[RTFM]

Ok, here is my dilemma, I was at the local Sportsman's Warehouse this weekend and was looking at the SOCOM16, had a red dot on it, unfortunately did not get the MFG on the red dot, but it carried a price tag of $399.00 which may help categorize it some what.

http://www.springfield-armory.com/images/rifles/SOCOM16.jpg

My question is when I had a good cheek weld to site the rifle, via Iron sites, the body of the red dot was impeding my use of the iron sites.
If I raised up to see the red dot it was more of a tip-of-the-chin weld, and very uncomfortable.

If I tried to bring the red dot down to sit above the front post, just as I was able to get the dot to the post it would go below the bottom of the optic, and I would be sighting the bottom metal of the red dot housing.

Here come the questions:
Was I doing something wrong?
Was it just not set up to shoot properly?
Would I needed an extension to help raise my cheek weld?
Should the red dot be on top of the front site when properly aligned or should I even see the front site in the optic?

I liked the rifle, but do not like that I could not use the ion sites if the red dot crapped out.

Thanks.

[RTFM]

?

[pbhome71]

I think the red-dot sits too high on the SOCOM. The only solution is to use cheek rest on the stock.

I have Eagle Industries, which is very nice,installed on my M1A. BTW I need to put another spong to raise it up a bit more to be in-line with a scope/red-dot on my M1A.

http://www.eagleindustries.com/images/prodimages/p_350000-FRONT.jpg
Photo credit Eagle Industries - www.eagleindustries.com

[Bryson]

A bump for you, because I'm interested in this as well.

[RTFM]

Thanks Bryson, but I think were dieing a s-l-o-w death here.

RTFM

[spacemanspiff]

it kind of depends on what exact red dot you have. some have a lot of parrallax and the reticle does need to be properly aligned. at least one i know of has practically no parallax and it doesnt matter what position your head is in, if you see the reticle, thats where the shots going to go. that ones the Eotech.

for example, with my trijicon tripower, (which i am very pleased with!) when i shoot while looking through the bottom left corner of the optic, my shots hit to the right. i assume if i was a left and looked through the bottom right corner, they'd hit left. at 25 yards its off by 2 inches. at 100 its more like 6 inches. i do need to keep it aligned with the front sight post if i want POI to match POA.

now, not having a whole lot of time with the SOCOM, i do think that it is not set up to use the irons if you have an optic. since the rear sight sits so low, quite unlike the AR platform, you either do one or the other.

should you decide to go with that SOCOM and whatever optic, i'd suggest getting an ARMS mount with the quick release lever. no allen screws to deal with, just a simple lever that releases the entire optic/mount from the rail.