I'm willing to bet you're not shouldering the gun properly and thereby reducing the area required to cushion the recoil. So yes, a high optic will tend to lower the rifle from a bazooka hold where the butt hovers way too high, so that the terrible sighting arrangement can be put into play, into something that fits our physique a bit better. But you can check it out for yourself. Be 100% certain the firearm is unloaded and then shoulder it assuming the position you would use if you're shooting it in live fire. Look at where the gun is in relation to your body and be totally honest with yourself about it. Or go about it another way... Shoulder the gun properly with the butt fully engaged with the shoulder pocket and firmly pulled back into it. Can you see the sights? If not you know that you're shooting it, consciously or unconsciously, with the bazooka hold. Oh, and on pulling it back firmly into the shoulder pocket? Doing so greatly reduces the recoil felt. If we didn't do that we could never fire the really big stuff and I assure you that a 9mm is not really big. In a 4 pound gun it has virtually no recoil to be concerned about. We're all built pretty much the same with appendages in the same place. What I'm telling you has worked for centuries and millions of rifle users.
Pulling it firmly into the shoulder pocket has other benefits. It will greatly lower the time to recover from the recoil allowing for faster follow up shots. With the butt having a firm place to rest accuracy will also be increased. Having the butt floating in space is just wrong and not the way rifles are meant to be used.
The gun comes complete with sights, but IMO they're just wrong for the way the human body is designed. They'd work great if we had eyeballs much lower in our heads, but that's not the way we're built. The gun should come sans open sights but with a riser and a micro red dot installed. But that would add a few hundred dollars to the cost and keep many people from buying them. Lots of new owners just don't understand that the rifle needs these things to be usable with a proper fit.
edit: Jimmy, it's also OK to dry fire the gun at home to make sure that when you do live fire that you shoulder the gun properly. You're not going to hurt the rifle with dry fire. Just make sure the gun is unloaded and don't have any ammo near. What you want to concentrate on is properly shouldering it and by that I mean the butt of the gun should be solidly in the shoulder pocket and not hovering over it. If the gun doesn't fit you, and no straight line recoil gun fits anyone without significantly raised sights, then you need to make it fit. For myself I find that a 1" riser and the micro red dot on top of that works best for me. But others might like a 3/4" riser. But they're inexpensive so buy one of each and you have the solution. To start dry firing start slowly to get things 100% correct, then if you want to you can slowly increase the speed but keeping the shouldering correct. If it gets sloppy then slow down and always finish the session by doing it correctly.
Regarding the raised sight, I've had fellow competitors comment on it because it looks strange. But once they try it they all state something like, "Gee, the sights are right there.". And no head/neck contortions to see them either. It makes a huge difference.
Ebay and Amazon have risers. I like the UTG brand because they aren't expensive and they're made right. They have an ultra-light model that works fine for a micro red dot without undue weight.
