Nikon P-223 Scope and Burris PEPR AR Mount

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Nikon P-223 3×32 with the BDC Carbine reticle and a Burris AR-PEPR Quick Detach mount. I’d read some good reviews for both, and they both happened to be on sale, so I went ahead and got them. By the way, some sites list the P-223 as having 1/4 MOA target turrets. They’re not. They’re 1/2 MOA.

My plan was to put this combo on the FDE Magpul Fanboy AR (I’ve put an FDE MBUS on that since those pictures were taken).

Two points: They don’t work together, and I’ve decided I’m not a huge fan of the P-223. Let’s explore why.

Here’s a stock photo of the Burris PEPR:

Here’s a stock photo of the Nikon P-223:

And here’s what they look like when you put them together:

I see a problem developing

And there it is

Well, $%^&. That PEPR is solid, though. I am really impressed by it.

Okay. So now what? Well, regular readers will remember that I’ve got an M&P15-22 with a scope on it. That scope is mounted with some $20 QD rings. So it’s time to play musical gun parts.

You have GOT to be kidding me…

If you’ll notice, the scope is as far forward as possible, but the rings aren’t tall enough for the scope to clear the MBUS. So I’ve taken the MBUS off and now I don’t have backup sights on that rifle (and also it’s not sighted in).

So, now that the saga of actually getting it mounted to the gun is over, I was ready to “play” with it.

Now, I’ve heard before that if you put a magnified optic on an AR with a front sight post, the front sight will “disappear” when looking through the scope. I’m pretty sure that I’ve even seen this before with one of oddball’s ARs.

Apparently, the 3x magnification that this scope has is not quite enough. It’s really hard to get a good picture of what I actually see due to eye relief and the size of the lens on my camera, but it’s a lot like this:

Basically, there’s just enough of a ghost for the front sight to make it really annoying and distracting. The BDC Reticle is also a little bit useless for me, since it requires zeroing at 200 yards with 55gr polymer tipped ammo, and the hashes are for 400 and 600 yards. Nikon has a webapp that allows you to recalculate the hashes and do some other stuff, but using Federal XM855 and a 100 yard zero makes the ‘s hashes fall at 325, 513, and 600. The app is kinda neat, but its gimmicky. They have an iPhone app, but no Android version. They also don’t offer custom turrets for the P-223.

So I’m not really sure how this is going to end. I have been toying with completely reconfiguring and repurposing the 12 pound AR and putting this scope on that. I’ve also thought that since I now have two QD scopes maybe I should set them both up with the M&P15-22 and swap them out when I want to play Tactical Tommy and use the 22 as a carbine trainer. I got to play with this scope recently and I really like it, so maybe I’ll get that, too. And now I’m just rambling. 😀

Oh, so I did end up using the PEPR for my other scope. Now I have a $100 mount holding a $50 scope: