Holy height over bore Batman! The Unity Tactical FAST Micro Mount and FTC Magnifier mounts look really tall for carbine optics but you might be surprised they don’t feel that tall. In fact, they are not the tallest on the market. The Micro FAST Mount was purposefully designed with modern gear in mind. Due to the increased height, the FAST FTC magnifier mount was created to give the shooter the added functionality of magnification.

FAST Micro Mount

In the world of red dot mounts, most optic mounts are either lower 1/3 or absolute cowitness. However trying to use even a lower 1/3 cowitness becomes problematic when you start to use certain accessories such as night vision, electronic hearing protection and gas masks. The Unity Tactical FAST Micro mount has a 2.26″ optic centerline height over the top rail. This allows the shooter a more heads up posture. This is more comfortable for extended periods of time especially with heavy gear like ballistic helmets and plate carriers.

Now compare that to a traditional lower 1/3 cowitness optic like this Vortex UH-1. Notice the ear pro above is not touching the stock but in the photo below they are touching the brace. I have to bring my head down a bit to see through the UH-1 but look at the angle of the ANVIS monocular, it is angled downwards a little bit. It helps to roll/cant the gun a little bit to my left for clearance issues with the top rail and rear MBUS.

Here is the difference in height between a lower 1/3 optic, in this case, the Eotech HWS, and the Unity Tactical FAST Micro Mount.

I can shoot with either setup but the FAST Micro mount is a lot more comfortable especially with night vision. The micro mount comes with built-in front and rear BUIS. You can lower or remove the front sight if you want to use the built-in rear sight with traditional irons. So now you have two sight picture planes. The top one is for the red dot and for backup reasons you have iron sights just below that.

As mentioned above the FAST Micro Mount has a built-in front sight as well but since the sight radius is so small, the front sight is rather wide.

Having a back up iron sight, front and back, built into the FAST Micro Mount helps free up precious rail space if you are using this on a small SBR/SMG and you can’t sacrifice space for a rail-mounted front back up sight.

FAST FTC Magnifier Mount

FTC stands for Flip To Center. Most magnifier mounts that articulate flip the magnifier outwards to the side. Eotech does this for their G33 as well as Vortex for their Micro 3X magnifier. Unity Tactical thought having your magnifier hanging out the side is a potential snag hazard. The FTC magnifier mount was designed to work in conjunction with Unity Tactical’s FAST Micro mount and FAST riser. Your red dot sight picture will be uninterrupted since the magnifier flips down directly over the top rail.

   One minor issue with the FTC magnifier mount design is that your BUIS are blocked by the magnifier when it is stowed down. Flipped up you can sort of look under the magnifier to see the iron sights. The better option is to remove the magnifier completely and use the irons as intended.

The FTC magnifier mount comes with a QD ADM throw lever for quick removal or installation of the magnifier. The FAST Micro Mount comes with two bolts and a clamp as seen above. You can remove these and upgrade the Micro Mount with the same QD ADM throw lever.

Alternate NV Tall Mount

The Unity Tactical FAST Micro Mount is a bit pricey at $169. Midwest Industries makes their own tall night vision mount and got the approval from Unity Tactical to make it similar. The Midwest mount lacks the fancy features like adjustable front and back iron sights. It does have a peephole for you to see through the mount and use BUIS if they are mounted to your gun.

To keep costs down, the Midwest Industries mount is extremely simplified. There are no removable parts. So to mount it to an upper receiver you need to make sure all accessories are removed. Now you just slide the midwest industries mount onto the top rail and slide it back to mount it into position finish it off with the two bolts.

The Unity Tactical mount has a lug down the center so in case the mount experiences added forces the recoil lug takes the brunt of the forces.

Final Thoughts

The FAST Micro Mount retails for $169 while the FTC magnifier mount costs $198. If you are on a budget you can opt for the FAST riser which adds the correct height for a lower 1/3 optic and brings it up to the same height as the FAST Micro Mount. Unfortunately, there is only one way to mount a folding magnifier and that is with the factory hardware. I can confirm using this height on a traditional AR while running night vision is very comfortable.

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