The Meprolight Foresight snuck up on me at SHOT Show 2020. I had heard nothing of it until a friend of a friend started talking about it in the Media Room at SHOT. That drove me to go give it a look, and I was impressed enough to pick one up. What sets the Foresight apart from other red dot is its compatibility with your average smartphone and the internal features. The Meprolight Foresight is a complete heads up display that is more than just a weapon sight.
What’s a Smart Optic?
I call the Meprolight Foresight a smart optic, but Meprolight calls it an augmented sight. Built into the sight itself is a reticle of course, as is a compass that utilizes degree readings and a sight leveler. Additionally, the right side of the optic will show you the Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, the battery meter, and the brightness level. The latter three disappear after showing up when the optic is turned on, or when any button is pressed.
The Meprolight Foresight also links to your smartphone via Bluetooth. This allows you to zero the weapon just using a scale on the application. It’s quick and quite convenient and really nice. Just dial in your adjustments and sync the app to your optic and it automatically makes the adjustment for you.
The app also allows you to choose which five reticles you want from the twenty provided. The reticles are diverse and different reticles make sense for different weapons. Some are better suited for rifles, others, for shotguns, and some for CQB on any PCC or subgun.
The optic can also be updated and the next update will even have a round counter that will allow you to track the rounds left in your magazine.
Be Creative
You can also create up to 10 unique zeroing profiles. The more creative you are the more you’ll enjoy this optic. Of course, you can just have ten different guns setup with the optic. However, why not set up a profile for the ammo you use for training and another the ammo you use for home defense or duty use?
My girlfriend absolutely loves the CZ Scorpion, but our zeroes are slightly different. I have one saved for her and a separate saved for me. I have two AR 15s saved on the gun, one with a typical 16-inch barrel and another with a 7.5-inch barrel. Similar weapons, but the zero is very different for both weapons.
Shotgunners will appreciate a zero for bird, buck, and slugs as hunters and this optic makes it easy to do so. The more creative you are the more you will like this optic.
About the Foresight
Outside of the app, the optic can be zeroed in a menu built into the optic. This isn’t as fast or as convenient, but it’s doable. The optic also runs off of a rechargeable system. You can’t swap batteries on the fly. Instead, the optic uses a USB C cord that plugs into the wall. The downside would be the inability to swap batteries in the field, which keeps this from being a military optic.
For home defense, hunting, police use, and plinking the Foresight is perfectly suitable. The battery seems to last forever. I used it for roughly 3 hours today on and off and the battery is still at 97%. The length the battery will last will depend on the reticle design and brightness level. Also, there is a low battery mode that eliminates everything but the reticle. Simply hit the middle button once to switch to low battery mode.
The Foresight at the Range
I’ve zeroed the optic to a ton of different weapons. This includes the Benelli M4, the Tavor TS 12, the SAINT Victor AR 15, a CZ Scorpion Micro, and a homebrew 7.5 inch AR 15 pistol. The Scorpion was zeroed twice, once for me, once for my girlfriend. Zeroing everything is very easy to do and takes hardly any time. The app is very convenient and it makes zeroing quicker than turning turrets.
The 9 levels of brightness make it able to be used during the middle of the night and in the brightest part of the day. The different reticles are quite handy and for the most discerning shooter, you can choose your favorites for each weapon. For example, I like a box style reticle for my shotgun in which I can pattern my chosen buckshot load inside and use to estimate the spread at various ranges.
The optic attaches with ease and uses two QD style mounts that are adjustable for tightness. The optic comes with a wrench to make the adjustments. I made slight adjustments for a nice tight fit.
Pew Pew
The optic switches zeroes and weapons without issue. I swapped between several zeroes and weapons without losing a step. To make sure the optic was always mounted on the same point between weapons I used a dab of fingernail polish to mark the spot.
It takes a few seconds to switch between profiles, but once you are switched you are ready to go. You can swap between your five reticles with the left and right buttons and your brightness levels with the up and down buttons.
Predictably it holds zero perfectly and is quite precise. It’s fun to use, co-witnesses with AR 15 height sights and interacts perfectly with my Android phone. It swaps between weapon profiles and reticle setups with ease.
The green reticle is also a battery sipper and very pleasing to the eye. It’s quick and easy to get on target and the square-shaped window does give a less interrupted sight picture. The Foresight delivers a seamless, and wide field of view. With both eyes opened you have a crystal clear sight picture and an easy to read Heads Up Display.
My only complaint in terms of use is the fact that the reticle that is just a dot is super tiny and hard to see. A good 3 MOA dot would be a bit better than that tiny 1 MOA dot.
The Foresight Future
I think the Foresight could potentially be the future of optics. It’s an early concept that’s not perfect, but the ability for software updates to an optic could be invaluable in the future. It’s an interesting concept and I hope Meprolight keeps pushing it forward.
