Well, maybe not brand spankin’ new (it was announced last May) but it’s the first time we’ve seen one in the flesh. Or in the glass and polymer, as it were. The Meprolight M21 is a 30mm reflex sight with a selection of illuminated orange reticles. It’s all powered by light-gathering optical fibers hidden in the face of the scope and backed up by a tritium tube with an advertised brightness half-life of 15 years.
If you’re tired of paying through the nose for lithium CR-123 batteries, or if you’re worried the supply will dry up after the Zombie Apocalypse, Meprolight has got you covered. (At least until the tritium dies, that is.) With no hologram to illuminate or laser to power, the M21 doesn’t use batteries. It also has no adjustments and no moving parts except the (included) QD mount levers and the zero adjustment screws.
With no electronics and no moving parts there’s nothing much that can break, and the M21 claims to be impervious to recoil up to the .500 Beowulf and beyond.
With the 1913 rail adapter, the M21 is 4.5 inches long, 2.1 inches wide, and 2.75 inches tall and weighs 13 ounces. It’s made to co-witness with a standard AR front sight, but it looks way more bitchin’ on a TAR-21 instead. Suggested price is around $500, which includes a 10-year warranty and a 1913-spec QD mount.
We’re begging Meprolight for a test sample; watch this space.
