The new Trijicon MRO is the hottest optic currently. MRO stands for “Miniature Rifle Optic”. During the Fall 2015 Big 3 Media Event, I had a chance to try out the Trijicon MRO provided by Georgia Optics.

When I was at Trijicon’s training facility a while back (A Day at Trijicon), I was suggesting that they should shrink down the Trijicon SRS to something close to the size of the Aimpoint Micro T-1. Well, it took Trijicon couple of years to do it, the new MRO is Trijicon’s take on the Aimpoint Micro series.

It didn’t take long for me to notice a number of oddities with the Trijicon MRO. Its objective lens is angled not only vertically, which is a common feature for most red-dot sight designs, but the MRO’s lens is also angled side-to-side. When the light hits the lens at certain angles, the greenish lens coating tint will show up on one side of the view.

While somewhat close to it, the MRO’s base does not match the mounting bolt pattern of Aimpoint Micro’s base. As of now, there are few options for an MRO QD mount. One such is the newly released Midwest Industries 1/3 co-witness QD MRO mount for AR type rifles. On the AK side, RS Regulate is working on a MRO mount for their AK300 series of AK side mount.

I’m also not a fan of the top-mounted battery compartment / illumination control dial. It blocks too much of my peripheral version on top for me. However, I do like the dual off positions on the switch and the cape-less adjustment turrets.

The biggest issue I have with the current version of the Trijicon MRO is: its view Magnification.

Yes, the MRO has a slight magnification. I have no idea how that happened but if I would make a guess, I would said it’s probably due to the cone-shaped internal tube that Trijicon used to increase the field of view and its unusual dual off-set objective lens combination caused this side-effect. This doesn’t affect every user but many have noticed that. There are also a few reports regarding parallax errors when using the MRO at longer range.

“Missed by THAT Much” – Get Smart (a 1960s American spy comedy TV show).

That would be my summary on the new Trijicon MRO. It has a lot of potential to be a good sight and I hope Trijicon will fix the optical problem soon.

Trijicon MRO Specification:
Objective size: 25mm
Length: 2.6 inch (66mm)
Weight: 4.1 oz (116g) w/o mount
Reticle: 2 MOA dot
Power: CR2032 lithium battery
Battery Life: 5 years
Adjustment: 1/2 MOA per click
Waterproof depth: 100 ft (30m)
Street Price: $500 +/-