Bought myself an M1A last week (scout) My eyes arn't what they used to be as far as the iron sights go. It was suggested I buy a C-More systems red dot 8moa sight for it. The rifle comes with a short mounting rail. I've always relied on just iron sights and never had anyexperience with these red dot optics, any advice?

I'm interested as well.

I've got 60 yr old eyeballs that don't get along well with irons at all anymore.
I put an Ultimak rail on my 18" LBR and installed a ML3 Aimpoint w/2 moa. It rocks, I've very pleased with it. Sorry I don't have a pic. Perhaps someone will join in with one.

The M1A was designed to use irons, it's not as friendly to mount a RDS like a flattop AR is. You want to get the RDS mounted as low as possible. The Ultimak rail suggested is a good way to do this. I used the stock scout rail with an Aimpoint T1 and Larue low mount, and put a cheek riser on the stock. It's very fast, in fact I took 1st place in my local carbine match a few months back with this setup (haha I kicked ass over everyone running the AR platform ).

Got the Ultimak and a Burris Fastfire on mine, it will co-witness nicely w/ proper cheek-weld. The Burris may not be 'mil-spec' but as they put them on slides of automatic pistols they have to be somewhat tough. Beware the setups that put the optic too high, then you'll need some huge cheek pad or something to accurately shoot. Just my .002 worth...

In 04' I deployed with a TRW M14 National Match.  Didn't have a decent scope but we had plenty of Aimpoints, EOTech and CMores.  Had the supply guy get me a Springfield Armory Scout Rail and I signed out a EOTech 552.  I liked the fact that the EOTech was out for when I wore my MICH helmet and PVS-7 NVD I could still index the sight and shoot at night.




I had several guns to choose from everytime I went out.  Had a M9 and M4A1 standard issue then there was the M1911A1, M79, M249, and Mk13 (Rem 700 .300 WM) that I also signed for.  Used the same rifle at the All Army Matches at Benning shooting irons at 600,800 and 1000yds.

CD

Love my Aimpoint Micro on my LRB! It's on an ARMS 18 mount though. But the scout mount will have the same effect.







You may also want to consider a low power scope. They make low power scout scopes, often 2x power. Though this is a regular 1-4x on my rifle. You can always skip the scout mount and go with a regular scope mount. Because an 8moa dot is going to be pretty big at 100 yards. If you are going the red dot route better off with a 4moa dot.

Nice rifle, I'm going to have to do a little research on this stuff. Stopped in Cabella's today and looked at some of their red dot sights (EO Tech, and a couple others I haden't heard of before) Those EO sights looked awfully big  but maybe that's just me. Anyway, thanks for the info.

I priced the EO's, you're talking over $600.00 for one! I hadn't thought about a low power scope, but maybe thats the way to go, cuz i gotta tell you, I just couldn't see the target looking thru those iron sights!

This is getting interesting. I took a look at the B Jones site, and the rear ap sight for the M1A, veeeeerrrry interesting!  I'm also interested in that low powered scope you have on your rifle.  I have the Scout version but the mounting rail is forward of the receiver, if I mounted a scope on that rail the rear of the scope might interfere with ejecting shells. My brother has a Chinese knock-off red dot sight  I'm going to experiment with but I really like the way that scope looks on your rifle, plus the possibilities of a B Jones sight, I gots some thinkin to do!

This is what I'm going to do to my m1a. The mount is $45. The dot sight for me burris) will be $175.

Total $230. You get great SA as aimpoints have a huge mount and EO techs would take up too much space for that little point.

Ya know, I really love the simplicity there.

Yep, I have a socom so my shorter barrel I can't hit things out too far, so might as well have a quick reflex target system and I can't think of anything simpler that does not take away your situational awareness or add excessive bulk to an already heavy rifle. :0

I know the OP wasn't heading this direction, but I thought I might through this out for anyone else considering red dots.

I've been messing around with my SOCOM for quite some time now and I think I've tried just about everything in the way of sighting systems. I originally set it up like this:



Just my experience and a FYI for anyone considering a $700 dot sight:

I just couldn't bear to obscure those magnificent M14 irons. I don't have stellar vision anymore but I consistently surprise myself with the M14 irons out to distances that I can barely see targets. I used a NM front and SOCOM aperture and It worked great at the range but turned out to be terrible in low light conditions at distance. You can see the dot but the optics darken the already darkened image making acquisition of a hard to see target in a low light environment even more difficult. The aperture sight makes it even worse. I love M14 sights but they do darken everything just as a camera aperture would.

I ended up leaving the Ultimak rail, selling the MI mount (that used to mount my PEQ) and just using iron's during the day and clipping the PEQ on the Ultimak at night.

So if it's only short range you're after I think your heading down the right track. Just don't sell short the SOCOM at distance. You've got different come-ups but should be able to hit a 12" steel at 300yrds I would think (mine does after ejecting the defective guide rod and bolt).  I know people have had issues, but the 16" barrel shouldn't be a hindrance at 4-600 yrds if you know your come-ups.

I see what you did there, looks great, and when you think about it that mount is really the only way to mount a scope like that and still keep it low enought to be able to see thru it properly.

Now that doesen't look out of place, when I was looking at EO sights they just looked way too large and awkward. On top of that, I can't really spend that much for those kind of sights. I've always tended towards iron sights and although I wear glasses getting a good glare-free sight picture has gotten real tough these days. I may go the Jones hooded sight thing first as it's the cheapest .