AR15, Iron Sights that are not an Aperture?
Does anyone know of a rear iron sight for the AR15 that is not an aperture/peep sight? Just a typical open rear sight?
Aperture sights used to be my preferred iron sight. Used to do great with them.
But now when I look through them I see two visual distortions:
- A broad gray circle obscuring much of the aperture, off-center.
- A black spot low and right, reaching about halfway into the field of view.
When I back away from the sight I see the gray area fade and the black spot vanish, but then the sight is too far away to be effective.
These are side effects of the type of LASIK vision correction I had 13 years ago, and also of getting old damn-it. Normally I have 20/20, eyeglass free vision. But if I look at point light sources or through apertures, I get visual aberrations.
I bought an EoTech holographic sight. The holographic image is made up of dots, individual points of light with gaps between them. That creates a small starring effect around each dot.
I'm thinking of trying a low magnification telescopic pistol sight on my AR15, if I can't find an open rear iron sight.
Aperture sights used to be my preferred iron sight. Used to do great with them.
But now when I look through them I see two visual distortions:
- A broad gray circle obscuring much of the aperture, off-center.
- A black spot low and right, reaching about halfway into the field of view.
When I back away from the sight I see the gray area fade and the black spot vanish, but then the sight is too far away to be effective.
These are side effects of the type of LASIK vision correction I had 13 years ago, and also of getting old damn-it. Normally I have 20/20, eyeglass free vision. But if I look at point light sources or through apertures, I get visual aberrations.
I bought an EoTech holographic sight. The holographic image is made up of dots, individual points of light with gaps between them. That creates a small starring effect around each dot.
I'm thinking of trying a low magnification telescopic pistol sight on my AR15, if I can't find an open rear iron sight.
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Chris,
I have the same problem...my doctor referred me to an opthamologist (not a mall eyeglass exam) to test for macular degeneration. Not the problem in my case, but an ageing problem that can become serious.
End result, I was able to find an opthamologist who understood target shooting. He set me up with a rear aperature that will accept a perscription lens. It's apparently legal for service rifle competition, and it kept me from learning to shoot left-handed.
Good luck.
10x1000 -
I have never seen an open rear sight on an AR, although I have seen a few M1 peep sights filed out into a notch by people who did not understand the function. A notch that close is not very precise.
I had a "ski jump" mount that attached to the carrying handle and stepped down to put a base over the barrel. I used it for a red dot sight, but a pistol or Scout scope would have worked, too.
I never understood the attraction of the Holosight, the speckle pattern does not really bother me, but a plain red dot or scope reticle looks better.
The Microsight is the latest version of the corrective lens mounted in the rifle sight. CAUTION: I have not tried one, just read about it. My event, BPCR does not allow it.
http://www.auburnscouts.com/stallingsmachine/microsight.htm0 -
Dremel the top out of the rear peep making it a notch. Adjust front sight accordingly to bring sights into zero w/o running rear too far up. 0 -
I've also never seen a conventional "U"/notch shaped open" rear sight for an AR-15 and I doubt they exist. Almost invariably peep sights are both more accurate to shoot with AND easier to train with, explaining why they've been the standard on American military rifles for 100 years, and why they're the standard in target rifle shooting with iron sights.
In practice, generally open "U" are put significantly further forward over the receiver of rifles, and this isn't going to be be easy to do with an non-flat top AR-15.
Not really sure this would help you anyway. When you shoot an aperture sight, you're supposed to be entirely ignoring the aperture and focusing on the front sight. If you have a visual field defect that obscures part of your field of view with an aperture sight, its still going to obscure it with an more conventional open sight. If you can't see the front sight with a rear aperture sight, you're not going to see it with a rear U-sight.
If its just a question of sight field defect causing a distraction in your sight picture you could try messing with different aperture sizes (ie smaller/larger) to see if any of them help block out the visual distraction or make it easier to ignore. IF the issue is refraction off the edges of the aperture sight, again, just switching to a larger aperture might help. I have seen square/diamond shaped ones for sale, that supposedly help "center" the front post better. Don't know if that's true, but this might help your particular issue.
In terms of "holographic" sights, the reason these exist is that the holographic technology recreates the entire reticle if part of it is obscured by dirt.
For example, if you're using a "dot" sight with a single dot, then in theory a single speck of mud on the objective part of your optic could completely obscure the dot, effectively leaving you with no aiming point.
With a holographic sight, even if a speck of mud were to obscure the center of your "window" you'd still perceive the red dot on TOP of the mud, because the image of the dot is recreated via hologram.
You don't really need this for recreational shooting, or probably even hunting, but its not a bad thing to have if your life is on the line and you're fighting in the rain or other dirty conditions.0 -
XS does make sights for AR15's other than just peep including versions of their express sights.
http://www.xssights.com/index.php?nID=sights&cID=Sights&pID=sights&sID=tactical0 -
Check out the Troy models introduced at this years shot show. They have a new rear sight that is kind of an aperture that is square but is mounted on the point. Also the flip part of this same sight appears to be some what in the buck horn style. 0
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