Back up iron sights for AR

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SATX man

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Hi everyone the other day at range I leant out my AR-15 rifle to a father and son and when I came home to clean my rifle my BUIS was missing so I need a new one. The one that was taken was a Troy, but a friend of mine told me to get a fixed iron sight because the spring-loaded ones can fail any truth to this? The ones an am thinking of getting is another Troy or a magpul polymer but I have not read too much on the Magpul back up sights.
 
I have a Daniel Defense A1.5. Good quality overall, but really hard to adjust.

I have a Troy rear from SKD Tactical. It's really nice. They cost $$$ but are top notch.

I had and returned a Midwest Industries fixed rear. Quality of manufacture wasn't good.

Any thought to just getting an A3 carry handle? They work well, are rugged and cost less than high end BUIS. Of course that doesn't work if you also have an optic on the receiver. CDNN has some generic but US-made carry handles right now for $50, I got one and it seems good. Avoid (avoid like the plague) the Chinese made carry handles marketed as ATI and as some other brands, they are not an accurate copy and quality is poor.
 
It's always good to have a carry handle laying around and you often can get a used milspec model cheap since most people seem to be getting rid of them. Or a cut carry handle so you have most of the rail available. I got a Cardinal Forge A4 handle and a cut Ancor Harvey for about $40 each by shopping around. Both are true milspecs and proper height (and supposedly off Colts, not that that matters).

Sorry to hear someone took your Troy. Can't you get that tag team to replace the sight they "lost"?
 
Troy for folding, Larue for fixed.

Why would someone take your BUIS and not the whole rifle? Had you loktited the Troy's screw?

BSW
 
Quentin is right on. I chopped my detachable carrying handle in order to make my own LMT-ish BUIS and then painted with black krylon paint. I run this setup on my work gun with a micro aimpoint on a LaRue mount. It's SOLID, cheap, and provides a bottom 1/3 co-witness with my RDS. Took 30 minutes to make with a hacksaw, dremmel tool, sandpaper, tape, and krylon paint. I've made a few for some of my friends too!
 
I have a Matech (600 yard) rear sight. Works great! I believe these are current military issue. I got it on Ebay but I don't remember what I paid.
 
I like the Magpul sights. Affordable and high quality. They were the cheapest ones that would fit behind my Eotech with riser (I had originally cut down a carry handle for this purpose, but it was still too big to fit)

I wouldn't worry about the "Don't use a spring loaded BUIS, it can fail!" camp (and I'm a stickler for utmost reliability). Use a good quality folder, and you're not going to have a problem. Use some cheap UTG or no name crap, expect trouble. I'd have a fixed one on there (Daniel Defense, LaRue) but I mount a scope often, too.
 
Check around a bit more I saw one on youtube at SHOT 2010 that was spring loaded but also locked in the upright position. Even if the spring did fail you could manually lift it up. My SR556 came with Troy BUIS without springs and they work just fine. The spring are kinda gimicky considering you will be in some serious stuff if you need to switch to BUIS that fast.
 
My Troy from SKD Tactical (slightly different version) has no spring and locks very firmly in the upright position. I have zero complaints about it other than price, and at least the quality somewhat justifies the price.
 
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I have used Matech Back up rear sights for several years with absolutely acceptable performance.
Once zeroed they stay adjusted, the sight stalk doesn't lock upright so it won't break off if you drop the rifle with the sight in use, the stalk simply pops down onto the base on impact.Adjustments are precise.

1. The drawbacks, they aren't cheap unless you get a GI to sell you one or give you one from DX stock.
Commercial offerings are around $150
Yes, not all military equipment is stolen, some units remove the BUIS and trash them after deployment and order new ones. Since the Military considers the BUIS as an expendable item GIs can keep them in many cases without breaking any laws.

2. The aperture is fairly small and many people don't like a precision peep hole on a back up sight.
You can open the aperture with a drill but the sight will no longer regulate to the distance settings described on the sight.
No biggy, sight in the rifle and glue the adjusters down, use as a fixed battle sight.

3. If you are gorilla minded when you tighten screws you can break the base securing screw, I have seen more than one Matech that the tighter is better minded have broken, it does happen so go easy when you tighten the screw.
 
It's pretty poor treatment to borrow generous individuals gun and throw away parts. You should be very upset with these people, and never lend them anything again.
Mauserguy
 
Thanks for posts I called range and to see if anyone happened to turn my sight and nada, I told range officer what happened and he told me that another person had the same thing happen to him except this time a aimpoint 3X mag was switched for a replica.
 
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