On the AR platform.

I used to shoot irons, got into scopes, but thinking of trying it again for fun.  They are reliable and don't need batteries.

What is your setup?  Carbine, rifle length?

Do you dial for longer range or hold over?  What zero?

I used to use the 75 grain hornady with 300 yard zero, hold for distance out to about 400 then dial up for longer.  Unless it needed to be fast and target was big. I wasn't fast or good, but it's what I did.

I'm looking for other options

I’ll take that as a “no.”

I did this for one match when I first bought my rifle and was "too cheap" to buy an optic.  Well, I spent damn near $100 on the troy fixed sights, should have just spent another $200 to pick up a vortex red dot at $200.

Even this "cheap" red dot is 1000 times easier to shoot than irons.  And I am pretty good with irons, I grew up on them in the military.  But in the end the optic is much faster and simpler.

I ran irons exclusively when i ran tactical matches up in PA at first, then I integrated a red dot.

0-400 yards and 300-400 yard movers. It was awesome.

I ran a 20 inch gun and arms rear flip ups IIRC. This was back in 2009-10.

If you analyze the target match thread on arfcom (the one where you have to shoot unsupported) you can see the rifle length iron guys avg score outperforms the carbine length iron shooters by about 1 moa IIRC in overall group score.

I may be a bit off. Perhaps it was .5 moa or perhaps 1.5 moa but there was a noted improvement in overall avg score.

Longer sight radius helps by increasing depth of field with small aperture gun sights. The further out your focal point, the clearer yoyr target gets when you focus on the front sight.

The same enhancement occurs by reducing the peep diameter but then you lose light and acuity in darker conditions.

I did dial for range, but now my irons rifles are all sighted in at 100 yards and I pick the mose useful zero for what I am doing at the time. 100-50/225-MPBR-300 yards are my possible zeros.

I use irons only on my competition service rifle. My go-to carbine has an RDS with no BUIS.

I don't see to many people using iron sights, maybe newer shooters who are just figuring it out. In most 3 gun limited divisions you can use irons or a 1x optic - like mentioned above that advantage is hard to give up to just use irons.

I went from a variable 1-6x last season to a Burris AR1x this season and although I only have 3 matches on it, my relative finishes didn't drop. It'll be tougher once I have a match with 5-600yd targets, but will figure that out once I get there!

I'm shooting a Double D Armory SSTF-V2 - Ergo Grip, SJC Titan brake, CMC flat trigger, the rest is stock. This is my 2017 rifle, I'm waiting on the new 2018 models to start shipping!

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I did for several years.

It sucked.

Catch a stage at a bad time, early in the morning, looking into the sun coming through the trees, still foggy over in the treeline where the targets are.  Can't see shit.

Guy comes through at 1pm and goes 1 for 1 on long range steel.

It might not be IDEAL with a scope and certain light conditions, but you can find the targets and make it happen.

As for batteries... illumination is overrated.  I use it sometimes, but good glass and durability trumps all.  Buy a Razor and enjoy.

People who say they can shoot just as accurately out to 300 yard with irons or a red dot as they can with a scope, are full of shit.  Might be true on high contrast targets when the sun is high overhead and the target is clearly visible.

Make the target a grayed out piece of steel in the edge of a woods, in a shadow, at 5pm on the last stage of a major match, and it just might disappear without some decent magnification.

I agree with illumination on variable scopes being over rated.  May be times it’s useful in matches but not many.  Poaching animals at night may be a different story.. No I don’t do that!

600 yards with my M14 or Garand is pretty easy with the sight radius and projectiles but carbine ars are more difficult.

Like I said I am more of a minimalist and intend to do it for fun.  I did it for years before I could afford scopes and got pretty good even dabbled in high power a little.

Thanks