Mounting a Red Dot

[2cool]

I have a Hi-Point carbine, 40 S&W. If you don't like them, spare me, please. I have a Tru-glo red dot I got for cheap. I have never used one. The directions are pretty straightforward, but I need to know ONE thing. Do I remove the front sight too? It has a post in a circle. Frankly, it's a real problem lining up the rear peep, the front post, AND the front circle; especially in a quick draw scenario. I have access to a 50-yd. range, so for a 100-yd. maximum effective range, should I set the sights dead on @ 50 or low?
Thank you in advance for the torrent of good information to follow!!

 

[Roadkingnc]

I would set it dead on at 25 yds. If the front sight doesnt interfere with your line of sight leave it on

 

[SZR48207]

It's a personal preference thing. If you leave the iron sights, you have what is called a "co-witness".

A co-witness can either be dead on, or typically lower 1/3. The dead on co-witness means all 3 are lined up and you would use it in that configuration. A lower 1/3 co-witness means the iron sights line up in the lower 1/3 of the "scope tube" of your red dot.

The rationale behind the co-witness is that the optic can fail, in which case you still want backup iron sights (BUIS).

If you have a co-witness with a red dot, in the event the dot fails to illuminate, you can still look through the glass but use your iron sights.

 

[2cool]

The way the gun is built, the red dot interferes with the rear sight, and I have to put it about 8 inches away from my eye. Just experimenting today, I would be concerned about parallax having the glass so far away. I can easily see the front sight post through the glass, so would I have the dot just above the sight hood?
Looks like Santa (a.k.a. my beloved) will have to get me a laser boresight kit so I can set these properly.

 

[chevrofreak]

The distance from your eye isn't going to affect anything. Most red dots are used at longer eye relief than that.

Check the parallax for yourself. Set the sight on an upside down glass on your window sill and look through it at a target 25-50 yards away. Move your head side to side and up and down taking the dot to the edges of the sight tube. Did the dot move around on your target? If it is a decent sight it shouldn't have any parallax at distances past 25 yards, no matter how far it is from your eye.

 

[2cool]

Thanks, I'll try that.