AR Sponsor
Posted: 8/15/2011 7:55:05 PM EDT
|
Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse, but did a search and turned up nothing.
I'm buying my first AR in the next couple months and have settled on an "Optics Ready" model with the flat top receiver and a top rail gas block. But after all the reading I've done and all of the photos I've looked at, I've noticed that a lot of people who run an optic still have an original fixed front sight or one made by DD(or other brand) that they add onto the end of their rail system. I always thought this would be distracting and decrease the field of vision. But I've noticed that a lot of pros use this set-up. I read or heard somewhere that it helps eliminate parallax at close distances on an optic. I plan to use iron sights to start with and get proficient with them before adding an optic, but I was leaning for a set of Troy BUIS so I could get the front sight out of the way when I do add the optic. But if I will benefit from a fixed front sight then I will reconsider my front sight options. So what says the masses? And thanks for the info in advance. |
| I prefer a fixed front because it is just one less thing to worry about. I use my aimpoint with both eyes open, and as such I don't really notice the front sight at all and it does not obstruct my view in any way. If the dot happens to wash out while shooting/moving from dark to light, I just center the post in the window of the aimpoint and keep on shooting, using the aimpoint as a sort of rear ghost ring sight. Plus, if you need to deploy BUIS, you only need to flip the one. With magnified optics, you can't really see the front sight post above 3-4x magnification anyway, so it's kind of a moot point. Bear in mind that this is just my personal preference, and some people have a hard time ignoring the front sight. For me, the simplicity and usefulness of the front sight, coupled with the fact that it won't block your view shooting both eyes open, made it the right choice for me. |
| If the fixed front sight doesn't bother you, then I would go with it. I actually have a Red Dot lower 1/3 co-witnessed with a fixed FSB and the detachable A2 Carry handle right now. The Red Dot is on the Quadrail handguard and it works but I think I want a folding rear BUIS just so I can move the Red Dot back onto the receiver. Looks better that way. |
|
I'm kind of old school, I prefer fixed front sights which I have on all my 6 AR (5 carbines and one 20" A2 rifle), the fixed fronts are very robust and hardly anything bad happens to them.
Three of my 5 carbines have Troy rear BUIS, on my dedicated home defense carbine I have the Troy DOA version aperture. I've got Aimpoint, EOTech and a magnifier all using lower 1/3 cowitness so my front sight is out of the way at the lower part of my optic field of view. When using my magnifier or 3-9X scope the front sight is like a transparent ghost, not even noticeable when you're concentrating on the target and red dot/ reticle. Here's a good thread to read more about lower 1/3 and absolute cowitness. 1/3 Cowitness or Absolute Cowitness? - thread link |
I once had an ACOG TA01 on a 20" rifle. The FSB shows up as a barely visible ghost which never took away from what I was trying to do. I reasoned that I could always use it as a reference to determine my head positioning was consistent. Remember, consistent head position is key to good shooting. David Tubb says so... 
|
|
Thanks for the info guys. I think I'm gonna try it out with the fixed front sight to see if I like it. If not, I'll get me a folding sight. Guess there really is only one way to find out what works for me. lol.
Alpha - Thanks for the link. Also, I was thinking about the Troy DOA for my rear sight. How do you like yours? I read some other old school guys that tried it, hated it. The way I understand it, the concept behind that sight is it's easier to center the front sight post because it gives you those sharp angles and lines to help center the post, making it faster to get a good sight picture. Is this your experience? |
| I have an ACOG and fixed front sight, and I can't even see it, not even a little bit. I notice that if I don't have proper eye relief (too far) it shows up as a ghost, but if I move closer it disappears. I worried about this when I bought the ACOG but I noticed that a lot of people had a fixed front sight so I figured it wouldn't matter, but I have to admit I was more than a little surprised to discover it doesn't even show up a little in the sight picture. |
|
Quoted:
Alpha - Thanks for the link. Also, I was thinking about the Troy DOA for my rear sight. How do you like yours? I read some other old school guys that tried it, hated it. The way I understand it, the concept behind that sight is it's easier to center the front sight post because it gives you those sharp angles and lines to help center the post, making it faster to get a good sight picture. Is this your experience? Yes it's easier to line up the front post with the corners of the kind of diamond rear aperture, but when I tried it at the range further than 100 yd it was hard for me to accurately align the sights because the rear aperture is a lot larger than my standard Troy. I only like to use mine in CQB, home defense, low light situations because of it's larger aperture, for my other two general purpose carbines I prefer the regular Troy BUIS which I use the 50-200 yd RIBZ zero. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_18/328143_RIBZ_____Revised_Improved_Battlesight_Zero__now_with_down_loadable_50_yard_zeroing_target_.html |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Alpha - Thanks for the link. Also, I was thinking about the Troy DOA for my rear sight. How do you like yours? I read some other old school guys that tried it, hated it. The way I understand it, the concept behind that sight is it's easier to center the front sight post because it gives you those sharp angles and lines to help center the post, making it faster to get a good sight picture. Is this your experience? Yes it's easier to line up the front post with the corners of the kind of diamond rear aperture, but when I tried it at the range further than 100 yd it was hard for me to accurately align the sights because the rear aperture is a lot larger than my standard Troy. I only like to use mine in CQB, home defense, low light situations because of it's larger aperture, for my other two general purpose carbines I prefer the regular Troy BUIS which I use the 50-200 yd RIBZ zero. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_18/328143_RIBZ_____Revised_Improved_Battlesight_Zero__now_with_down_loadable_50_yard_zeroing_target_.html Good to know. Thanks bud. |
|
One thing to consider, when using a magnified optic scope, you normally can't even see it, if using a red dot non magnified or a low magnification scope, you can see it. The AR on the top left is my coyote hunting gun, it has a 3-9 variable scope on it, you can't see the front sight at all through the scope, there's no shadow or anything to give its presence away. The bottom one is a non magnified red dot and the front sight is clearly visible.  |
AR Sponsor