Meprolight Mepro Foresight — Forward-Looking Red Dot

Meprolight's Foresight is on the cutting-edge of sight technology.

November 03, 2020 By David M. Fortier

Modern technology has steadily become more common in our rather traditional firearms industry. Today all manner of shooting accessories incorporate technology not dreamed of 20 years ago. Meprolight’s new Mepro Foresight red dot sight is a pretty interesting example of what can be incorporated into a red dot sight.

Meprolight calls it the first “augmented” red-dot sight, projecting real-time data to the user’s field of view. What does this mean? Basically, as you look through the sight you can see multiple displays that provide information in addition to the aiming point or reticle.

The Foresight’s display window is pretty big, measuring 33x20mm. Information displayed in the field of view includes a battery life gauge, leveler to prevent cant, Bluetooth connection, compass heading and even a shot counter so you know exactly how many rounds you have fired. The large window is also an advantage if you are mounting a night vision monocular, such as a PVS-14, behind it.

There are five preset tactical reticles that can be easily changed. You can adjust reticle brightness manually with the push of a button, or you can take advantage of an integrated light sensor that automatically determines the proper reticle brightness.

If you don’t like the five preset reticles, the Foresight’s Bluetooth connectivity allows you to connect it to your smartphone and select different reticle designs from Meprolight’s large database. The Bluetooth feature also ensures you can update the sight when new features become available.

Zeroing an optic can be a bit tedious for some shooters, so Meprolight incorporated technology it calls Automatic Digital Zeroing. You don’t even have to touch the optic to zero it.

Through the Double Shoot mobile app, available for either iOS or Android, just tap the Auto Zeroing button to initiate Double Shoot’s patented zeroing functionality. Fire a multi-shot group and take a picture of the group using the app. The system analyzes your mean point of impact and automatically calculates a zeroing correction, which is transmitted to the sight via Bluetooth.

You do not need to spin knobs, count clicks, scratch your head on m.o.a. or mils or do anything. There is no manual procedure to zero the sight. Some shooters will like the auto-zero feature, and some probably will not.

The Mepro Foresight also has the ability to store multiple zeroes. Shooters can save up to 10 firearm profiles in the app, so the sight can be used with multiple guns without the need to re-zero. In theory you can flip the QD levers and move it between firearms the optic has previously been zeroed on. This saves time—and the money you would use on the ammunition needed to re-zero.

You’ll notice there no user-accessible battery compartment in the sight body. That’s because power is provided by a rechargeable battery that’s charged using a common USB-C cable. So there are no batteries to buy or swap out. The Foresight incorporates a power-saving feature to increase run- time. When the battery indicator gets low, you simply plug it in and recharge it, just like your smart phone. Again, some will like this feature, and some will not.

At 4.6x2.3x2.6 inches, the sight is on the large side. It weighs 9.9 ounces. Two quick-release levers are provided to facilitate easy mounting onto a 1913 rail.

I mounted the Mepro Foresight onto an AR-15 carbine to see what it was like to use. Having real-time data displayed in the field of view reminded me of a video game at first. Initially, I was worried about the field of view being cluttered and distracting, but I did not find this to be case.

The Israeli Defense Force has done studies on the effect of cant at the ranges at which their infantry typically engage, so I was not surprised to see the cant indicator. It allows you to quickly level the rifle, and after just a small amount of use, it became intuitive to use the indicator as a reference point.

The compass heading is a military feature. It’s not something most civilians will have a use for, but it looks cool.

Zeroing was straightforward, and the reticle/display illumination worked well in a variety of light conditions from bright sunlight to dusk. Reticles consist of a dot, dot in a circle, dot in a circle with horizontal leveling stadia, a simple BDC reticle and a German No. 1.

This provided a bit of flexibility whether shooting very close or past 300 yards. By placing the buttons on the top of the body, a magnifier or night-vision device can easily be mounted behind the optic without it interfering with access to the optic’s controls.

I know many will love the amount of technology, incorporated into this sight. Others will not. It just depends upon your point of view. If you do love technology though, this is definitely a sight to be aware of.