bblhd672 wrote:What would the impact be on accuracy having a red dot sight mounted on the side rather than on the top? Obviously you'd have to turn the weapon to see through the red dot. Just curious if this is a viable alternative to the red dot mount that swivels out of the way from Midwest Industries?
I'd think it would be a bit awkard, but as long as the POI matched POA, it would be as accurate as that particular firearm/optic/mount combination is capable of. But I would be concerned about how it would affect ammo feeding, rather than the accuracy. You have to tilt the gun to one side or the other to operate it if the optic is oriented to the side of the forend rather than the top. Tilted to the left, with the ejection port up, it might not matter, I don't know. It
might still feed OK if the new cartridge is being supported by the left side of the receiver. But tilted to the right like a lefty would do (I'm left-handed), with the ejection port facing downward, I don't have confidence that it would feed without jamming.
You have to actually see and handle the MI optic mount. It is as stable as mounting to a polymer forearm will allow it to be. If you attach a metal section of rail to the side of the polymer forend, the optic is still ultimately attached to a polymer forend, and whatever flex is inherent in the polymer forend is still going to affect your accuracy. The only way around it is to swap out the polymer forend for a metal one.
There is such an item available for $149, plus the cost of the rail sections for it, if you need a rail to mount your optic. The problem with this unit is that adding a rail to the top prevents the carbine from being fully folded. So you'd still ultimately need something side-mounted, or at a 45º angle. I may someday buy one of those forends, but I don't think it will change how I use the gun right now, and I think that swapping out the rear sight for the larger diameter aperture sight would be a more significant upgrade than changing the forend would be.
The MI mount doesn't need a rail, it only needs an M-Lock section to mount to. It also doesn't seem to move on its swivel when deployed. The design, being a V-block, acts against that happening. You can
make it swivel with your hand, but it
wants to remain centered.
But even with a metal forend added, I'd still go with the side-mounted MI optic mount, because it is the one solution I've seen which allows the optic to remain mounted, while the carbine is
fully-folded, without adding any bulk or significant width to the folded gun, while still having the optic vertical to the barrel when deployed.
I think in the end, as much fun as the sub2k seems to be, and as useful as it might be in a tactical situation, it still is what it is, and by nature includes a number of compromises.
