Iron Sights

What do y'all say we go ahead and take off our little optics and everything. Let's get back to the basics. Hey, everybody, Clint here with Classic Firearms out here at Take Aim training and Range. And today we're going to talk about these little guys. These important little guys sitting on top of your rifle, or at least they should be. All right? So we're getting back to the basics, like I said, in the intro with some iron sights. Now, granted there are polymer flip up sights. Magpul has got some out there. These ones here are LWRC and these are metal, which is pretty nice. They make great little sights. And, guys, I just want to talk about these some because I think we've gotten spoiled in this age of technology and all the tactical gun gear that's out there, it's awesome. But at the same time, I think everybody should learn how to drive stick. You know what I mean? Come on. There's just no greater feeling than that.

Magpul MBUS Rear Flip-Up Sight

And then being able to effectively engage targets and hit them at the distance with iron sights is a lot of fun. And, again, I think it kind of sets the premise for everything else. Like this little guy over here, the red dot, magnified optics, everything else, because magnified optics, and red dots, holographics, everything, they kind of make things a little bit easier. It's a little bit like cheating because you don't really have to... There's not much you really got to do. If you're hitting a little to the left, you just rotate a knob a little bit. Kind of in theory, the same thing here, but you don't exactly have a reticle telling you where to hit. You actually have to take the time, make sure you're practicing, and practicing the fundamentals, and getting correct sight alignment before pulling the trigger. Let's head on over to the target really quick. And let's just shoot a couple of rounds and talk about iron sights and their importance. Right? So in the Marines, we're actually not even shooting with iron sights anymore. We are going with the ACOG, which you saw me remove from my Colt here. And this here comes, "When I was in the Marine Corps..." So yeah, when I went through bootcamp in 2011, yeah, we were still shooting iron sights and it was shortly after that, that we integrated completely over to the magnified ACOG. All right? Now the ACOG is a great optic. It's durable. I really actually enjoy it. At first, I wasn't that big of a fan due to the short eye relief, but with training and practice, I've gotten completely used to it and comfortable with it. With that being said, since I don't have the ACOG on here, I can actually adjust my length of pool to be something a little more comfortable for me.

Trijicon ACOG

All right? Oh. Yeah. That feels good. So when it comes to iron sights, especially for new shooters out, they may not know this, typically this guy here on this night's rear sight, you're going to have a little peep. All right? Pretty simple. We've all played Call of Duty. Right? You all see how the iron sights line up there. You've got a peep, you got your front sight post, and you line it up with the front sight post is in the middle of your peep or your circle. Right? Easy enough. Cool. Now some flip ups too have what's called an O2 sight, which is a larger opening made for a little bit more close quarters. You have your distance one that's going to be a little bit smaller opening made for a little bit more precise shots out to distance. Okay? The nights here doesn't have that O2 sight. It is just your distance sight. Now, of course, this one here, some of your sights don't have a elevation adjustment. All of that's done through the front sight post right up here. Okay? And you might be able to see right on top where it says up and it should have an arrow pointing the direction of up. Just keep in mind it's not the front sight post that's moving up, it's your point of impact. Okay? Same thing when it comes to your windage. All right? So granted, it's easy for a red dot, like I said, to bring your rifle up and then boom you're just right on target. You see your red dot, whatever it is, like for instance, I've got my RMR turned off right now because I'm practicing with my irons, but boom, there you go, red dot. I can engage it all day easily knowing exactly where it is. But if my optics were to fail me, if I were to forget to replace my battery, whatever it might be, I need to be able to know exactly how to engage with my iron sights and I need to be able to do it effectively. So take the time, get out there, and zero your iron sights. All right? So let's just make sure I am pretty well zeroed here. Let's take a couple of shots with it. Yeah. I feel pretty good with that. So I do have these zero to about a hundred yards or so I should be hitting a little low here, which makes complete sense. All right? So let's go for it. There we go. Route on that one. Let's go ahead and hit that reload. All right. Nice. So iron sights are definitely important because, like I said, if your optics fail you or something like that, you need to be able to have that backup sight system so that way you can still stay in the fight, if need be. It doesn't matter what your situation is, if you don't have sights on your gun, you're SOL. Right?

Practice Makes Perfect

So definitely get out there and practice before I step on that and get it all muddy, let's go ahead and dump that into the pouch. So, iron sights, yes, definitely important. Get out there. Practice with them. And just like everything else, train, train, train. Even if it's something as simple as dry firing, I encourage you to do it. Bringing your firearm up and then just boom, click on the trigger, and then taking a quick second and just stopping, and seeing where your point of impact would be. Try not to shift your gun. Try not to cheat at all. Bring this thing up. Click, boom, boom. I know I'd be a little low. Since I got some rounds, let's just try it out here really quick. Look at that too high. There we go. Boom. Boom. A little to the right. There we go. Looks like all of my shots are just a little to the right so that's something I need to either focus on as far as just practicing the fundamentals, slowing down, or maybe I need to actually adjust my windage. Let's slow it down just for a second here. And let's just see. There we go. So now my shots look a whole lot more centered and that was just from slowing down for just a second. Remember, speed is fine, but accuracy is everything. Right? Speed will come with practice and more accuracy. As you get more comfortable with your firearm, get more comfortable shooting it, again, dry firing it is great. Get used to that trigger control and everything else. You'll notice your times will start to cut down too for accurate shots, different types of drills that you might be running. Right?

