Question about changing the front sight.

[williamkwong]

Hi. I have a standard Stag Arms flat top upper. I have a hard time getting the groups that I want with the irons. I think it is the way the middle prong on the front sight has to align with the rear aperture. I am not consistant with it like I am with lining up 3 dots horizontally on a pistol. I was wondering if anyone replaced the 3 prongs with something else. I know I've seen crosshairs on the front iron sights before. I think that would be a little easier for me. What do you guys think? Also, do you guys have good links for a replacement up front?

Thanks.

[5968]

Make sure you put your cheek up to the stock in the same place everytime.

[blkA4alb]

Even if you used the crosshair front sight you still line that up with the rear apeture. You should not have to think about it, your eye should align the front sight in the apeture automatically.

All I can say is just practice, once you do you'll see that it really is a good system .

[ocabj]

I take it you have a standard A2 front sight post with a rear aperture?

Are you placing the tip of the front sight post in the center of your rear aperture? If not, then you need to.

The "3 prongs" you are really correlated in the aiming process. The two outer 'prongs' are the ears. You shouldn't be even looking at those when you are aiming. When you obtain sight picture, you need to center the front sight post in your rear aperture and then focus on that front sight post. Don't even use the ears for reference.

The ears are just there to protect the front sight post if you were to drop the rifle or what not.

You should get "Sight Alignment, Trigger Control, and the Big Lie" by Jim Owens.

http://www.jarheadtop.com/books.html

[williamkwong]

Even if you used the crosshair front sight you still line that up with the rear apeture. You should not have to think about it, your eye should align the front sight in the apeture automatically.

All I can say is just practice, once you do you'll see that it really is a good system .

Yea. But with crosshairs up front, it seems like I can be more consistant in making sure they are lined up. With a single prong, I have to make sure that its in the middle by only looking at the prong. WIth crosshairs, I have 2 lines that intersect that creates a middle.

I know I need practice. When some people here post up groups of their irons, I am amazed.

[SpeedTribe]

I have the KNS crosshair Hooded Duplex front sights and I think they work great. Here is a quick pic of what you see when you look through them.

[Scarecrow Repair]

A newbie throws in two bits

I am just getting into this firearms thing. I seem to have caught black rifle disease. So far I have fired about 1200 rounds of 5.56 and 1300 rounds of .22LR.

I am nearsighted, but not so blind as to be a danger. I feel safe driving on the freeway without glases, but not around town.

Wen I use iron sights with my long distance glasses, the target is in focus, but the sights are so blurry that they completely obscure the target. I can see the target thru the rear circle sight, but as soon as I swing the front sight in line, the target disappears behind a black fuzzy disk. It sure makes precision shooting fun!

If I don't wear my glasses, the sights are fine, but the target is sufficiently blurry that I have to slowly wiggle the front sight back and forth to get some idea where the center of the target is.

The best example I can give is a scuba tank 450 feet away at a local shooting field. Without my glasses, I have to know where it is and look slowly to see that skinny yellow thing. Yet the first time I tried shooting it offhand with the .22LR, I got it on the third try (it makes a very nice *ping* :-) As soon as the sight covers it, it disappears from my view.

The front sight that you don't like took me a while to get used to. I tried bench shooting at 100 feet, and with the iron sights I was getting 6 inch groups (I said I was new to this!). I bought an Aimpoint so I can wear glasses, and with that I got 2 inch groups. This was probably around the time I had fired 200-300 rounds of 5.56 and less of the .22LR. I think I could shoot better groups now, just from all those rounds experience with wiggling the front sight around to guesstimate the center of the target.

I don't know your experience. You probably have more than me, most shooters do. But maybe that works against you, if you are used to different sights, whereas I don't have anything to compare them with and figure I have to put up with them.

Maybe just keep on shooting and especially stop mentally telling yourself what sucky sights they are. But if you aren't that kind of masochist, it's your rifle, and if you want different sights, that's what you ought to do. Me, I get stubborn, and the iron sights kind of get my back up, and I am determined to keep shooting with just iron sigts on one rifle, the red-dot on another, and I am gradually getting better at wiggling the muzzle back and forth to figure out where the center of the target actually is. I have surprised myself by almost not seeing the ears any more, part of my brain is just automatically centering the front sight using them, I think, as if my brain splits the sight image into two parts, sending the ears and rear ring to the centering muscles and the front post to the muzzle wiggle and trigger pull muscles.

[williamkwong]

The front sight that you don't like took me a while to get used to. I tried bench shooting at 100 feet, and with the iron sights I was getting 6 inch groups (I said I was new to this!). I bought an Aimpoint so I can wear glasses, and with that I got 2 inch groups. This was probably around the time I had fired 200-300 rounds of 5.56 and less of the .22LR. I think I could shoot better groups now, just from all those rounds experience with wiggling the front sight around to guesstimate the center of the target.

6" grounds with iron sights at 100 yards? I cant even do that at 50 yards. I say you are doing VERY well...or I am just VERY bad.


Thanks SpeedTribe. Do you have a link for purchase?

[ligamentum flavum]

6" grounds with iron sights at 100 yards? I cant even do that at 50 yards. I say you are doing VERY well...or I am just VERY bad.


Thanks SpeedTribe. Do you have a link for purchase?

i believe he was mentioning 6" groups at 100 FEET. So don't feel so badly.

[bonjing]

If you want the 3 dot sight system you may want to give XS sightgs a try

http://www.xssights.com/store/tactical.html