Universal mounting system

A method of mounting a red dot emitter or reflex sight to a weapon, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of mounting plates, each mounting plate having features for affixing a red dot emitter or reflex sight thereto;
• selecting a mounting plate, from the plurality of mounting plates, that corresponds to a specific red dot emitter or reflex sight;
• affixing the mounting plate within an orifice of a base, the base having a plurality of legs for engaging with the weapon;
• affixing the red dot emitter or the reflex sight to the mounting plate;
• engaging clips with the weapon, each clip being slideably interfaced into a cutout of each leg of the plurality of legs and each clip being adjustably held within the cutout by an adjustment screw;
• and
• tightening the adjustment screw of each clip to hold the base, and therefore, the red dot emitter or the reflex sight, to the weapon,
• wherein the base has at least one threaded hole within the orifice and the mounting plate has a corresponding hole and the step of affixing the mounting plate within the orifice of the base comprises passing at least one screw through each corresponding hole and into a corresponding threaded hole of the at least one threaded hole and tightening the at least one screw.

A method of mounting a selected red dot emitter or reflex sight from a plurality of red dot emitter or reflex sights to a weapon, the method comprising:

• affixing the selected red dot emitter or the reflex sight to a mounting plate selected from a plurality of mounting plates, one mounting plate for each red dot emitter or the reflex sight in the plurality of red dot emitter or reflex sights, each mounting plate of the plurality of mounting plates having features for affixing one red dot emitter or the reflex sight of the plurality of red dot emitter or reflex sights thereto;
• installing the mounting plate to a base that comprises a plurality of legs for engaging with the weapon, the base having a plurality of clips, each clip slideably interfaces into a cutout of each leg of the plurality of legs and each clip is adjustably held within the cutout by an adjustment screw;
• and
• engaging each clip with the weapon and tightening each adjustment screw to hold the base to the weapon and align the one red dot emitter or the reflex with the weapon, and therefore, holding the one red dot emitter or the reflex sight to the weapon,
• wherein the mounting plate fits within an orifice of the base, the orifice has a rectangular cross-section and the mounting plate has a rectangular-cross section that corresponds to the rectangular cross-section of the orifice,
• wherein the base has at least one hole within the orifice for accepting the mounting plate and the mounting plate has a corresponding hole through which a screw is used to hold the mounting plate within the base, and
• wherein the at least one hole within the orifice for accepting the mounting plate is threaded.