Meprolight MOR Reflex Sight

[Kunal Biswas]

Since MAC started to review the new IMI Tavor, he has been searching for the perfect optic for the Israeli bullpup. It just so happens that I have a Meprolight MOR on T&E from The Mako Group, the official importer of all the Meprolight optics for the North American market and the optic of choice by IDF Special Forces.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were one of the first militaries to understand the importance of an optic equipped rifle for every infantryman. The standard reflex sight of the IDF is the Meprolight M21, but a select few in each unit are issued a specialized reflex sight with a built-in laser designator. The first in this new class of sights was the MARS (Multi-purpose Aiming Reflex Sight). The MARS integrated an AA battery-powered red reflex sight, dual laser designators and a tethered pressure switch for activation in a single unit.

A small number of MARS sights were acquired by the US military during the early days of the War on Terrorism and the US Marines used it in the furious close-quarter fights during the Battle of Fallujah. However, the MARS sight was quickly withdrawn from US service due to some severe design issues. The MARS has a ruggedly built cast aluminum housing but this makes it a bit heavy at almost 16 ounces. The field of view is narrow for a reflex sight due to its smallish 25mm objective lens. The biggest complaint against the MARS was the short 200-hour battery life. Backup iron sight were out of the question since the MARS is too tall to allow for a proper co-witness.

The IDF isn't happy with the MARS either, but they have retained it in service since it's the only commonly available weapon mounted laser designator they have in inventory. I have been told that IDF is not buying any new MARS sights and their last order was several years ago. Meprolight was tasked by the IDF to develop a replacement for the MARS. In 2010, Meprolight released the Mepro MOR and it quickly became the favorite weapon sight of the IDF Special Forces.

The Meprolight MOR has a lot of interesting technologies and design features packaged into a single unit. It's so feature rich that it took me a while to figure out how the MOR's tri-power (fiber optic, tritium and battery) illumination system works. Another well-known reflex sight that has a similar tri-power illumination is the Trijicon TX30 TriPower. The Trijicon is known to have similar drawbacks of of the MARS, namely a short battery life. It also suffers from dim tritium and light leak through its fiber optic collector when battery illumination is in use. Meprolight took a different approach in designing the MOR's tri-power illumination system. The tritium and fiber optic components are essentially the same as the Meprolight M21 reflex sight. Right behind that system you have the battery powered illumination technology used in the new Meprolight M5 reflex sight. This is a complex and expensive arrangement of systems but it effectively addresses all the design deficiencies of both the MARS and the Trijicon TriPower.

From the front you can see the dual battery compartments. The two AA batteries offer redundancy as the system only requires one working battery to function.

The 30mm objective lens on MOR offers a similar field of view as most of the reflex sights on the market. The lens uses a greenish coating like the M21 but the lens seems to be a bit brighter on the MOR. The MOR's fiber optic illumination is a bright orange colored dot when used during daylight hours. The tritium illumination at night is dimmer than the Meprolight M21's for use with night vision equipment. The battery-powered illumination has 3 levels of adjustment and shares the same orange reticle color. The available reticles are a 3 MOA dot or a Bullseye that features a dot inside of a segmented circle. Although the MOR has a polymer housing it still weights 15.8 ounces. The MOR's use of two AA batteries in two separated sealed storage compartments contributes to the weight of the unit.

The MOR features a 4.3 MOA dot which is on the large size with Aimpoint offering 2 MOA dots and EOTech offering 1 MOA dots.

The advanced polymer material used in the construction of the MOR makes it scratch and shock resistant in addition to being submersible in water. The non-removable tethered pressure switch can be mounted to the handguard of an AR15 but is designed to fit inside the Tavor's handguard. The Tavor's handguard features a special button cutout for concealment of the tether cable and allows for flush mounting the switch on the left side of the front handguard. The Meprolight MOR mounts to any 1913 style picatinny rail by way of its dual QD levers. If you have an IDF version of the U.S. Tavor, you can check with the Mako Group to see if they can supply you with the special mount to adapt it to your rifle.

On my AR-15, the MOR has a lower sight height than the MARS but it's still too tall for an effective co-witness with the iron sights. The tops of the iron sights are barely above bottom of the lens. The Mako Group told me that the IDF is not concerned with using backup iron sight with the MOR since it offers redundancy from its dual reflex sights, lasers and batteries. In fact, IDF soldiers that are equipped with the Meprolight MOR on their M16 or M4 are not issued a flip-up rear back-up sight. Even the power system of the MOR has built-in redundancy as the MOR's as the entire system will run on a single AA battery from either battery compartment. If one battery dies or fails, the MOR automatically switches to the second battery. As long as there's ambient light, the fiber optic will illuminate the MOR's reticle. The tritium illumination is warrantied for 10-years and it should be remain usable for 13-14 years. Should an operator find themselves in a rare light condition rendering the dual-illumination unusable, all they need to do is flip the power source selector switch to enable the battery-powered illuminated reticle on the Meprolight MOR.

Source : Meprolight MOR Reflex Sight | The Bang Switch

 

[cobra commando]

In some other news related to "Meprolight"
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Washout Remover For Meprolight M21

The Meprolight M21, best known for being the favorite optic of many IDF soldiers, has one flaw: if you use it in relative darkness and are aiming at a very well lit target, the reticle brightness can be on the dim side, making it hard to aim. The M21 is lit by a fiber optic collector, with additional light coming from a tritium lamp, not by batteries, so it works well both during the night and day just so long as the target is not lit up brightly relative to the optic/ operator. This problem is well known and would not stop me buying a M21, in fact I wanted to buy one earlier this year but when the company stopped returning my emails I gave up and spent my money elsewhere, but some ingenious person came up with a solution: a little battery powered light that attaches to the M21"²s outer-case to shine light into the the fiber optic collector. Go ahead and read the review of the WOR (Wash Out Remover) at
The Bang Switch. Unfortunately The Bang Switch did not say who makes the WOR or where you can guy it. My Googling did not turn up any retailers selling it. If you know where it can be bought, please post a link in the comments below.

Washout Remover For Meprolight M21 | The Firearm Blog

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Both reflex are great ones, ' Mepro MOR ' ( Batt powered ) & ' M21 ' ( Solar powered ) of Meprolight..

Though M21 sound better option as its lighter and batt free..

 

[sayareakd]

MOR's tri-power (fiber optic, tritium and battery) is very expensive, almost three or four times cost of INSAS, USD 2000.