AR15 zero irons first then red dot?

[breakingcontact]

I'm not a newbie with AR15's at all, but I am with optics on them.

How should a guy sight in an AR15 with backup sights and a red dot?

This is a Vortex Strikefire with the tall mount. Also, should the red dot just sit on top of the front sight if the irons are sighted properly? Should you be able to look through the backup sight and see the red dot right in the middle on top of the front sight post?

If this has been covered in detail elsewhere here, please redirect me.

Thanks!

 

[Onewolf]

I don't think it matters which order you zero the red dot or iron sights. I have the Vortex StrikeFire on my Stag Arms AR and once both are zeroed they should be aligned with each other. I did not like the front A2 post being visible with the StrikeFire red dot so I replaced the front post with a JP Rifle adjustable front gas block and added LWRC Skirmish fold-down iron sights (front/rear).

 

[Welding Rod]

You can do it either way, irons first or red dot first. I can think of any particular advantage either way.

Whether the dot and sights can coincide vertically will depend upon the height of your optic mount.

 

[Gordon]

zero the rifle factory sights first ! 50 yard zerp is close if you don't want to go the more complicated route. THEN the optics. They should be close to cowitness or lower third depending on mount but that is not an issue.

 

[Sam Cade]

Zero the rifle first then move the dot to rest on or slightly above the front sight post when the sights are properly aligned provided you have an absolute cowitness.

 

[wally]

My eyes ain't what they used to be, so I zero the red dot and then use the co-witness to finalize the BUIS adjustment. Has worked well for me a few times when when I had a dead battery out of the range bag and forgot the spare batteries

If irons came with the gun I adjust the red dot to the irons the first time out with the red dot, tweak the red dot zero, and then put the irons to the dot.

 

[U-235]

Shouldn't matter which one you do first. I have an Eotech on my AR. I sighted in the iron sights first then adjusted the red dot sight picture to sit right at the top of the front sight post. I flipped the irons down and took a few shots and the red dot was dead on.

 

[sleepyone]

I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but I bought an AimPoint PRO for my first red dot. I found the red dot was hard for me to use without magnification for anything past 75 yards. I'm 48, and I guess my eyes aren't what they used to be. I was not about to spend another $200-300 on a magnifier for my red dot that would only get me 2x-3x magnification, so I decided to sell my BUIS and red dot and just go with one of the Nikon M223 series scopes.

 

[Quentin]

Zero the rifle first then move the dot to rest on or slightly above the front sight post when the sights are properly aligned provided you have an absolute cowitness.

I like to do it this way, too. Zero the irons then put on the RDS and adjust it to lollipop the dot on the front sight when looking through the rear aperture. Only difference, I prefer the bottom 1/3 cowitness as it makes it easy to look over the irons and use only the dot which will be brighter (than when looking through the aperture) and floating well over the front sight.

 

[esheato]

I do it BUIS first, then RDS or scope. For me, BUIS comes into play after I remove the primary optic. I don't ever plan on co-witnessing or shooting through a broke primary optic. I have Larue mounts on darn near everything. Pull the lever, rock it off, drop it, flip up BUIS, keep shooting. Takes all of 5 seconds.

 

[wally]

I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but I bought an AimPoint PRO for my first red dot. I found the red dot was hard for me to use without magnification for anything past 75 yards.

I find red dots work best with both eyes open. And the easy to make mistake when you first get one, is to focus your vision on the dot -- you need to focus on the target and look "thru" the dot. If you focus on the dot, like you have been trained all your shooting life to focus on the front sight, or with a scope focus on the reticle red dots won't work worth beans!

 

[Infidel4life11]

I've had many issues trying to make people understand this. Think of the red dot at a stand alone sight if you have a zero parallax sight THE FRONT POST DOESN'T MATTER. If again your sight is zero parallax and you zero it, your zero'd irons sight will not line up with the red dot because it 2 totally different sight systems. Zero them one at a time, back up irom sights are only for use when your batteries go dead anyways.

 

[Shadow 7D]

The cheater way to zero a red dot (assuming your irons are zeroed) is to simply turn on the red dot and move it till it's properly aligned with your irons, then fine tune it.

 

[Ehtereon11B]

I always found it easier to zero the iron sights and then "snowcone" the red dot on top of the irons. If you have a good boresight that will make the task faster and easier. Then fine tune both sights separately. Snowconing the red dot will get you pretty close to shooting accurate.

 

[Quentin]

Ah, c'mon - which is it... Snowcone or lollipop!

 

[Skylerbone]

Irons first to correspond to your rear sight markings (if you have them). Learn how to adjust your BUIS correctly for battlesight zero then you can dot the i, scoop the ice cream, top the lollipop or make your point en espanol(my phone doesn't have an upside down exclamation point).

 

[MachIVshooter]

The cheater way to zero a red dot (assuming your irons are zeroed) is to simply turn on the red dot and move it till it's properly aligned with your irons, then fine tune it.

That's what I did with my dual optic set up (P-223 scope and micro RDS). Zeroed the scope, then set the rifle up in a rest with the crosshairs on the bullseye and adjusted the dot until it had the same POA. Worked out beautifully.

As luck had it, the new scope in the new QD mount was only off by 2 inches at 50 yards prior to making any adjustment!