Guys, don’t let your guns get bi-polar… Your AR doesn’t need everything out of the MAKO and Blackhawk catalogues to be cool or effective.
Here is a rule of thumb for you. If you have a VFG or an AFG on your rifle, you don’t need a bi-pod. The reverse is also true. If you put a 4-16 Nikon Monarch on your gun, you don’t need to try to put flip up iron sights on it.
AR builds tend to fall into three classes. Short, Intermediate, and Long Range/Precision.
I’ll post more about these three build types tonight or tomorrow…
+1. After I tore my L rotator cuff, I had to re-evaluate my carbine. I never went attachment crazy, but the rail, HBAR, and VFG had to go. I down sized my barrel profile and managed to attach a light with a FSB attachment while running stock hand guards.
Some people go kit crazy and somehow manage to make an aluminum receiver carbine weigh more than a Garand.
So far so good then. BCM mid-length, low profile gas block, Vlto EMod stock. Magpul BUIS, AFG and Primary Arms Micro Dot. Still need a light of some form.
But what about the swiss army knife, and tactical beer bottle opener?
I removed the glass, whent back to irons. I also have a flashlight. No other accessories. I have been looking for a mil-spec cup holder to attach to a rail though. Have you seen any tactical hydration 1913 attachments. It gets hot here in the summer. I NEED to be ready!
I FAIL at spelling. 🙁
what about the infamous grip-pods (not a fan for actually combat use but they are convenient for the military types who dont feel like stacking rifles every other five seconds.
What? No coffee grinder? B-)
Nice Sharps reference!
What about the forward grip with the retractable bipod? I think it qualifies as strategic.
I had this crazy idea a few years back to build a highly versatile “Franken-AR”, capable of both rapid accurate fire up close and highly precise deliberate fire at 200 yards.
Now I have 4 AR15s, but that original one still bears the scars from that experiment. On the plus side, it’s got the long (iron) sight radius that I wanted, as well as the red dot, light, and VFG. On the down side, it weighs 8.4 lbs, largely due to the 12″ quad rail. Highly discommended.
My latest build dispensed with the precision aspect (still reliable for head shots at 100, but not 200), still has a long sight radius, no light (yet) or VFG/AFG (probably….never), and weighs in at 6.4 lbs.
I also have a 24″ AR with a 6-24X varmint scope on it that can hit those little Shoot-N-C targets all day long at 200 yards, and probably farther than that (alas, that’s all my local range is capable of providing). I don’t CARE what it weighs, because it’s pretty much a fixed-position proposition.
I’m going to put that Franken-AR on a diet.
I only have 1 shorty AR so far, an Eagle Arms preban Hbar A2. May build up a replica of the M4 with the Trijicon to duplicate what my daughter has carried on 2 deployments. She prefers the M4 to the SP1s and A2s. My question is will all of these sighting options hold zero when compared to the fixed old school sights?
I believe this is a “you get what you pay for” moment. But my rear sight is a fixed bolt on.
I have always tried to keep things simple and light. I have a 20″ A4 w/ an LMT stand-alone rear sight, std FSB and a Leupold PGS w/ Larue QD mount placed on the forward portion of the receiver.
This is a simple,light “Mountain Rifle” that is good for MOH (Minute of Head) out to 125m or so and good for MOL (Minute of Lung) out to 350m.
As for the M4, thus far I’ve kept it stock w/ the detch carry handle….I MIGHT place a Leupold PGS on it and a DD 1.5 stand-alone rear sight….but I’m in no hurry to do so.
I like to keep it simple, but, I have to disagree with not having BUIS. Optics can break or malfunction, and when they do, you need irons. You can do without the light, laser, bottle opener, cool guy bipod, blahblahblah, bacause if any of those cease to work, you can still use the weapon. But, sights are critical, and without them, you are not effective.
It would be a shame to have to leave a prarrie dog shooting session early because my glass broke.
For a fighting rifle (as in combat not HD), I would agree. BUT 99% of us are NOT going to ever bring our personal weapons to battle.
Many a hunting rifle take to the fields without BUIS.
That’s cool. My old Rem 700 had both, it was just comforting. But, I’ve also leaned more toward being a belt and suspenders kind of guy… For other than hunting (critters, that is), on a defensive/offensive AR15 platform, I would never, ever omit BUIS. But, sport hunting is different from defense, or even subsistence hunting. As far as subsisitence hunting, I’d sure hate to miss the opportunity to bag some more meat for the larder for want of iron sights if my optics went tits up… Hey, it just hit me, maybe practice with no sights, out to a range of say, 100 yards, is a viable survival type training topic. Could be fun, too.
Many a hunting rifle failed to bring home the venison because the scope was damaged or faulty. Not a problem these days as no one is going to starve.
In real world encounters if your scope fails and you don’t have an alternative way to aim it could mean you
don’t go home. Lots of doo dads and gimmicks on rifles are just that…..but having an alternative means to aim
your rifle is every bit as important as having an extra
mag just in case, perhaps more so. Probably the only thing more important than being able to aim a rifle accurately is having one that will always go BANG when the bangswitch is activated.