ANR Designs is mostly known for making fantastic holsters. They often make holsters for guns that are under-supported, like the CZ P09 series, or for popular guns with unpopular lights, like a SIG P365 and a Foxtrot365XR. Out of nowhere, they also produced the Ukon optics mount, and it’s not your typical red dot mount.
The Ukon mount was created to satisfy a specific special operations contract for an incredibly compact weapon. The system didn’t have much room for iron sights after adding the usual light, laser, and optic combo. The Ukon aimed to provide a set of backup iron sights built into an optics mount. The mount was intended to be ultra-lightweight and to work with red dots.
ANR Designs won the contest, and the secret squirrels got a micro-sized optic to work with their SIG Rattlers. ANR Designs then did the best thing they could: they made the Ukon mount available to the general public, and they made it available for a few different red dots. This includes the Aimpoint micro footprint, the Trijicon RMR, Aimpoint ACRO, SIG Romeo4T, and the Holosun AEMS.
ANR Designs was kind enough to send me one of the Ukon mounts for my AEMS, and I put it to work.
The Ukon and Me
The Ukon was made for those micro-sized platforms, and I have plenty of those. As a PDW enjoyer, the Ukon fits plenty of my firearms. I have plenty that are tight on room, but ultimately it landed on a CMMG Banshee, which is tight on space. The AEMS mounts directly to the optic’s mount and sits the red dot at a 1.7-inch height.
The optic feels rock solid, but weighs a mere 2.2 ounces. The Ukon is constructed from 6061 aluminum and has a typical Type 3 hard coat finish. It attaches at two points and locks on super solid. Installing the AEMS on the Ukon was a breeze. However, the Ukon eliminates the ability to use the AEMS-style flip cover mounts.
Since the iron sights are built into the mount, it allows for a complete cowitness. The sights are very simple. The front sight is an adjustable AR-type sight, and the rear sight is a fixed open design, much like a handgun. The open rear sight makes it easy to mount the optic wherever and allows you to see through the sights.
The front sight acts as a backup sight, but it’s also an alternative option for different loads. If you’re swapping from supersonics to subsonics with a .300 Blackout, you can zero the elevation to deal with subs and the dot for supers.
Rocking and Rolling Up the Ukon
With the Ukon equipped to my CMMG Banshee, I took the gun to the range and spewed lead. I started with a focus on the target and using the dot. The 1.7-inch centerline height of the mount encourages a heads-up shooting style, but if that’s not tall enough for you, there are taller options.
Admittedly, I’m spoiled by just folding sights down and out of the way. The built-in iron sights are ever-present in your view through the optic, but if you’re focusing on the target, you’ll only notice them if you try.
The dot works, the optic keeps things mounted, and ultimately, it’s going to work as a mount. I’m not testing the AEMS, I’m testing the Ukon, so I turned the optic off and used the sights. The sight radius is superbly short, which isn’t going to do wonders for precision accuracy.
This setup works best within 50-ish yards. Anything further than that and it’s a guide more than a sight. The iron sights worked perfectly fine at CQB distances where I’d use the Banshee, and where most PDWs would be used. At 50 yards, hitting C-zone steel was ridiculously easy.
Hitting gongs at 50 yards wasn’t an issue either. It’s easy and it works well within that range. I’m not printing tiny little groups by any means, but I’m ringing 10-inch steel repeatedly. The short sight radius does have the advantage of speed. Short sight radius and open sights are built for speed.
Going Fast
It works almost like a red dot up close. Just aim and go, and I imagine that benefit is felt by users of PDW-style firearms. Since the rear sight is open, we just drop behind it, and we can easily use a semi-target-focused sight picture. Get the front sight on target up close, and you’ll most likely hit it.
As the range extends, make sure the rear sight is more in play and the precision increases. It won’t replace the sights on a 5.56 rifle, but on a submachine gun, a subgun, or a similar platform, this sight setup works.
The ANR Designs Ukon is a fantastic optics mount, and while it has a niche use case, it’s a valid use case. With the growing surge of small platforms and PDWs, optics mounts like these are quite handy to have.
Read the full article here
