Tweet
As expected, and as the title says the iron sights on the Unity Micro Mount are a bear to use. The roughly 1" sight radius is too short to be effective at getting anything resembling a group. But once dialed in you will be able to hit a man size target center mass within 100 yards. Just don't expect it to be pretty. Beyond that, I wouldn't count on it being very effective.
Because the sights are not co-witnessed the usual tricks of getting them dialed in are not going to work. Additionally, the front sight post height is a major pain to adjust once the sight is installed. Obviously, you don't want to have to remove the mount while zeroing. So you'll need to work the short end of an allen wrench into the tiny hole of the sight and turn it to raise it up and down. Doing this at a public range with all the range rules and requirements is...well...interesting.
My strategy was to zero the red dot. Come home. Co-witness my PEQ's visible laser at 25 yards (roughly) indoors, then adjust the iron sights to be co-witnessed with the PEQ. Without a PEQ I would have been hosed. This got me on paper.
Thankfully some minor height adjustments were all that were needed. Though I did not realize this at first. Because thanks to the short sight radius the grouping was all over the paper at 25 yards. However, it was ON PAPER. All shots were on paper. Which is sadly the best you can hope for. Some minor windage adjustments, 20-30 rounds later I confirmed this theory. I was going to be all over the paper, but consistently so. Some too high, some too low, some too right, some too left. But all roughly equally so.
I know what you're thinking. I can't shoot right? Well with my pistol AR with standard irons I was shooting 1-2 MOA groups at 50 yards all day long. Additionally, I confirmed there is nothing wrong with the mount (not too loose for example) by shooting 1-2 MOA groups with the red dot at 50 yards. Confirming the issue isn't me, it's the sight radius. I did not shoot any further out today since the goal was to get everything zeroed and that was it. Since this was a public range, there are long shooting sessions between breaks. My needs were not the focus of the day for anyone but me. Which of course I am cool with. But it means you have to pick your battles on how to best spend your time.
Now all that said I don't think I really care. Especially on an AR pistol. Which this rifle is not. These sights are intended to be a last resort. Which is something I accept. My main concern is getting the sight high enough to be useful with night vision. My second concern is leaving room for a PEQ and the pressure switch to control it while having my support side hand where I want it. With an Aimpoint T2 that is tested and proven, and a PEQ as a backup, the irons become pretty redundant. At this point I am just glad they are there at all, and grateful they don't get in the way of things I want more. Still, I do wish they worked a little better. But that's just not how irons work. When you give up sight radius you give up accuracy.
I have read that you can remove the front sight post from the Unity Micro Mount entirely and just run a front sight. On an AR pistol this takes up too much room for my liking. Though the one from Rail Scales designed to work with a PEQ15 might be good. I did try it on this rifle with a KAC M4 Front Sight, and it seemed like it is not on the same plain as this sight's rear peep sight. It seemed low to me. It looked like there would still be room to adjust the front sight post up and make it work. But it just felt off to me. Maybe in the future I will give this try. I doubt the Rail Scales Dbal fixed height blade front sights would work with this since they are not adjustable. Could be wrong.
There was no point in taking a pic of the target. Needless to say it was not pretty.
Because the sights are not co-witnessed the usual tricks of getting them dialed in are not going to work. Additionally, the front sight post height is a major pain to adjust once the sight is installed. Obviously, you don't want to have to remove the mount while zeroing. So you'll need to work the short end of an allen wrench into the tiny hole of the sight and turn it to raise it up and down. Doing this at a public range with all the range rules and requirements is...well...interesting.
My strategy was to zero the red dot. Come home. Co-witness my PEQ's visible laser at 25 yards (roughly) indoors, then adjust the iron sights to be co-witnessed with the PEQ. Without a PEQ I would have been hosed. This got me on paper.
Thankfully some minor height adjustments were all that were needed. Though I did not realize this at first. Because thanks to the short sight radius the grouping was all over the paper at 25 yards. However, it was ON PAPER. All shots were on paper. Which is sadly the best you can hope for. Some minor windage adjustments, 20-30 rounds later I confirmed this theory. I was going to be all over the paper, but consistently so. Some too high, some too low, some too right, some too left. But all roughly equally so.
I know what you're thinking. I can't shoot right? Well with my pistol AR with standard irons I was shooting 1-2 MOA groups at 50 yards all day long. Additionally, I confirmed there is nothing wrong with the mount (not too loose for example) by shooting 1-2 MOA groups with the red dot at 50 yards. Confirming the issue isn't me, it's the sight radius. I did not shoot any further out today since the goal was to get everything zeroed and that was it. Since this was a public range, there are long shooting sessions between breaks. My needs were not the focus of the day for anyone but me. Which of course I am cool with. But it means you have to pick your battles on how to best spend your time.
Now all that said I don't think I really care. Especially on an AR pistol. Which this rifle is not. These sights are intended to be a last resort. Which is something I accept. My main concern is getting the sight high enough to be useful with night vision. My second concern is leaving room for a PEQ and the pressure switch to control it while having my support side hand where I want it. With an Aimpoint T2 that is tested and proven, and a PEQ as a backup, the irons become pretty redundant. At this point I am just glad they are there at all, and grateful they don't get in the way of things I want more. Still, I do wish they worked a little better. But that's just not how irons work. When you give up sight radius you give up accuracy.
I have read that you can remove the front sight post from the Unity Micro Mount entirely and just run a front sight. On an AR pistol this takes up too much room for my liking. Though the one from Rail Scales designed to work with a PEQ15 might be good. I did try it on this rifle with a KAC M4 Front Sight, and it seemed like it is not on the same plain as this sight's rear peep sight. It seemed low to me. It looked like there would still be room to adjust the front sight post up and make it work. But it just felt off to me. Maybe in the future I will give this try. I doubt the Rail Scales Dbal fixed height blade front sights would work with this since they are not adjustable. Could be wrong.
There was no point in taking a pic of the target. Needless to say it was not pretty.
All that said, zeroing and potentially PID probably would be easier with magnification. But honestly, you can do a lot with just a dot. It is my favorite setup to date.
Comment