AR night sights?

[Jaegermeister]

I was recently issued a new Colt Ar-15A3 tactical carbine from my department. Many of our officers use the Eotech sight, but I am not sold yet.

In the mean time, I would like to have at least a front nightsight. I have looked around and have narrowed it down to two: Meprolight night sights and the XS tactical precision sights. I have Meps on my USP .45f and am very happy.

Does anyone have night sights on their ar? Is there any advantage to just replacing the front sight or replacing both the front and back. The meps have illuminated front and rear on the large aperature and appear to work as a 3-dot system in low light.

When you order the XS sights with their rear aperatures, are these different sizes than the factory aperatures?

I am most concerned with QUICKLY finding the front sight and getting on target in a LE situation.

The only other mod I have made so far is ordering a falcon ergo ambi grip because I hate the way the stock ar grip feels. I may add a light, but refuse to clutter up my patrol rifle just to make it look "tactical."

thank you

 

[Erich]

On the advice of folks over at AR-15.com, I put just the (Trijicon) front night sight on my AR. I feel this was bad advice.

I would urge you to go for both the front and back night sights. I find that in real low-light situations, like in a dark hallway (where, you, as an LEO, might well find yourself), it is impossible to discern the rear sight by just the ambient light. I would like to have a rear sight that glows as well.

I have no opinions on the Mepro vs. XS question - I'm happy with the Trijicon on the front of my AR (although the thicker sight is so large that it definitely diminishes the rifle's ability to shoot accurately). I've had XS sight and IWI sights before on other guns, and been happy with them as well, but never Mepros, though I've fired a few guns wearing them. (The thing I like about Trijicons is that the factory will replace the lamps for not much money - I've taken advantage of this service with a couple of handguns.)

If you put a light on, don't use a barrel mount. I did this, and got all kinds of horrible gas burns on the lens of the Maglight I mounted (thank G-d I didn't use a Surefire!).

 

[shoobe01]

In theory, you shouldn't need to look at the rear sight, just thru it, so it doesn't matter if its dark. Your practiced cheekweld will make this happen automatically. In my limited experience, this seems to pan out. Also, the few times I have shot a rifle with night rears, they totally overwhelmed my eyeball and I couldn't focus well on anything else.

Just my observations.


For a light, I very much like the Streamlite rail. its a little chunk of plastic that can be screwed straight thru the vent holes, or you can drill your own to mount it at an angle. Then you slide any pistol (glock interface, I guess) light onto it. So its slick when you don't want a light, one can be clipped on easily, etc.

A friend has this on his AR, but here are some photos of installing it on my FAL.

 

[Erich]

Yeah, that's what I thought, so what I was recommended by the arfcommers made sense. It's not what I've found to be the case . . . I do a proper cheek weld, but my eye is not always positioned properly. (If a cheek-weld, nose-to-charging-handle was all that was required, I suppose there would be no need for the rear sight, would there?) Anyway, since I actually own an AR with just a front tritium sight, I can only report my experience.

Thanks for the tip on the Streamlite rail.

 

[shoobe01]

So...how bright are your rear sights?

Since you are sorta conceptually going from peep to buckhorn (line up sides with middle) does it affect your accuracy, speed, or anything? Any mental shift in gears to get into the dot sighting mode, etc.

 

[MrMurphy]

You NEED a light on your patrol rifle.


And the Eotech is highly regarded by all the guys who own one I know, and every guy I talked to who had one in Iraq (or is still there). The large 65 MOA ring is for snap shooting at close range, the smaller dot inside is for more precise shots.