of-my-scope.7101841/#post-9903422

​

 

[Tictacticaltimmy]

Currently using an Arisaka mount, right side at 35 with a 407. I tried putting it on the left side but it does not stick out anywhere near enough to use with my left eye.

The idea with mounting the RDS to the left is that I could keep the same head position for both magnified and unmagnified simultaneously. My left eye will naturally pick up the RDS for fast shooting, and I close the left eye to see the magnified scope. Most likely this idea will not work for one reason or another, but for the cost of a Chinese mount I think I'm going to find out.

 

[Scrumbag]

I am looking at something similar for a bolt action hunting rifle with a fixed 8x56 scope (not the best for a quick snap shot if something gets up in front of you) and I reckon a Mini-14 and a bolt action hunting rifle have similar stock geometry.

Some of my thinking is here:

Offset Red Dot on a Bolt Action

Hello folks, Recently there has been a trend for using offset red dot sights on scopes for running and gunning and this has kind of moved into the hunting world. Over here in Europe (depending on your jurisdiction) you can’t always use Night Vision / thermal optics for hunting at night so you...

www.snipershide.com

Like yourself @Bean , I struggled with a 12 o'clock red dot as too high (and same for 1:30) but 3 o'clock was OK.

I think I shall try 9 o'clock as well

Scrummy

 

[Bean]

I am looking at something similar for a bolt action hunting rifle with a fixed 8x56 scope (not the best for a quick snap shot if something gets up in front of you) and I reckon a Mini-14 and a bolt action hunting rifle have similar stock geometry.

Some of my thinking is here:

Offset Red Dot on a Bolt Action

Hello folks, Recently there has been a trend for using offset red dot sights on scopes for running and gunning and this has kind of moved into the hunting world. Over here in Europe (depending on your jurisdiction) you can’t always use Night Vision / thermal optics for hunting at night so you...

www.snipershide.com

Like yourself @Bean , I struggled with a 12 o'clock red dot as too high (and same for 1:30) but 3 o'clock was OK.

I think I shall try 9 o'clokc as well

Scrummy

That's the thread that got me thinking about the 3:00 position. I appreciated your reasoned response there to the "that's not how red dots work" comment.

 

[Bean]

Currently using an Arisaka mount, right side at 35 with a 407. I tried putting it on the left side but it does not stick out anywhere near enough to use with my left eye.

The idea with mounting the RDS to the left is that I could keep the same head position for both magnified and unmagnified simultaneously. My left eye will naturally pick up the RDS for fast shooting, and I close the left eye to see the magnified scope. Most likely this idea will not work for one reason or another, but for the cost of a Chinese mount I think I'm going to find out.

I did find I have to move my head down just a bit for the red dot. The other issue to resolve is getting a case wide enough to fit the rifle with the rds at 9:00. I had to remove it to get home after zeroing it at the range!

I like the rds a lot so will probably add one with a right side offset rail mount to my Ruger PCC. Plenty of rail space on there.

 

[Scrumbag]

That's the thread that got me thinking about the 3:00 position. I appreciated your reasoned response there to the "that's not how red dots work" comment.

Glad you found it helpful.

Yeah, me being reasonable is unusual...

 

[Scrumbag]

Currently using an Arisaka mount, right side at 35 with a 407. I tried putting it on the left side but it does not stick out anywhere near enough to use with my left eye.

The idea with mounting the RDS to the left is that I could keep the same head position for both magnified and unmagnified simultaneously. My left eye will naturally pick up the RDS for fast shooting, and I close the left eye to see the magnified scope. Most likely this idea will not work for one reason or another, but for the cost of a Chinese mount I think I'm going to find out.

You can get spacers that sit between your RDS and mount which might help.

Scrummy