im doing up a service rifle upper for nra and cmp competition.  what rear sight system (gunsmith)  is the one to have right now.  i have the capability to modify parts by machining and welding pinning  if need be for fit.  im also open to appiture and front sight size recomendations.  i milled down some sights to .062 and .052 today

I'm running John Holliger's pinned sights, always have. A lot of other sources are available now, but over ten years ago he was the go to guy.

I use 1/4X1/4 which is finer than most people like. I just think 4 clicks equals one minute. Lots of AR service rifle compeitors are old and started out with M1's and M1A's. They stayed with 1/2X1/2 rear sights because they were familiar with them. I just figured finer adjustments is a positive development, I don't know how many times I wished a had it way back then.

Sir, FWIW this old competitor that started out with an M1 and M1A quickly grasped the advantage of being more aggressive on the sights when I switched to the AR.  I too use 1/4X1/4 pinned sights that I bought from WOP.  There are other choices available, the name "Carrier" comes to mind but for my purposes WOP is the best available option.  7zero1 out.

I started off with the narrowest front sight available from RRA (0.050?) and just recently went with an 0.070 (aka 'standard' AR size) based on two reasons:

The Mind Over Matter DVD set from the CMP has AMU shooters in it and each one recommends a fat front sight.  They even go so far as to talk about focusing on the center of the top edge of the front sight.

I used a standard size in the Camp Perry Rifle SAFS and it worked great.


It all has to do with focus on the front sight.  Very easy with a fat one, very hard with a thin one (eye fatigue, mental fatigue, etc due to the required concentration)


I'm still working on the .040 rear aperture and whether I want larger.



eta: I have excellent vision

For front sight, I agree with the other posters about the .070 blade; it gives you some real estate to center up on the aiming black.  I started with a NM (.040) blade and switched back to the wide post after doing a lot of horizontal stringing.  For a rear sight, you could not go wrong with WOP rear sight. Let the expert pin your sight.  Definately 1/4 X 1/4 too.

Roy