The Cheapest and Best Red Dot Mount For Your AK and Sks

For those that don't want to or can't follow the links, it mounts on the barrel behind the front sight, via two half moons of metal screwed together with like eight allen screws. The top half has a picatinny rail.

Not sure it would be a huge improvement over the irons. The optic will sit in the line of sight between the front and rear, so the bottom half of the optic would not be visible when aiming and the center aiming point would be blurred by "looking through" the front sight post. Maybe with a red dot it would be somewhat ok for those times when cheek weld is off to see the aiming point it not sitting in the center sight picture?

I would skip the red dot and look at one of Primary Arms' 1-6 ACSS scopes with a 7.62x39 BDC. Very nice for the money and while not as fast as a dot the 1x is still quick, with the range benefit.

ETA: They have or will soon have fixed power prisms if that is more your thing.

Ultimak

Cheapest and Best do NOT add together...

Horrible mounting position and I wouldn't want to hang a 1/2lb weight on the very end of my barrel...but if it works for you, great.

"Cheapest and Best do NOT add together..."
Nor do "insane" and "accuracy" for that matter

Yep, primary arms microdot. Ive have one on my ak for a while now. I can hit the 6 inch plate with it at 100 more often than not...

I dislike smaller dot scopes out a ways from my eye.
In fact the TRS25 on a handgun I thought to be crap (even on a .22lr).
It's just too small, you see a lot of the non lens stuff, and within the lens the FOV is tiny.
Better is to run a larger tube reddot, or reflex (less stuff around the lens).
Better still, run that larger dot sight closer to your eye.
Out on the barrel?
No thanks.

The TRS might be OK up close to the eye. Handgun or barrel mount on rifle............
it might be the cat's meow for some folks. My guess is that they are new to shooting.

Don't fall for the tacticool hype. Esp the bargain versions.

Some of us aint thirsty LOL

Have you tried a higher quality mounting option like the Ultimak? There is more than one place for a horse to get water, I'll take the glacier fed stream over the puddle...

Hookeye said:

I dislike smaller dot scopes out a ways from my eye.
In fact the TRS25 on a handgun I thought to be crap (even on a .22lr).
It's just too small, you see a lot of the non lens stuff, and within the lens the FOV is tiny.
Better is to run a larger tube reddot, or reflex (less stuff around the lens).
Better still, run that larger dot sight closer to your eye.
Out on the barrel?
No thanks.

The TRS might be OK up close to the eye. Handgun or barrel mount on rifle............
it might be the cat's meow for some folks. My guess is that they are new to shooting.

Don't fall for the tacticool hype. Esp the bargain versions.

Click to expand...

Ive got a fastfireIII on some of my pistols.. which is considerably smaller than the trs25. Its the most wonderful thing in the world.

"...The TRS might be OK up close to the eye. Handgun or barrel mount on rifle............
it might be the cat's meow for some folks. My guess is that they are new to shooting.*

Don't fall for the tacticool hype. Esp the bargain versions..."

Im 58, been shooting since i was five. The TRS 25 works great on my saiga 5.45. No problem plinking clay pigeons at 100yds with it.

***

*Yesterday, 10:03 PM

I have a TRS mounted on my WASR 10 with a MI side rail mount and it is awesome.

PS. I've been shooting for almost 40 years, so the "new to shooting" comment is bull crap.

For a cheep mount try UTG, for an economical red dot, the TRS-25 is hard to beat. I am close to 70 yrs., and have been shooting for 60 years. I have no problem seeing the dot or hitting a moving target. Now, if you are one of the 7 to 10% of males who are color blind to red and green then a red dot is going to be hard to see and is most likely not going to work out for you.

Cheapest and Best do NOT add together...

Click to expand...

Pay heed to this.

Ultimak

Click to expand...

Ultimak is the way to go. Its rock solid, well made, sheds heat, has a mil spec rail, and allows you to cowitness the dot, with the right dot and ring.

Ive had Aimpoint ML2's mounted on two AK's for over 12 years now, and they have been well used, and always worked very well.

I dislike smaller dot scopes out a ways from my eye.
In fact the TRS25 on a handgun I thought to be crap (even on a .22lr).
It's just too small, you see a lot of the non lens stuff, and within the lens the FOV is tiny.
Better is to run a larger tube reddot, or reflex (less stuff around the lens).
Better still, run that larger dot sight closer to your eye.
Out on the barrel?
No thanks.

Click to expand...

I think there is a misconception here. You dont look at or through the dot sights, like a traditionally mounted scope, you look at the target, and the dot "magically" appears on it as the gun is shouldered.

The dots are not "scopes", and work best forward, and away from your face. This opens things up, and allows you to have a much clearer FOV, without the sight blocking it. You have good peripheral vision, and snap shooting is very quick and natural.

With the dot mounted low and forward, the gun shoulders and shoots like the dot wasnt there at all, and you were using the irons. Since the irons are cowitnessed to the dot, you have the same cheek weld.

Even with the older, larger dots, like the M2's, the gun is still well balanced, and does not feel muzzle heavy.

This is what you end up with......

Cheapest? I used a mount designed for bipods to go on barrels, and just inverted it. Slid the clamp on the underside of the gas tube, tightened it down snug, Red LocTited it, and put my Bushnell mini on it. (On an AMD-65) Works great! I got the hardware with something else I bought, can't remember what. Hard to get cheaper than free.