Okay, this may be a noob question but I was wondering...what is the point of co-witnessing a BUIS with an Aimpoint or EOTech? Isn't the whole point of red-dot sights to not have to find the little hole of the rear sight and line it up with the front sight? So then why co-witness? Is it just so you're more likely to be on target?



B_D

Quoted: Okay, this may be a noob question but I was wondering...what is the point of co-witnessing a BUIS with an Aimpoint or EOTech? Isn't the whole point of red-dot sights to not have to find the little hole of the rear sight and line it up with the front sight? So then why co-witness? Is it just so you're more likely to be on target? B_Dhug.gif

What would you do if your EOTech or Aimpoint went down? Would you want to use your irons through your now DEAD optic? Yes you would. This is the purpose of co-witnessing (to be able to view your irons through an optic).

like ZBM2 said, if your optics fail you will need to go to you BUIS and you want them to Co witness so that you are shooting the weapon from the same position as you where when your optic went down,  it gives you the same cheek weld no need to find a new one.

As was mentioned above a cowitness with optic and BUIS does not mean you use them together when shooting.  A cowitnessed setup allows you to use your BUIS through your optic if it fails.

Another reason a cowitnessed setup is nice is that it allows you to quickly confirm that your optic or BUIS is still zeroed correctly.

There are currently two types of cowitness setups.  Absolute cowitness puts both optic and BUIS on the same plane, think of an EOTech mounted directly to the receiver.   Then there's the lower 1/3 cowitness which puts the BUIS in the lower 1/3 of the optic sight picture, Aimpoints are usually cowitnessed in this fashion as well as the EOTech on a riser such as the LaRue mount.  

There are pros and cons for each method but both work just fine and the choice really depends on what works best for the user.