There’s lots and lots of talk about optics these days. We have red dots, prisms, LPVOs, traditional variables…you get the idea. And let’s don’t forget they are cheaper than they’ve ever been too. It’s increasingly rare to see an iron-sight-only gun. However, with lots of new shooters wielding optics, we’ve seen a theme appear. It seems that more and more people are bridging optics without knowing why it’s a bad idea.
What’s Bridging Optics?
Heck, people who are bridging optics might not even know what the term means or what they’re doing. Bridging optics is the act of attaching an optic to a portion of the handguard and a portion of the optic’s rail. You know what, just for fun, we’ll talk about not only bridging optics but also mounting them directly to the handguard.
People bridge optics for a lot of reasons. Some just don’t know any better and toss the optic where it fits. Some optics are longer than the optic’s rail, and shooters just grab a set of rings that fit—one ring on the handguard and one on the optic’s rail.
Others might not think they have enough room to use a red dot, magnifier, and set of BUIS. However, these days there is plenty of room for everything with modern mounts, optics, and magnifiers.
Why Is It Bad?
So why is it bad? Well, optics enhance accuracy. Thus, they are required to be zeroed. Zeroing requires a stable mount, and a handguard doesn’t provide stability. Handguards move and flex from the pressure applied by your hands, barrier rests, slings, and more. That will affect your zero significantly.
Mounting to a portion of the handguard or directly to the handguard is a bad idea. Bridging optics sucks and won’t give you the best possible zero or allow you to maintain that high degree of accuracy we all know and love.
Is it me or is that optic on backwards?
ditto, that’s what i was going to say
Its some junk eotech knockoff, it goes that way.
Its one of those sight mark optics their pretty good from what I hear.
Sightmark optics are junk.
Is there any data to support the claims in this article?
Besides the fact handguard moves enough that free floating became the standard because pressure on the handguard could effect accuracy.
Common sense says that putting an optic on a handguard that moves is not a good thing
How much of the sight base would have to be bridged for shifting and rotation to affect zero? I could see if 50% to 75% of the sight base were over the handguard that it could be an issue. But what if it is only 25% or as little as 10% of the front of sight base over the handguard? Also, are critics of Bridging basing their concerns of handguard shifting and rotation only from un-bridged weapons? After all, they don’t bridge so how would they know about handguard shifting and rotation except from their un-bridged weapons. So could Bridging actually limit or eliminate handguard shifting and rotation by rigidly clamping the receiver and handguard rails together?