ar-15, scope-mountingI’ve seen scopes mounted to AR-15 carry handles before, via a special mount. It looks like a picatinny rail on top and is designed to attach to the carry handle in a way that makes it a horizontal mounting surface on top. I have no idea what this type of adapter is called though. Would like to have one for my collection, so I can occasionally stick a scope on my A2 top AR-15, but it’s hard to order something that I don’t know the name of… :-)
It’s called a “carry handle scope mount.” There are a few styles out there. They typically all have a threaded bolt that attaches to the hole in the center of the carry handle and either:
a. Have a picatinny mount on top of the carry handle or; b. Add the picatinny mount forward of the carry handle (gooseneck style) to allow for the co-witnessing of 1x magnification optics (Aimpoint or EOTech) and iron sights.
There are both rail adapters that attach to the carry handle and provide a standard Picatinny rail to which you can attach almost any kind of scope, and scopes which attach directly to the carry handle themselves. Which one to choose depends on your cost and accuracy needs.
Directly mounting the scope to the carry handle is cheap and simple, but it isn't a really solid mount and it limits your selection of scopes. This type of mount is more likely to vibrate loose, shift around slightly even when tight, and be difficult to re-mount without losing zero. Here is an example of one (I have never used this particular model and have no idea about the quality; it's just the first thing that came up when I googled it). It may be good enough if you don't intend to shoot past 100-200 yards or so and aren't looking for pinpoint accuracy.
Using a rail adapter is a little more complex and involves more parts, but you can generally get a more solid mount with techniques like this. You can also use pretty much any scope you can find.
Of course, if you're really serious about getting top-notch accuracy and using high-quality scopes, you should be starting with a flat-top upper instead of using carry handle mounts anyways.
There may be other manufacturers but I got an "A.R.M.S." scope mount
I got mine from Leupold optics.
http://www.leupold.com/tactical/products/mounting-systems-and-accessories/mounting-systems/mark-4-ar-15m16-handle-mount/
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