Ruger Rapid Deploy AR-15 Front Sight

So very good. Man, that trigger feels good. Geissele super dynamic triggers are sweet, by the way, so yeah, if you're in the market for one, check those out. Okay? All right. Now, like I said, optics are great. Okay? I am all about running optics on your gear, but really you should actually start running with a pretty basic, simple setup much like this right here. Now I love running a sling and I highly recommend it, but maybe go without a sling just for a little bit so that way you don't completely rely on it at all times because you never know. Your sling could break on you too. Right? But, like I said, if you got a quality sling, you'd probably be just fine, but running something like this right here, not a bad idea. In fact, let's go ahead and clear this guy. Let's put a couple of rounds through the LWRC here. All right. Can't waste ammunition in this day of age. All right? Let's go take a couple of shots with this guy. Let's see how sighted in we are with it here. Length of pool where I like it? Yeah. It feels good. Now you'll notice. Let's go ahead and show these different rear sights off real quick. So on the LWRC, we actually have four different rear apertures we can take a look out here. That's a relatively large one, that what I'm about to go through is nice and compact. Again, that's for that decent precision shot at distance. Let's keep going here. That's a nice big open one for that CQB. Right? Let's go for that one here since we're pretty close range, as it is. Let's see how this guy shoots real quick. It think it might be a little to the left on this guy here. There we go. Feels good though. I got one more. All right. Nice. So again, practicing with those iron sights definitely, definitely recommend. You guys need to know how to do that before you start getting a little spoiled with magnified optics, offsets, RMRs, red dots, holographics, magnifiers, whatever it might be, go to the fundamentals. Practice your iron sights. And like I was saying before, if you're at home and maybe it's a rainy day and the range is closed, or maybe you just don't want to go to an indoor range because they don't allow you to do this. Right?

Safety First

Or, you know, shoot fast. Sit at home, and it's easy enough for me to be right here and then in my head, that one I know I'd be too high. All right? Let's go again. All right. I'm right on target. I slowed down just for a second. Let's get that reset. Perfect. All right. Cool. There we go. That one, I think I'd been a little to the left. Boom. A little low. And don't cheat yourself too. Don't try to correct yourself. You know? You'll know whether or not. I mean, don't lie to yourself. You're only hurting yourself. Right? But ultimately, guys, it's getting out there and practicing is the biggest thing. And doing that in your house was easy. Just make sure you got a cleared firearm because you didn't want to be patching any holes in your walls. And you don't want your neighbors mad at you or even worse consequences. So it makes sure you guys are practicing the fundamentals, also your safety, things along those lines. Now, granted, I know. Don't point your gun at anything you do not intend to shoot. I get it. But in a training scenario with a cleared firearm like this, I don't have an issue shooting or not shooting, but dry firing in my house. Me personally, if you're not comfortable with that, don't do it. Go to the range and dry fire. It's fine. All right. Boom.

Tacfire Same Plane Polymer Flip-Up Sights

Again, Geissele is super dynamic, highly recommend. All right. Anyway, what are some of the drills you guys like to run with your iron sights? I'm curious to hear from y'all. All right. And there's that little ACOG. I didn't drop it behind me. I have my dump pouch back here, which I also recommend. It's great for snacks and things, but anyway, train your through iron sights. And then once you get proficient with your iron sights and they are zeroed, go in and throw on some optics on there and start training with those as well. And, you know, the entire philosophy. Train how you fight, things along those lines. So if that requires you in your pajamas or whatever you may or may not be sleeping in, clearing your house at 3:00 AM, hey, go for it. More power to you. All right? Anyway, speaking of iron sights, even our current giveaway, I'll move it over here so we have a little bit more room. Excuse all the stuff we're having some fun out here today as you can tell. Even the Barrett M107 we're giving away. It comes with little flip up iron sights. All right? Because again, this is a beastly machine and they're not exactly in theater, combat, whatever treated the most nice as you can imagine. I mean, it's a big, heavy guy. I'm sure a lot of guys were like, "Oh. Screw this gun." Right? And maybe optics get damaged. Well, if that's the case, you need to have some backups. The Barrett does come with some integrated rear and front sights, which are pretty awesome. Okay? But anyway, yeah, Barrett M107 50 BMG semiautomatic magazine fed rifle is what our current giveaway is. Head to classic firearms dot com to get your entries, no purchase necessary. And it's not, who has the most entries. All it takes is one, but the more you have, the better your chance. All right? We've also teamed up with Alex Zedra on this giveaway. Go check out all of her different channels, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. Go check all those out. Check out her content. It's a good time. And check out our video, doing a little run and gun against each other with pistols, rifles, and Barretts. Yes. Barretts as in plural. Okay? But we giving this one away to one of you guys code word on our website is Zedra Z-E-D-R-A. Don't miss out, guys. And I'll see you guys down in the comments section all about iron sights. And do you think we need to train with them? Be honest. Do you think our optics today have gotten so reliable, so rugged that we don't even need iron sights anymore? Me personally? You're going to see iron sights on all of my setups everywhere. God bless you, guys. And we'll see you next time at classicfirearms.com Shop All Optics & Mounting
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