buy a stripped or barrel with sight block for ar15

[Soybomb]

I'm building an upper that will have a low profile gas block under rails on it and was planning to buy a stripped barrel that wasn't drilled for taper pins since I wasn't going to be using a gas block sight. Is this a mistake? For $15 more should I get it with the a2 sight, throw it in a drawer and if I ever want to change it have the ability to put it back on? Is there any reason not to have the slots cut? Will they interfere with mounting the low profile gas block or anything?

Thanks!

 

[rino451]

A working gun will have the gas block taper pinned. That said, the pin cuts shoudn't have any affect on using gas blocks with set screws.

 

[DougW]

2 of my 3 AR's have picatinny gas blocks. That allows me to have a flip front sight if I want, or not. I have 4 barrels, and the only one not currently being used was drilled for the tapered pins. The other 3 front sights are held on by set screws or locking screws. Since I am not kicking doors in Iraq, the set screw method made the best sense for my applications. It allows versitility and the ability to add a tactical light if I would want to without having a high dollar picatinny hand guard.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

There are companies that make pinned low-profile gas blocks (Larue and I think Novseke). For that matter, there are several "how-to" guides at AR15.com that explain how to take a dremel and make the standard front sight base into a pinned low-profile sight base with a cutting wheel.

If you are going for uber-accuracy, then you may want to avoid the pinned front sight bases and go with the set screw version. The set-screw versions can be very reliable but they have to be installed carefully and staked/loctited and witness marked.