Need a little advice, Put a PRO Aimpoint on my 6920. When looking through the Aimpoint the Colt front sight is a distraction is this something that needs to go? Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by jdshank:
Need a little advice, Put a PRO Aimpoint on my 6920. When looking through the Aimpoint the Colt front sight is a distraction is this something that needs to go? Thanks.

I’ve never had a problem with a non-magnified RDS like the Aimpoint and a fixed front sight on an AR. I just adjust everything so that the dot sits right on top of the front sight post. I’ve got an Aimpoint PRO on my 6920, as well as another Aimpoint on a CMMG AR with a fixed front sight and it doesn’t bother me at all. YMMV.

quote:

Originally posted by jdshank:
Need a little advice, Put a PRO Aimpoint on my 6920. When looking through the Aimpoint the Colt front sight is a distraction is this something that needs to go? Thanks.

Depending on the mount height you can do a couple different things.

Lower 1/3 cowitness mount
1.7” height mount, just a bit better than 1/3
1.93” mount, way less front site, slightly different cheek weld
Remove FSB and put a free float rail on, either have BUIS or not, your choice

Personally, I go for a lower 1/3 cowitness, focus on target not dot, and then shoot.

quote:

Originally posted by davidjinks:
focus on target not dot, and then shoot

Not trying to be snide, but if you’re distracted by the front sight it’s because you’re letting it distract you.

Focusing on the target and using your peripheral vision to bring the dot to the target rather than focusing on the dot and then trying to find the target is 1. the better way of engaging the target quickly, and 2. helps us ignore other things in our field of view like the front sight.

quote:

Originally posted by jdshank:
When looking through the Aimpoint the Colt front sight is a distraction is this something that needs to go?

The only reason it is distracting you is because you're looking at it. If you focus on the target, you'll hardly notice the front sight at all

FSB & a Strikefire II on mine.
Personally, I like the FSB being visible. In the event of RDS failure, you've got a backup (Magpul MBUS rear) without having to do anything to the RDS, just flip up the MBUS.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by davidjinks:
focus on target not dot, and then shoot

Not trying to be snide, but if you’re distracted by the front sight it’s because you’re letting it distract you.

Focusing on the target and using your peripheral vision to bring the dot to the target rather than focusing on the dot and then trying to find the target is 1. the better way of engaging the target quickly, and 2. helps us ignore other things in our field of view like the front sight.

I’m not sure why you quoted me. But I literally said the same thing, just with less words.

Sigfreund likely quoted you to ensure you received credit for mentioning that first, and then elaborated on it himself.

I agree with everyone, in that the front sight is a non-issue; it melts away when you're shooting. If you start adding lights and lasers to most rifles, the clutter in the bottom portion of your FOV gets even worse. If you look at it in an administrative setting, it appears "distracting", but when you go to actually shoot, you don't give it any thought.

Another thing worth mentioning is our troops have been using rifles equipped this way for decades.

I like having the front sight and a flip up rear sight with my non-magnified optics as I can flip the sights to co-witness and verify zero on my dot.

I started out with a lower 1/3 mount height, but have gone to absolute co-witness height lately as I prefer the consistent cheek weld more comfortable.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
Sigfreund likely quoted you to ensure you received credit ….

That’s it, and something I often do.

The truth of the matter is I don't have much time behind a red dot.Scopes and iron sights I have a life time of experience but red dots I'm learning to crawl.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:


Not trying to be snide, but if you’re distracted by the front sight it’s because you’re letting it distract you.

Focusing on the target and using your peripheral vision to bring the dot to the target rather than focusing on the dot and then trying to find the target is 1. the better way of engaging the target quickly, and 2. helps us ignore other things in our field of view like the front sight.

Let me try to understand what you're saying. The only way what you're saying makes sense to me is to look at the target with your eye that's not looking through the sight and let the eye that's looking through the sight pick up the red dot. Is that correct? I'm going to try it anyway since I'm right hand - left eye dominant.

Or are you saying focus on the target through the sight and the red dot will somehow show up?

^^^ You keep both eyes open. Focus on the target and superimpose the dot on the target.

