Co-Witness Iron Sights

[joeshoe52]

I just bought a tactical magnified optical sight for my AR. I also wanted to be able to co-witness with my mbus flip up sights. Yet I was told you can't use them to co-witness magnified optics. I've seen YouTube videos where you could. Was my initial source of information wrong?

 

[Ole Cowboy]

CERTAINLY you can use them to co-witness, you just do not have the same if any magnification (which is ok). C-W is common, in fact if you buy a good quality telescope you will find on the side of the scope there is a smaller scope its to be able to find the target area and then look thru the more powerful scope to home in on the target.

This is the purpose of your c-w, find the target area then look thru the more powerful side. If you numbered your sights the the lower or no power c-w is 1, your magnified is 2.

 

[joeshoe52]

CERTAINLY you can use them to co-witness, you just do not have the same if any magnification (which is ok). C-W is common, in fact if you buy a good quality telescope you will find on the side of the scope there is a smaller scope its to be able to find the target area and then look thru the more powerful scope to home in on the target.

This is the purpose of your c-w, find the target area then look thru the more powerful side. If you numbered your sights the the lower or no power c-w is 1, your magnified is 2.

I thought so. The person I talked to said it would only with an mbus PRO hard sight set which was $$$$ for my pocket. I think he was trying to get into my wallet. Now, I have the truth can you help me a little further? In order to achieve a co-witness my scope needs to be raised up a little higher. So I'd need another base to acquire my c/w. So how do I measure to get a correct scop base?

 

[Ole Cowboy]

I thought so. The person I talked to said it would only with an mbus PRO hard sight set which was $$$$ for my pocket. I think he was trying to get into my wallet. Now, I have the truth can you help me a little further? In order to achieve a co-witness my scope needs to be raised up a little higher. So I'd need another base to acquire my c/w. So how do I measure to get a correct scop base?

What is important is that your CW is parallel to the long (horizontal) AND the vertical axis of your scope. Height: Not as critical as your field of vision will be larger with your CW. It does not need to be at the same height, it will be within acceptable parameters mounted on your gun.

If its not parallel you will you will be looking at worst in a different area than the scope, which if your CW is parallel horizontal and vertical the scope will see inside the CW frame. Where things get FUBAR is when you make adjustments to the scope based upon the CW...the CW follows the scope and if the scope is installed properly then mount the CW...

 

[grumper]

Buy a low power variable optic with no mag or 1.1 something like that at the low end and you should have no problem cowitnessing irons through the same tube.

In the videos you saw, they are not using iron sights through a scope at 22x power. That won't work.

Maybe that's what the store counter jockey meant? But buying the more expensive sights still wouldn't work in the extreme example above. Sounds like he was trying to sucker you into buying something else.

 

[IT4me]

A 4x worked but was not as clear as with a 0x red dot for me