Many modern rifles are made entirely without iron sights. To some old school shooters, that must seem wild. Scopes are great, but imagine if you break the scope or lose your zero in the field? You’ll be up a creek.
Iron sights are a hedge against this, and as much as you might like your scope or red dot sight, AR15 sights are still a necessity on every rifle, period, even if you do have an optic over the receiver (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?).
So, with that being said, here’s just about every reason that AR15 sights are still a necessity on your rifle, every sporting rifle you own.
Why You Can’t Afford to Forego AR15 Iron Sights
Iron sights, first and foremost, don’t require any power to work. Unlike red dot sights and reflex sights and other holographic sights, they never need batteries which means there are no batteries that can die.
They’re also practical in the dark. Even if you can’t see them, they work, which makes night sights a great (not to mention technically more reliable) alternative to red dot sights and scopes.
AR15 iron sights are also not fragile, which realistically is not something you can say about glass optics and reflex optics. Scopes can break or lose their zero and the same could be said about reflex sights. That won’t happen with irons.
In addition to being generally more durable, AR15 iron sights are also completely immune to so many of the problems that plague other optics. There is no glass that could get occluded by fog or other moisture, or by dust. Good sights won’t produce any issues with glare, and they are as reliable in bright sunlight as in the shade.
They’re also entirely waterproof, and as a general rule, iron sights are not only recoil-proof (forget resistant) they are also generally shock and drop proof. You wouldn’t want to drop the full weight of the rifle on the sights, but realistically, worse things could easily happen.
All in all, reliability in all conditions, immunity to dead batteries, and resistance to moisture, dust, and more, make AR15 sights a necessity on every rifle, no exceptions.
The Solution for Rifles with Optics
Now, let’s take a closer look at a situation in which you have a rifle that has an optic over the receiver, like a scope or a red dot sight. In this situation, you won’t be able to have your sights where you conventionally would, but there is a solid solution.
Just get a pair of offset iron sights. These will mount out of the way and won’t interfere with your optics. Plus, most of them are flip-up sights, which means you won’t even know they’re there until you need them.
And, on top of that, two is one and one is none, so it’s always a better idea to have the redundant backup than it is to rely on one optic alone. Flip-up backup sights are a hedge against that.
Where to Get a Set of Backup AR15 Sights
In the market for a new pair of flip-up backup AR15 sights? Check out MCS Gearup. They carry an exhaustive assortment of AR15 parts and accessories in addition to sights.
For more information about Buffer Tube Kits and Micro Conversion Kits Please visit: MCS Gearup.