Ar15- Night Sights or Red Dot Sight

[cooger]

This is my first post so let me start by thanking you guys for letting me join the party. It's nice to find a place where someone can learn without being treated like an idiot. Now to my question:

I have a flat top M4 that I recently bought an Aimpoint PRO sight for at a great price. I've had it on there for a couple of weeks and have been wondering if I really need it. From what I've read from others RDS are better than iron sights in low light situations and I can see that. Earlier I was messing with my gun and that front sight post can be hard to see against a dark target. In normal conditions, however, I couldn't tell much of a difference as far as speed on target on one and multiple targets (I didn't actually fire any shots but was just picking out different objects and practiced getting a quick sight on the object).

I've been thinking about ditching the Aimpoint because there are other things I could use the money on (ammo, new 10/22, etc) an getting a front post night sight or a fiber optic front sight. To me it seems like one of these would take care of the low light shooting problem with iron sights if used with a good flashlight. I have almost no experience with an AR so I thought I'd get some opinions about this and see if anyone has tried a different front sight post before I go selling my Aimpoint.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[AK_Maine_iac]

I have both a red dot scope and trijicon night sights on my AR10. I use the night sights 99.9 % of the time. Than again this is Alaska and sort of dark half of the year.

I would not go with the fiber optic front sight. Use Trijicon both front and rear. The plastic fiber optic post would not stand up to the hard use AR's are made for. At least mine would not.

 

[fpdsniper]

What are you using the rifle for? The nice thing about red dot sights is that you are not required to line up a front and rear sight to get a sight picture. Much faster target acquisition. You mentioned using a flashlight. Is this flashlight attached to your AR? Where/how is it mounted?

 

[rcmodel]

If it's too dark to see at least a outline of the front sight?
It's too dark to shoot something you can't see well enough to identify!

Buy a good TAC light and forget the fancy sights.
That standard AR front sight will look like a Fence Post when silhouetted against a target in a TAC light beam!

rc

 

[cooger]

Right now I have a regular Surefire handheld light mounted on the bottom of my hand guard.

The gun doesn't really have a purpose. I have it handy for a defensive tool if need be and for fun at the range. I'm not clearing houses or anything with it but would like for it to be useful as a fighting gun without going overboard.

I keep hearing about the red dots being faster but I'm not sure. When I bring the gun up to eye level I don't even see the rear aperature, just the front sight post lined up on target. I don't have to take time to line up the front and rear sight because it naturally happens.

Any recommendations on a good flashlight with a long reaching beam that won't cost me and arm and a leg?

 

[rcmodel]

There is no doubt a red dot is faster.
Once you get them turn on and adjusted.
But perhaps for a bump in the night you don't have that much spare time on your hands?

There are any number of good TAC lights, and I would be hard pressed to say which is a good cheap one.

I do know it is very hard to beat a Surefire though.
This one rat cheer should fit your needs pretty well, and you can't beat the price with a stick.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduc...-_-Rotator SelfDefense-_-SurefireG3Flashlight

rc

 

[Super.45]

Iron sights are my backup to my primary sighting systems whether it be an Aimpoint or an EO tech (I have both) having the irons with night sights just makes sense from a backup/reliabilty viewpoint. I have them on my ARs.

The fact that you may have trouble seeing the sights in a low light situation does not automatically mean that that your target is in lowlight. You and your weapon could be in low light and thus the iron sights might be hard to see but your target may be lit or backlit well enough to identify and determine if its a threat. You may not necessarily want to reveal your postion by virtue of a light although under some situations it might be usefull and or desireable but not always so. Having the maximum amount of versatlity under a wide range of conditions gives you the most options for their use.

 

[Telekinesis]

There is no doubt a red dot is faster.
Once you get them turn on and adjusted.
But perhaps for a bump in the night you don't have that much spare time on your hands?

I'm not sure about the Aimpoint Pro, but I know some of the other Aimpoints have battery life listed in years. Assuming your Aimpoint is one of those, I would just leave it on all the time and replace the battery every few years.

The thing I like about red dot sights in general is that you can shoot with both eyes open, but more importantly, you can keep your eyes focused on the target instead of the front sight. I think that is more important when you're in a real situation where you have to focus on the target first to decide if he needs to be shot instead of just walking in a blasting everything with a human silhouette.

On the other hand, I tend to use my sights like a shotgun bead in really close quarters (I have XS Big Dot sights on my AK, so it's not too dissimilar) where I line up my sights with a solid cheek weld and don't move so I can look right over the sights and focus on the target and still have a really good chance of hitting the target. I don't know when I started doing that as I never consciously trained for it, but it seems to work inside of 25 yards.

I am a fan of having back up irons though, because optics can and do fail, so I guess my opinion of record will be to keep the aimpoint and buy night sights too!
And get the light too, always pays to be able to know who/what you're shooting.