Meprolight MPO-F: The Raw Truth Review

Recently, I wrote up my after action review of the Appleseed Pistol Clinic. There were two pieces of information in there that you might have caught and I otherwise haven’t been all that vocal about. First, I picked up a Ruger Mark IV Target to serve as my 22LR pistol and pistol marksmanship trainer. I’m not likely to do a write up on that since I’m sure that everyone knows what a Mark IV is at this point. The other piece of information was the optic that I mounted on it: a Meprolight MPO-F.

When I picked up the Mark IV, I knew I was going to mount an optic on it. My experience with pistol dots so far has been positive, with all of my experience going to a Trijicon SRO and a Holosun 507c ACSS. Both have been great and I have no issue suggesting them whatsoever. But I wanted to experiment a little bit. Spending Trijicon money on a rimfire felt excessive, so that was out. On the other hand, I’ve been on a kick of trying things out that aren’t made in China.

One experiment is the Shield SIS2 that’s sitting atop my GHM9. It’s an overall nice sight that hasn’t been without hiccups. It’s also not cheap, rivaling Trijicon money. I could have gone to some of the other Shield options, but kept my eyes out for anything interesting. And then I found something: the new Meprolight MPO series.

Meprolight MPO

At IWA 2024, Meprolight revealed the whole MPO family. Standing for Mepro Pistol Optic, the whole family includes both full size “F” models and slim “S” models. The F models use a standard RMR footprint while the S models utilize the J-Point/RMSc footprint. Then, you have the PRO models, which are enclosed optics, but keep the same footprint.

For the enclosed PRO models, it looks like Meprolight includes an adapter plate system. The plate itself screws onto the required footprint, and then the optic uses a horizontal clamping mechanism (a la an ACRO mount) to hold itself in place. Personally, that seems like a lot of potential failure points if you’re already using an RMR plate for your pistol, then the Mepro adapter plate on top of the RMR plate, then the optic clamped on top of that. That’s the adaptor plate, game, sadly.

Luckily, the open emitter models mount direct to their supported footprint. I selected the MPO-F as my optic of choice for this gun, and mounted it atop a Lobos Industries Mark IV RMR mount.

As far as country of origin, all of the MPO sights are designed in Israel. As of this writing, the two least expensive models that only have a single dot (DF and DS) are made in China, while the rest are made in the Philippines. Word is that Meprolight is looking to move all manufacturing for these units out of China.

MPO-F Vital Specs

Here’s the important stuff

Out of the Box

I ordered the MPO-F from EuroOptic at retail price using my own funds back in July 2024.

The optic came well-packaged in a compact white box. The box contained a manual, battery, three sets of mounting screws, and a tool for mounting and adjusting zero. The sight itself looks and feels stout. The 7075 T6 aluminum shell is 4.2 mm thick on the top and 4.4 mm thick along the sides. The base, which also houses the emitter, is 7.2 mm thick.

The viewing window of the MPO-F is both taller and wider than an RMR or a Holosun 507c. It’s smaller than competition-oriented sights like the Trijicon SRO or 507 Comp, though. There is a light blue tint to the lens to aid with reticle contrast in bright conditions.

On the right side is a screw-down battery tray for the CR1632 coin cell as well as the windage adjustment. On the left side is the two illumination adjustment buttons, both sealed with rubber gasket covers. Just below the lens on the front of the optic is the forward-facing light sensor, which helps with the automatic brightness adjustment. I’ve seen this before on the Shield SIS2, and it works well. The new Trijicon RMR-HD has a similar configuration.

At the rear of the optic is a centered photoluminescent vertical stripe, much like you’d see on some rear iron sights. I suppose this is there to help you index the sight by giving you a center point, but I’ve not really put it to much use.

Windage and elevation work in 1 MOA increments, which is adequate for pistol usage.

Reticle Design and Illumination

All of the MPO family (save for the inexpensive DS and DF options) have three reticles available. You can have a combination 3 MOA dot with surrounding 33 MOA circle, the 3 MOA dot by itself, or the 33 MOA circle by itself. Cycling between them is a matter of holding the “down” illumination button for 3 seconds.

Personally, I’ve kept it on the combination circle dot reticle. At my recent pistolseed event, I found that the outer 33 MOA dot provides a nice framing of a target to draw attention while the center 3 MOA dot gives a fine aiming point.

The illumination gets plenty bright for outside use, so that’s not a concern. When you bump up against the brightest or dimmest settings, the sight blinks the reticle a couple of times to indicate you’ve reached the limit. Nice feature.

The automatic illumination works reasonably well, adjusting up and down about every three quarters of a second. It’s not as fast as my Shield SIS2, which seems to be constantly adjusting in very short intervals, but it works and does a reasonable job keeping up with light conditions. Turning auto brightness on and off requires pressing and holding the “up” button for three seconds.

In certain lighting conditions, usually with light coming at the front of the optic from about a 45 degree angle while pointing at a dark surface, I’ve spotted the reflection of the emitter unit in the lens (even with the emitter turned off). It’s not a big deal, but it’s there.

Range Testing

Seeing as I mounted the MPO-F to a 22LR Mark IV pistol, it’s not like there’s a whole lot of abuse that it’s going to deal with. Not only is a 22LR light recoiling, the design of the Mark IV means that the optic mounts to the non-reciprocating mass of the upper receiver while the bolt cycles inside of it. It’s practically the easiest condition an optic could be mounted to for a pistol. There isn’t much of a torture test to report on here.

That said, TFB did mount it on a short barrel shotgun and an AR-15, where it did just fine. To counter, though, one comment on that review indicates that their MPO-S shattered after 6 rounds and the replacement didn’t have working buttons. Another review on EuroOptic states that the lens shattered after 8 shots. I’ve searched all over for other impressions from users, and they are generally positive- but be aware of those reports.

Given that Meprolight is an Israeli company, I also can’t help but wonder how many “negative” experiences are also coming from politically-motivated people with a bone to pick with Israel. I’m not saying that’s happening, but I’ve definitely seen it before.

At the range, I zeroed the MPO-F for my pistol dot standard of 10 yards. Zeroing was uneventful, even though I forgot to bring the actual sight adjustment tool provided by Meprolight. Luckily it’s just a small slotted screw adjustment, and the range had a toolkit available.

The initial trip was about 100 rounds of 22 LR. Then I took it to the Appleseed Pistol Clinic and ran another 200 or so, earning my Pistoleer patch and a special patch for cleaning the Red Coat target as well. No issues with the optic whatsoever.

Final Thoughts

So what do I think? Honestly, I really like this little dot. The MSRP is $319 and the street price is down around $280 for the full size open emitter model. Design-wise it has a strong resemblance to the Holosun 507k X2, but larger and using an RMR footprint. That’s not a bad thing, as the 507k seems pretty well liked across the board- and the MPO-F is not made in China.

I’m not one to abuse my equipment and torture test it for the clicks and views, so I really can’t say all that much about long term durability. What I can say is that I’m happy with the MPO-F, and plan to keep running it on the Mark IV for the foreseeable future. It’s a nice balance of size and capability that I think will last me a long time.