Lack Of Iron

Ian and Karl at InRange TV have been doing an experiment with "What Would Stoner Do" AR's.

One of the interesting decisions was to skip iron sights altogether.

We really are getting to the point where it's easy to find a scope that's durable enough that anything that damages the scope would also damage iron sights.  Especially if those irons are plastic.

We're just about to the point where the budget and mid-range stuff from Made in China by American owned companies passes the durability mark.

In fact, it's getting hard to find affordable back-up iron sights that are even remotely robust.

I've noticed that every AR that I've mounted a scope on, that's what I'm using for shooting and the fold-down rear sight stays folded down.  This has proven true of my AK as well!

All of my ARs (and the AK) still HAVE irons though.

I like redundant back-ups.  If one really stretches you can justify it by saying that a hit that damages the optic is likely not going to also hit where it will damage the irons, so you will still have them.  That's backing into justifying them though.

There's an aesthetic component too.  An AR without a front sight just looks odd.

In fact there's a plethora of articles justifying all manner of decisions about stuff on an AR that really boils down to the owner thinking it looks cool; but you'd never get them to admit it.

There's also a fashion industry that goes with these things.  AK and AR.

I've watched people toss MOE handguards to put on Keymod to toss them and get M-LOK... because repeatability!  For a flashlight or sling mount.  Yes, that ± 0.5 MOA shift really affected your sling with that outdated Keymod.  The sloppy holes in an MOE handguard had a huge effect on where your flashlight was pointed.

Speaking of flashlights... when is it bright enough and when is it too bright?  The reason I ask is some incredibly dim lights can be used to see quite well once your eyes have adjusted to the dark.  I've also noticed that with no artificial lights at all there's enough light to do most things.

If you go from well lit room to a dark room, you're going to need a brighter light than if you had just spent hours in the dark and now need an aiming light.  If that light is too bright, now you're aiming through tears from your dazzled eyes.

Are you a home defender or a door-kicker?

Speaking of fashion:  Are there any two things on an AR more subject to the whims of fashion than the pistol grip and the flash-hider?