garth69, I am no expert, but, the Vortex Crossfire II red dot has a tall frame mount that would allow you to use the iron sights (ie., looking thru the red dot frame mount). I just recently put this red dot on a Mini-30 on a forward rail and it does work. Granted, the red dot optic will be mounted a good inch and a half above the barrel and you'll have to take that into account, but it is quite easy to use either the iron sights or the red dot sight. There are most likely scope rings that would allow the same pass-thru for iron sight use with a long eye relief scope, but, it seems to me that you're getting things a bit more complicated than they need to be. /shrug.