The Meprolight M22 is a unique reflex sight, in part for what it lacks: a battery. Unlike more common red dot sights, which use a battery to power an LED, the M22 uses the sun and radiation to illuminate the reticle. So how well does that work? Let’s find out.

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Disclosures are important in any review for full transparency. Meprolight provided the M22 for me to review. TFB is paying me to write the review, and I am footing the bill for ammo.

What is it?

The Meprolight M22 reflex sight is a fully non-electronic optic. It projects the reticle on the lens with two lighting sources. The primary illumination comes from fiber optics, which collect ambient light. When there is not much ambient light to be had, tritium illuminates the reticle. If you have ever used a dual-illuminated ACOG, you have some idea how that works.

While the M22 is new, this general type of sight is not. Trijicon used to make a similar Dual Illuminated Reflex Sight and still makes a Dual-Illuminated RMR. The 1x24mm Trijicon was even part of the original SOPMOD program. Meprolight is also no stranger to this kind of optic. The M21 predates the M22 and has been used by the IDF. Check out Luke’s article on the M21 for a great write-up on that optic. 

Features

The M22 has a quick-detach mount for standard Picatinny rails. Elevation and windage adjustments are on the top and side of the optic. Both have slots to use a flathead screwdriver, coin, or the back of a knife blade to adjust. A penny is slightly too big to use easily due to the rim around the elevation adjuster, but a dime worked well. Each click is 1 MOA of adjustment. The adjustments tracked true with uniform adjustments, and it held zero through both firing and transport.

Meprolight offers two reticles in the M22. I opted for the 10 MOA triangle because I have always liked chevron reticles, and the point of the triangle provides a very precise aiming point while still being large enough to pick up when moving fast. The other option is a bullseye reticle with a 3.5 MOA center dot surrounded by an outer ring.

One of the most noticeable features of the M22 is the volume of light-gathering fiber optic material. There is a lot of it, and that helps to keep the reticle bright in changing light conditions. Unlike the M21, which has opaque plastic over the fiber optics, the M22 has clear plastic coverings. I do not have a way to quantify how much more light gets through clear plastic than opaque plastic, but it can’t hurt the amount of light getting in. 

The fiber sections face forward as well as around the top and side of the lens. This is a critical distinction from the Trijicon models, which only ever had light gathering on the top or front, depending on the model. This is a huge issue when there is a non-uniform lighting situation, such as firing from a dark room into the bright outdoors. Light-gathering material on the front of the optic is the best location for that situation because it faces the brighter area and will help the reticle compete with ambient light. If the optic only can gather light from above, it will not be visible against a far brighter target image. 

On The Gun

I always try to use review optics on several guns, and I did that with the M22 as well. First up we have the Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 Dissipator. 

Next up is the PSA AK-105. The M22 sits very high on top of a side-rail optic mount, which is already a few inches above the stock line. This was a chin-weld arrangement, but with the negligible recoil from the 5.45×39 cartridge, it was not bad.

I also ran it on my PTR-91. It sits fairly high above the stock comb but was still usable.

And, just for extra fun, I threw it on a transferable Uzi. The Uzi has a Stormwerkz rail mount on the top cover, and the M22 fits alright.

How Well Does It Work?

In short, the M22 works well in many situations. It clearly outperforms other passive reflex sights and is comparable to traditional red dot sights in many circumstances. Meprolight put a lot of effort into improving light gathering and it paid off. In most situations, the reticle was readily visible, and in others, it was nuclear bright. In simple tests like moving from my dark basement to a well-lit stairwell, I could see and track the reticle and the brightness scaled with the condition.

However, it will not match a powered red dot’s ability to overpower any lighting condition. The worst light situation I have found thus far was at an indoor range. While the targets were extremely well-lit, and the area behind the firing line was lit, the shooting stall itself was very dark. The reticle was invisible on light-colored targets and slightly visible on dark targets, but neither situation was great. I tried to take pictures of the reticle in various lighting conditions, but it was a real struggle to capture accurate representations. Here are some samples, but take them all with at least a grain of salt.

 

 

The best use case for the M22 is on a gun with accessible, co-witnessed iron sights. The sight and mount are one piece and there are no height adjustments. This makes it a little tall on some firearms. But having an iron sight available to back up the M22 when the light conditions get bad is a helpful thing to have handy.

Some older reflex sights have a very intense blue tint to the lens. The M22 has a blue hue, but it is far less obtrusive. I took some comparison pictures with my old Trijicon to show the difference. Taking pictures through optics never perfectly reflects the way it looks, but this is fairly representative of how it feels to run both of these optics.

Conclusion

The Meprolight M22 is a unique optic and is just about the only option if you are looking for a reflex sight without a battery. How many people are looking for a reflex sight without a battery is something of an open question given the arms race among red dots for longer battery runtimes and lower prices. But for people who do not want a battery in their reflex sight, the M22 is definitely the one to beat. It outperforms its competitors and predecessors. It still will not outperform a standard red dot’s ability to overpower any lighting condition, but it is the most refined battery-free reflex sight around. It is also exceptionally robust. You can find it for around $450 at retailers now.

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