Co witness sights for 500 with RDS

[JDXX]

I put the ATI Halo side saddle on my Mossberg 500. This side saddle set up hangs from a picatinny rail that obscures the front bead sight completely, which is fine as I am putting a Holosun 503cu circle dot sight on it. Not that it should ever need it but I would like to have back up iron sights that can be seen through the red dot optic "co-witness".

I have looked around a bit but haven't really found what I am looking for. There are quite a few rail mounted sights out there and a few clamp on front sights too. What I cant find is any information on what if anything will work together with my rail mount rear and bare barrel front.

I'm sure someone else has put together a setup similar to what I want. I just have not been able to find them yet. Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks.

 

[nitesite]

Good luck. I doubt that it is even feasible in any sort of practical way. But good luck. I would love to see a pic.

 

[BoBo522]

The only thing I've found that's close to what you're after is this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TBESVCK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have it on my Maverick 88. There's a red dot securely mounted on top, but I can still see the bead easily through the channel at the bottom of the rail mount. I can't fathom any way you'd be able to cowitness unless you ditch the pic rail and mill the receiver for an optic, similar to how the 940 Tactical and 590S Optic Ready come from the factory.

 

[JDXX]

I found these and though they are pricey i put a query in with the company to find out the heights. I should have my RDS later today so once i get it mounted up ill have a better idea of what im looking for.

 

[JDXX]

I also have a set of Magpul BUIS that have been superceded by an etched retical prism scope on my AR15. I thought about trying one of those barrel clamp rails and seeing if they line up enough to work. The Magpul BUIS are pretty tall when deployed though.

 

[cmcdonald]

I get what you're trying to do. I just wonder though, how rigid would a clamp on front sight be anyway? I mean if we're talking about wanting co-witness and buis...you must intend to mean business. I can envision a clamped front sight getting easily canted with a pretty light knock (gun clatters to the floor) then you're still SOL from any distance or any interpretation of "accuracy" and back to relying on the scattergun to do what it's made for anyway...hit $hit without thinking too hard about it.

IMHO, I'd think you'd be better served by a quick release mount for your RDS and forget co-witness. You want dead nuts accuracy and co-witness? You should prolly think more about a rifle. If you want something light and handy, lot's of PCC's that pack a whallop out there that fill that role real nice.

By all means though...put up some pics if you find a set up that works for you.

 

[JDXX]

I get what you're trying to do. I just wonder though, how rigid would a clamp on front sight be anyway? I mean if we're talking about wanting co-witness and buis...you must intend to mean business. I can envision a clamped front sight getting easily canted with a pretty light knock (gun clatters to the floor) then you're still SOL from any distance or any interpretation of "accuracy" and back to relying on the scattergun to do what it's made for anyway...hit $hit without thinking too hard about it.

IMHO, I'd think you'd be better served by a quick release mount for your RDS and forget co-witness. You want dead nuts accuracy and co-witness? You should prolly think more about a rifle. If you want something light and handy, lot's of PCC's that pack a whallop out there that fill that role real nice.

By all means though...put up some pics if you find a set up that works for you.

I definitely thought about a quick release for the red dot but even then the picatinny rail obscures the factory bead. I looked at larger beads and such but none would be tall enough to see over the rail, at least I doesn't seem like it. To be honest I don't want to mess with having to remove the red dot anyway.

So I've got parts on the way that will hopefully give me exactly what I am looking for which is lower 1/3 co witness through the red dot. I will update here when I get everything installed and verify it works as intended.

Oh yeah and not to worry we have rifles and handguns that can also fill the HD role. I just wanted to build a shotty that fits the bill too!

Don't get me started on the PCC's! I'm not supposed to buy any more guns right now, which IS a problem. Hahaha!

 

[cmcdonald]