Brownells Gun Tech™ Caleb Savant recently extolled the benefits of offset sights, either as backups or to supplement your main optic for addressing close-range targets. (Check out our earlier Quick Tip episode, "Setting Up Offset Sights on Your AR-15".) Today, he heads to the range to show us the basics of using offset sights. For demonstration purposes, Caleb's installed a Leupold DeltaPoint red dot on his AR-15 using an Arisaka offset mount. Everything he says applies to BOTH red dot sights and "iron" sights.
It's important to cant (tilt) the rifle enough so the offset sight sits DIRECTLY OVER the bore. But don't cant it too far! When the sight isn't directly over the bore, your point of impact will be either too far to the left or too far to the right. You'll see examples of both in the video, plus a view of how the correct, sight-over-bore alignment looks. Using offset sights doesn't always come naturally, so you're probably need to put in some serious practice at the range. You won't have the same cheekweld with the offset sights as you do with your primary optic. So at first you'll have to keep checking to make sure the offset sight is directly over the barrel until it becomes second nature.