It's the opposite of what you've been taught about iron sights, which is what causes a lot of problems. Irons you focus on the front sight and superimpose it on the blurry target. With dots you focus on the target and not the sight. The dot will be there, even if you're not focusing on it.

I think of it as looking through the optic or perhaps around it, instead of looking at the optic/dot. That's at least how I would describe it; perhaps not the best description.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Or are you saying focus on the target through the sight and the red dot will somehow show up?

Basically, yes.
If we were engaging a threat the natural tendency would to be to focus our eyesight on it (at least initially) to see what it’s doing, where it is, how it’s moving, etc. It’s best, then, to focus on the target even when it’s no more threatening than a piece of paper. As we mount the gun and align it and its optical sight to point at the target, the illuminated dot reticle will enter our field of view even as we’re focused on the target. We then use our peripheral view of the dot to move it to the target.

A way to practice or at least understand what I’m talking about, pick something like a picture on a distant wall and focus your eyesight on it. Then while holding your vision steady, raise your hand with a finger extended and cover the object with the tip of your finger—all without changing your view of the object; hold it steady throughout the process. (It works best if you close your nondominant eye.) That’s what you want to do with the illuminated dot reticle.

If we look for the dot first as we look through the sight and then try to find the target and bring them together, that’s likely to be an unnatural reaction to a live threat, but it can be more difficult to locate the target while keeping the dot reticle in view.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Or are you saying focus on the target through the sight and the red dot will somehow show up?

A way to practice or at least understand what I’m talking about

Another way to understand it is to cover the front of your optic that completely blocks your view through it. The bring it up on target. You'll still see the target, with the eye not looking through the sight, and your other eye,looking into the sight, will superimpose the dot over the target.
Should work even better if your eyes are cross-dominate

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmepiphany:

Another way to understand it is to cover the front of your optic that completely blocks your view through it. The bring it up on target. You'll still see the target, with the eye not looking through the sight, and your other eye,looking into the sight, will superimpose the dot over the target.
Should work even better if your eyes are cross-dominate

This sounds promising as I'm cross-dominant. The last pistol class I went to, granted it was a basic class, had us closing the non-dominant eye and bringing the sights up to the dominant eye.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
This sounds promising as I'm cross-dominant. The last pistol class I went to, granted it was a basic class, had us closing the non-dominant eye and bringing the sights up to the dominant eye.

You won't have to do that with a red dot on an AR. All the non-dominate eye needs to see is the dot in the sight. Since it is zeroed to your POI, all you have to see with your dominate eye is the dot on your target.

I recall a course where we had to shoot between slats (not straight across) of a wooden fence. Everyone was twisting their AR sideways to try to see their red dot on the target through the available opening. I stuck my barrel through the opening and looked over the slat with my left eye (the board ran diagonally from high right to low left). The sight was pointed directly at the wood and all I could see through the sight was the dot on wood. But my mind put the two images together and I could see the red dot on the target well enough to score centered hits

The best explanation I have heard on red dot sights was to think about it like a windshield.

You don’t look at the windshield of your automobile, you look though it. Your mind doesn’t even register that anything is there. You drive around always looking though the windshield and if you do try to focus on the window it doesn’t work out well.

Same thing with a red dot, especially a holographic sight like an EOTech. Just look at your target, both eyes open, and the red dot is where you want the bullet to impact. A perfect example is what 9mmepiphany discussed above. His sight was completely blocked by a wood slat if he looked directly at the dot. He was scoring hits by looking at the target, with the red dot showing where he wanted the round to land. In fact, you can sight in your red dot, put tape or a lense cover on the front and go shoot a target. With both eyes open, it will work perfectly fine.

Look up “Singlepoint Occluded Eye Gunsight“. It was an opaque Vietnam era fiber optic type sight. Probably the first “red dot” sight. With both eyes open, it simply overlayed a huge “dot” at the target. Used by Special Forces at night, a tritium tube was used to illuminate the fiber bundle. This allowed them to place hits within a 12 inch area in conditions too dark to see normal sights.

Cut it down.

Yes sir. It's your rifle, if you want it gone, get it gone.

Cut it off or change it to something else. If you think you may still need a front sight at some point there are folding sight options for gas block/sight towers.