TFB Review: Meprolight MPO PRO-F Closed Emitter Pistol Sight

The Meprolight MPO-F is a closed-emitter pistol sight with an RMR footprint. It was designed to be a very durable optic, to meet the needs of military and law enforcement operations in any environment. Meprolight sent me one out for review, and I’m ready to give you my full and unbiased opinion and feedback on the optic.

Specs & Features

Specs: MPO-F

3 MOA Red Dot, with a selectable 33 MOA Circle/ Dot configurationRMR footprint20,000 plus hour battery life

Features: MPO-F

Automatic / Manual Brightness AdjustmentShake AwakeBattery, hardware, tools, and cleaning cloth includedIP67 WaterproofMEPROGUARD WarrantyFog proof

Package

The MPO PRO-F shares many similarities with the MPO-F open emitter that I reviewed in an earlier article, including the packaging. The MPO PRO-F comes in a nice box, with an installation tool, cleaning cloth, manual, three sets of screws, optic, and optic plate. Note, that a Picatinny mount does not come with the optic.

Design

The MPO PRO-F comes with an adapter plate that fits RMR footprints, and the optic. The sight is fully sealed, with a forward and rear pane of glass. The sealed design prevents the emitter from being blocked by dirt, sand, snow, mud, water, or anything else really. Since the optic is fully sealed, there is no way to install screws through your optic into your slide, so an adapter plate must be used. The adapter plate screws into your slide, or slide optics plate if you run an optics plate, and then the optic mounts on top of the adapter. This results in a little bit of a taller optic. The extra height over bore isn’t really an issue unless you already have some backup iron sights picked out, or like a really low optic.

The optic has a choice of three reticles: dot only, circle only, and dot/circle combo. The reticles are easy to swap through, and the button functionality is the same as other red dots I have in my collection.

Holding down the brightness up button turns the automatic brightness on or off. Holding down the brightness down button cycles through reticles. Tapping the up or down button in manual mode adjusts the brightness. Holding both the up and down button turns the reticle off. Hitting either button again will turn the optic back on. The optic has shake awake as well, so it will turn off to conserve battery life when you put it down for a few minutes and will turn back on when picked up.

The MPO PRO-F has a good feature set. I can’t think of anything else I’d like on an optic.

Compatibility

Unfortunately, the MPO-F did not work on my Glock 19, which was custom-milled for a Holosun 407. My Glock was custom-milled by Maple Leaf Firearms. I sent them a Holosun 407, and they milled the deepest and tightest pocket that they could for the optic. I think they did a great job, and have been happy with the milling work they performed. Usually, a deep and low pocket for a red dot is preferred. The tight pocket prevents the optic from shifting back and forth in recoil and eliminates some of the stress on the mounting screws. I believe they mill to the thousandth of an inch. This optic plate for the MPO PRO-F was just barely different enough that I wasn’t able to get the screws in, of the box. I think I could garage gunsmith it enough to get it to work or send it to a competent gunsmith and that would work, but the shoulder on the screw was just a literal hair too far forward.

I don’t think this is the fault of Meprolight or Maple Leaf. Parts are manufactured to different tolerances and specifications, and different manufacturers have different specs at times. I don’t think Meprolight is manufacturing their plates to the exact specifications of the Holosun 407 because Cameron’s Glock was custom-tailored for a 407.

This optic should work on any kind of plate system. If I had a Glock MOS pistol, this optic should work on it. I have an RMR optic plate for a Beretta 92, and the optic fits well on it. The MPO PRO-F also fits on the Meprolight RMR pattern Picatinny rail mount that comes with the MPO-DF, which is how I was able to review this optic.

Similarly to the MPO-F, I ran into some issues with the reticle under various lighting conditions. In my home office which has a lot of indirect LED lights, I noticed I would sometimes see the ghost of a double dot in the optic window when the brightness was up to high. Sometimes when the dot-only reticle option was selected, you could see the shadow of the circle reticle option.

In some lighting conditions, the dot was perfect. The dot mainly looked good when the brightness was set to a more dim option. I like to turn the brightness up to near eye-searing levels, and this is when I’d see imperfections in the reticle. Sometimes there would even be a little shadow around the reticle that kind of looked like the James Bond Spectre logo, where it looked kind of like it was bleeding.

I also ran into an issue where if the circle/dot combo reticle is chosen and put on a high brightness in a dark room, you can see a little bit of the reflection in the top and left side of the optic housing. At a glance, it can kind of look like there are three reticles. If you dim the optic down to a manageable level, the reticle looks pretty good though. I think you could probably get used to the reflections through training.

The last thing I found regarding the reticle, is that when the sun is at the worst possible angle, and you point the optic at a very specific angle directly into the sun, you can get a little bit of reflection in the glass of the emitter that doesn’t look great. I think this is a fringe case, but you may see this if you shoot directly into a setting sun.

In all cases, the reticle is usable. I mainly mention the reticle observations because I know some people care a lot about the reticle. Take the MSRP into account when comparing to different optics, and see if the tradeoff is worth it to you.

The glass on the optic is really good in my opinion. It is clear and distortion-free. It doesn’t have any fisheye or funny mirror effect. The window size is good and looks to be about the same size as the MPO-F. It has a little bit of a blue tint, but it’s not very noticeable to me.

The automatic brightness works well if a flashlight is shown at the front of the optic, or if you walk into an area with a different lighting setup. The automatic brightness doesn’t work the best if you’re in a dark room, and aiming outside of a window into the full sun.

The optic performed well in live firing of 50 rounds on a PCC and in dry firing. Meprolight’s website boasts of complying with many quality control standards. It’s important to note, that I don’t think they’re just slapping their logos on cheapo red dot optics. It looks like they are proud of their quality control and stand behind their product. I think the optic would do well long term.

Aesthetics

The optic is muted, and low profile. The coating is matte black and does not stand out. The logo is maybe a bronze color and is matte as well. The optic does not stand out, which is nice.

The optic body has backup gutter sights milled in, and what I believe is an inlaid piece of phosphorescent material. The aiming reference is described as a “phosphorescent tertiary aiming reference mark” in the manual and glows in the dark when charged with a flashlight.

My thoughts and opinions

I think it’s a good enclosed optic for the price, if you are ok with the reticle. The glass seems to be very good. The optic body feels to be solid, and would most likely stand up to abuse.

The optic is marketed to the military and law enforcement, so I think I have to judge it to a higher degree because lives might be on the line.

I took an open emitter optic and smeared peanut butter over the emitter to simulate mud being jammed into the optic. I couldn’t get the peanut butter out with my finger. After two swipes with a Q-tip, I was able to see a smeared and blurry reticle in the window. I had to spray the optic with Dawn Power Wash and rinse it off with water to get all of the peanut butter out. If I was out in the field, and the environment was full of thick sticky mud, it would probably be hard and take a lot of effort to clean it out if the pistol was dropped in the mud.

I think if I was in a warzone, and was on a tight budget, I’d consider this optic. The quality control standards of the company and their track record inspire a good feeling of reliability. I would just understand the shortcomings of the reticle, and train with the optic in all conditions that may be experienced, knowing that in some lighting conditions, the reticle might not look great.

For home defense and concealed carry, the enclosed optic can be a little bit overkill, but who’s to say that’s a bad thing.