Took the new AR to the range - good and bad.

[Greg_TX]

So this is what arrived this week - love the feel of it and loads of fun to shoot!
S&W M&P15 .223 Rifle $1,011.00 SHIPS FREE

The good is that it ran the American Eagle ammo just fine - 120 rounds and not a single failure. Bad is that I don't like the sights at all. I just couldn't seem to get a good focus on the front sight and my grouping was nothing to brag about. I wear bifocals so I'll use that as my excuse. For now I'll give the rifle the benefit of the doubt and assume it's me, but I may be looking into getting a red-dot sight (heh... pun... geddit? Looking into? ) . I was planning to keep it simple and stay with iron sights and not spend a bunch of money on optics, but unless my next few outings go a little better I'll have to think about it. The handle's removable, so are there good options for replacing the rear sight?

 

[jake75]

Don't know how it would help but you can get Trijicon sights for it. You can also get a Primary Arms red dot for around $100. They get good reviews and theres a youtube video of them throwing it around and it still worked.

 

[West Texas]

and in the mean time, PLEASE don't quit your day job and try to take your comic routine on the road...I'd hate for you not to be able to afford to by more guns...

 

[SC-Texas]

If you are wearing bifocals . . . . hate to say it . . . . but an optic may be in your future.

Try an ACOG.

 

[matefrio]

Line things up and try to focus only on the front sight. If that's not possible then an optic is the best choice.

 

[PopsXD9sc]

My tri-focals don't work so well for the AR sights but the red dot surely does. Groups with irons are only ok but tighten up considerably with the red dot. Primary Arms M4 works well on my S&W MP-15. Check them out.

 

[jsimmons]

+1 on the primary arms microdot sight ($99). If you can afford it, I'd recommend a EOTech XPS2 ($429), but if you can't get the primary arms microdot.

 

[Greg_TX]

and in the mean time, PLEASE don't quit your day job and try to take your comic routine on the road...I'd hate for you not to be able to afford to by more guns...

Reminds me of that scene in The Blues Brothers movie when they're playing in some bar with chicken wire in front of the stage and beer bottles flying from every direction.

 

[Charlie]

When my eyes demanded I get an optical scope, I got a Burris 1.5 x 6, 30 mm tube, and a very small red dot at the tip of the vertical post and it is wonderful. When the red dot is off, it's just a regular German 3 post #4 recticle. A little over $400 but it serves well as a regular red dot as well as a 6x optic; the best of both worlds.

 

[Texastransplant]

I tool wear bifocals, you know the no line kind. I was a heck of a shot years ago with a peep sight, but when I built the last AR wow I was like what's wrong. I love peep and put on a red dot but still hated it. First of all make sure your glasses fit you right, if you have had them a while tighten up the bridge that raises the glasses a bit. Also are you shooting with one eye closed? The purpose of the peep is for the ring to be out of focus and the post in focus, don't try to hard to get them both in focus as it will never happen. Guess what, glasses adjusted a bit and learning to keep both eyes open (besides in a tactical situation that's what you want) and squeeze. I love the A2 style as I used my M16A1 when in the service and partial to it. Optics are all fine and can make a weapon look great, but still a basic weapon as designed is great too.

 

[navyguy]

No matter you're depth sight limits, you should be able to clearly focus on the front sight. Your rear sights and the distant target will be blurry, but even with poor sight should still distinguishable enough to make a good alignment.

People get hung up on sub MOA, 100 yard shots at 100 yards with iron sights, shooting a carbine and are disappointed when those turn into 4-5" groups. Really good riflemen can do MOA, but if everyone were honest, most can't do that with iron sights with a carbine. I know I can't, and I've been shooting since I was 9 YO. Best I can do with my AR is about 2-3" with irons, (On a good day) and 1" - 1.5" with 9x40 optic, perfect conditions with little gusting wind.

 

[Texas1911]

I have particular trouble shooting carbine ARs accurately with iron sights. The full size M16s I can shoot about a 2" group at 100 yards on a good day, and about the same with an M1A. Both of those guns have much longer sight radius' which helps tremendously. They also have better sight pictures I find ... if I shoot tight on the carbine I can't reference the rear sight with the front like I can on the longer radius guns.

Also, what you shoot at makes a BIG difference. If you shoot at something with a tight contrasting center, you can cut groups in half versus a washed out target like orange on white or white bullseye.

With EOTechs I can manage 1 MOA pretty consistently. Any sort of magnified optic I can push below 1 MOA if the gun will do it with the ammo. Alot of times people are shooting a gun:ammo combo that can barely manage 2 MOA to begin with.

 

[Greg_TX]

Maybe I should clarify; we're talking 6 to 8-inch "groups" at 50 yds. I just can't hold a steady focus on the front sight post, and even at that distance it looked to me like the sight covered the whole target. Sometimes I'd "get it" and put a few into a decent group, I just couldn't do it consistently. It could be that I was trying too hard to focus and that made it worse. Plus, I forgot to mention that I'm left eye dominant and shooting right handed, so I was closing my left eye - probably that didn't help matters any.

 

[Greg_TX]

Much better!

So I went with the suggestion to get the Primary Arms M4 and had a much better outing this time. The reticle is nice and clear and once I got it dialed in I was shooting decent groups. Thanks everyone for the suggestions - I was pretty frustrated with the first trip,

 

[Vance]

Glad you got it working for you.

I have the Bushmaster M4 with a cheap red dot that works for me at 50yds, and am seriously considering getting one of those Nikon M223 scopes just to get away from having to depend on a battery supply.

The nice thing that I've read up about the M223's is that they are specifically built with the M4 .223 in mind.

 

[cuate]

I also wear bifocals and don't see as well as in yesteryear but....have a scope and proper scope mount for my Bushmaster M4, Galil/Golani Sporter, and WASR-10/63 AK47. All three posess a rear peep sight although the AK has a brand new Mojo peep sight that replaced the original. All three shoot accurately at 100 yards, at least to my satisfaction, I shoot in my pasture, have no gun range nearby and don't usually have anything pop up at longer distances.