TFB Review: Meprolight MPO-F Red Dot Sight

Meprolight has added new open emitter red dot sights to their catalog, including today’s subject, the Meprolight MPO-F. The MPO-F is a Full-size and full-featured red dot sight with the RMR footprint, battery door, two-button operation and three reticle options. I recently reviewed the smaller MPO-S with the RMSc footprint, but with the larger footprint of the MPO-F, also comes a larger objective lens for viewing targets. Let’s take a look.

Meprolight @ TFB:

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TFB Review: Meprolight MPO-F Red Dot Sight

The Meprolight MPO-F red dot sight does indeed feature a larger objective lens and an overall larger profile than that of the MPO-S. Seeing more of your target is always a plus, especially in defensive situations or even while hunting. Aside from the size, both MPO optics have similar, yet slightly different aesthetics. The face of the MPO-S has a forward swept hood to protect the objective lens while mounted on pistols concealed in people’s pants, whereas the MPO-F is designed for full-sized pistols that utilize a larger, more accommodating holster. The Meprolight MPO-F is of course also mountable on long guns as well, which I’ve done for this review since I don’t currently own any semi-auto pistols that are cut for optics. I’m working on that aspect though and hope to do a follow-up soon. In the meantime, my son and I put the MPO-F through its paces on my Remington 870 SBS and one of my AR-15s.

The aft end of the MPO-F red dot sight sports two rear index points, one is in the form of a shallow squared channel in the center of the housing. This machined channel also acts to protect the elevation adjustment dial. The other rear indexing point is a single, centered photoluminescent stripe that glows in the dark quite well off of a short charge. The windage adjustment sits on the right side of the MPO-F’s housing, which is slightly protected by a scallop that widens to the front. Both the elevation and windage adjustments have tactile clicks, but can not be heard.

One aspect I really like about the Meprolight MPO series is the choice of three reticles, or “three segment reticle” as Meprolight calls them. The reticles can be easily switched by holding the down arrow on the left side of the housing, from a dot in a horseshoe, just a horseshoe, or just the dot. The 3 MOA red dot is great, but if it begins to wash out on a really bright day on a light-colored target, switching to the dot and horseshoe really brightens it up. There’s no memory to remember your last setting, so if you turn the MPO-F off, it will default to the dot and horseshoe reticle when you turn it back on. The Meplrolight MPO series features Shake Awake technology and will remain on the reticle of your choosing once it’s awoken. Another aspect of the Meprolight reticles I love is that when you adjust to the upper and lower extremes of brightness, the reticle will flash to let you know you can stop pushing the button.

Field Use

I first mounted the Meprolight MPO-F red dot sight on my Remington 870 short-barreled shotgun since I knew it would give the biggest recoil impulse of my arsenal, especially with 1-ounce slugs moving at 1600 fps. I was a bit surprised that when I mounted the MPO to the shotgun I didn’t have to adjust the reticle at all. It was spot on at 25 yards. My son and I shot buckshot and a mix of slugs at 15 and 25 yards. We also shot some clay pigeons out of the sky using number 7 target loads with the MPO mounted. Needless to say, we had a literal blast, and the Meprolight MPO-F held up without any hiccups.

The 3 MOA dot reticle was bright enough to get the job done without having to switch to the other reticle options. I noticed that while I was looking through the MPO-F optic, if the lighting caught the emitter at the right angle, I could see the reflection of the whole emitter at once even though I only had the 3 MOA dot illuminated. This wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me, but it’s just something that can be slightly distracting at first. This is less noticeable while the larger 33 MOA ring is illuminated. In the following image on the left side, you can see a slight halo around the reticle, though it’s more detailed to the naked eye.

The Meprolight MPO series is equipped with a light sensor that is utilized in the automatic brightness setting. My personal preference is to use red dots in the manual brightness setting, but I tried the auto setting anyway. Overall it seemed to do pretty well at gauging which level to adjust itself to. However, when moving the sensor to a full sunlit window, the reticle’s brightness didn’t increase and it was extremely hard to see. Although the auto brightness isn’t my preferred option, it’s there and adds one more capability to its feature set. While I worked night shifts with a red dot-equipped duty pistol, I generally kept my brightness setting to a level slightly under halfway and then could adjust up from there if entering a brightly lit building or doing daytime training. In the comment section below, tell us your preferences when it comes to manual and automatic brightness settings on red dots.

The MPO series of red dots are listed as night vision compatible, so I verified that with my Arken Optics ZULUS.