Great info on the sight but some questions still remain.  I have settled on the Trijicon ACOG TA31 or possible the 50 power version.  I am putting it on a new Neveske N4 Light Recce FSR 16".

1) First off, this gun has the fixed front F sight.  Will I be able to see over the F sight to view the Chevron and range scale?
2) Do you recommend also mounting a Trijicon Red Dot for close shots?

I will state my main use of the gun before the next question.  Joining an outdoor club with 100, 200, 300 and 600 shot station and want to be able to make all the shots.  Also, will shoot some indoor 25 yard stuff and thinking about the occasional deer hunt with gun.

3) Should I consider the TA55 5.5x50 (although calibrated for 19" barrels)?  My thinking is more light with the 50 power, but not sure if necessary because of the Dual Illumination with all Trijicon ACOG's.

Yes.




Yes. Then it is truly complete. On a high end gun like the Noveske, it's worth it.




No. The 5x version is very large. It is a huge difference over the 4x. The 4x is plenty to make shots out to 600 yards which covers the effective range of the 5.56.

I can only speak from my limited experience with the ACOG.  I have a TA11 mounted on a larue QD rail mount.  My scope does not cowitness with the BUIS on my rifle.  Even though the scope is only a 3.5x I would prefer to use a reddot for closer site pictures.  Real world experience here.  I am shooting foxes right now, and many are rabid.  3.5 seems like too much when one is under 50 yards and closing.

Correction:


"see over" ? No.


You'll see THROUGH the FSB. You may get a bit of a shadow. It's no big deal.

I've got a TA31F mounted on my 16" Carbine, and it works great.  As others have said, the FSB is nothing to worry about.  It all but disappears when looking through the scope, you are looking past it for your focus point, so it doesn't interfere with the sight picture.  I commonly shoot mine from 10 yards to 300 yards, and I do pretty well with the Bindon Aiming Concept (both eyes open), so for me it works well even at close range.  I won't say it's as fast as a red dot up close, but for me it works fine, as I'm not clearing rooms for a living.   I've considered mounting a red dot on my ACOG, but I prefer not to increase the height of the weapon, however, I'm still considering it at some point in the future.  I went with the 31F over the standard TA31DOC or TA31TRD (red dot already mounted) as when looking through several different ones, I liked the look of the Chevron reticle over the standard crosshairs found on the red dot mounted ACOG units, as I find the multiple crosshairs too "busy" for my vision.  Also, as Don't Tread stated, you won't want the TA55 on that gun, it's a much larger scope (in physical size) than the 4x units, there was a pic on here somewhere of one mounted on an AR10 308, with a 20" barrel, and it still looked rather large sitting on top of that rifle.  The 4x will be perfect for what you're wanting to use it for.

yes ,no no.

You can't co-witnesss a magnified optic with irons.

My three 4X32 ACOGs all have a red dot sight on top, I use the red dot sights as backup, I prefer to practice using the ACOG itself for CQB because it's slower for me, and I need the practice.

Just sitting here thinking about it to me it looks as if there were a way to "focus" the front sight in the trijicons you would be able to cowitness.  I can see my front post in the bottom of my TA11F but there is no way I could use it.  As said before, it looks more like a shadow than anything.  I wonder if it would be possible to have a scope that has no magnification on the lower third or even a crescent with no magnification where it can be used as a lower third cowitness.  If trijicon could come out with something like that I can guarantee they sell a TON!

No, the image gatherered is at the objective and totally screws up where the retilce appears to be.  You could certainly focus the optic to se the sight perfectly... you would not be able to see anything past the sight of course.  Stick your finger in front of your eye at 6"  you can focus on it or your background at a distance, not both.  Magnified optics not only change how much things ove in realation to one another they exaserbate the focus issue.

Use a 1X optic and try to cowitnss and your rifle will have a different zero with teh 1X optic there and your target will be too blurry to see.  This is physics, it is reality, and there is no magical way around such issues.  With a 4X optic it becomes even worse.

Great info. thanks guys!  I think the ideal set up is the 4x32 with a top mount Red Dot.  Mike, I agree I would like to purchase one of the Trijicon combo set up's, but it is interesting to see that they don't offer it with any of the chevron scopes.  My guess is this is a good marketing tactic as people will do just what we are thinking and add the red dot to the chevron scopes for an additional $365 and another $100 for the mount.

DevL from nloc.net?

devl's always pretty adamant about the magnified optic/ co witness thing.

it does not work!