Hi. First time posting. What are the advantages or disadvantages of having a fixed front sight on a barrel vs. a front sight mounted on a rail? How does that affect an eotech or scope etc. Thanks.
Fixed front sight base generally has the advantage of durability.
Yep. I would never run a rail mounted iron sight.
If you’re looking to save as much weight as possible, rail mounted sights are lighter.
I think we just had a thread on this. In fact, I started it.
With either type of front sight, how securely it’s attached matters. You can get crappy rail-mount stuff and you can get crappy clamp-on FSBs, although there are probably fewer crappy FSBs.
I think the major advantage to a rail-mount front sight is that it’s much easier to deal with if you want to reconfigure the weapon with a different length rail, a folding vs. fixed front sight, etc. As far as using them with an optic goes, there’s no difference. Rail mounted sights almost always sit at the same height as fixed sights, with a few specific exceptions.
If you’re concerned about your iron sights getting in the way of your optic, that problem is usually solved either with folding irons (and a folding front sight can be either rail-mount or on an FSB), by mounting the optic differently, or by some combination of the two. Read up on co-witness and try to find some sight-picture photos or, better yet, friends with rifles set up different ways. Pick a setup that you’re comfortable with and go with it.
Last week I would have said that my fixed front sight post limits the placement of stuff on my rail… but i just order the DD Omega rail that extends around the front sight so that is not a problem anymore. I’m with the rest of the guys, the fixed front sight is very solid and it is always there, i don’t have to worry about flipping it up if i need it.
I run my rifle with the fixed front sight post and larue fixed BUIS neither of which get in the way of my Micro Aimpoint T-1.
Hello all. Please explain are you talking about BUIS i.e. TROY,MAGPULL or fixed removable DANIEL,KAC. rail mounted sights. I probably missed something here, sorry for my ignorance. 
Patriot.
I’ve been curious about this also.
I’m running Troy folders on mine, with the front mounted on my DD Lite 10.0. The only way I see to get back to a barrel mounted front sight is to find a small set screw style picatinny block that would have the same top elevation as my receiver & hand guard rails.
I haven’t ran across anything that will work…
I think I’ll just stick with a rail-mount front sight.
Midwest Industries make a upper height gas block that is the same height as the upper receiver. I think the S&W MP15 OR model rifle has a short railed gas block that is the same height as the upper receiver but I’m not sure where one can be found other than buying the rifle. Here is the Midwest Industries gas block on one of my rifles.
Thanks!
I may order one and chop it down to where it’s the same length as my Troy folder, I want to see how much weight it’s going to add first. If it adds too much weight I will just stay with the rail-mounted sight.