Just out of curiosity, how many of you have a red dot or some other optic and have NO flip up/back up/offset/iron sights?
Or, how many of you just have a front sight?
I know this sounds like a stupid question but I have noticed a lot of setups that have no sights other than a red dot or holographic sight. I have seen a lot of youtube videos where SF guys have a micro T-1, comp m4s, eotech and no BUIS at all? Thought it was worth asking. I understand that sometimes a rear flip up wont fit with a particular optic or wont allow you to place an optic where you need it.
A decent dress shirt comes with a couple of spare buttons sewed on the shirt tail. I don’t remember ever have to use them. Do you? I have never been in a situation where BUIS were needed but I have them just in case. I look at them as cheap insurance. Like the spare buttons.
Difficult question to answer on an enthusiast’s forum such as this where a great many of it’s members have more than one.
Personally, I have two with red dots with fixed sights front and rear and two with scopes with no BUIS at all.
If zombies were to invade, my go to would be the one with the EoTech and fixed sites. Not because of the fixed sites, but overall, that particular one is best set up to repel zombies.
With a quality optic, I see no need for BUIS for civilian use.
I have backups on any gun I would ever use for hd/shtf. I have a precision oriented with 3x15 with no backup sights. It’s just a range gun so I don’t think it’s essential.
I imagine I sound like a broken record.
But if a weapon runs CQ optics, so any RDS or HWS, it gets fixed sights. I’ve used this config to the point I don’t even notice the rear sight. I am trying a spring loaded folding rear sight behind a micro RDS, and it is cleaner. It pops up in a second. Al though.
I’ll also say that in the Army, Mr. Murphy made many surprise appearances. So as soon as I say, “It’s an CompM4S, it’ll never break, it will get struck by lightening. (Hyperbole, maybe.)
There are many factors as to why a gun of mine may or may not have buis.
Red dots for me I want to have buis. I think they are the least likely to fail. I think the battery itself is the weak link on something as tough as an aim point. That said I do have one gun that is high railed so buis really sucked on it with the aiming so low. It’s a pdw and I’m comfortable with it as set up.
I have other guns where I see no real issue with reliability. My nightforce 1-4 NXS is a good example of this. I run this with great confidence in a geiselle Mount. No buis. This is my shtf gun.
I do put buis on guns with qd mounts. This not as back up, but so the gun is useable with out an optic. I have more guns than good optics.
Lastly especially in regards to a back up and high speed units, they have a laser as a back up. The last Vtac class I took had 5 army rangers in it. None of them had Buis. They all had peq15 on their guns. I feel the same way for guns I have a laser on too
IMHO, the only reasons not to have back up irons sights on your rifle, is their weight and cost. If they are ever needed when my life is on the line, the little bit of extra weight they add to my rifle or their cost is nothing.
I run buis on all my guns except my dedicated night vision sbr set up. I run fixed irons on all my red dot only guns and eotechs. If you run an eotech, i would always recommend buis and in particular, fixed irons.
Two yes, one no. The Colt Trooper with the Steiner P4xi does not wear any. With a non-QD mount, taking the time to pull the scope to then be able to open the rear sight does not make sense. And since I would have to get two upgrades to be able to be called “Low Speed, High Drag”, it just isn’t as important to me.
I don’t have BUIS on my 9" 300BLK. The barrel/rail is too short and the front sight is where my thumb would rest. It’s the last rifle I would grab in a home defense situation, so it’s no big deal.
My guns with red dots have BUIS. They were folding but I’ll be transitioning to Scalarworks fixed fronts when they come back in stock, and keep the folding rear MBUS PROs. I took them off of the gun with an LPVO though. Technically its not my dedicated HD gun and the etched reticle provides the back-up capability that I need if the electronics go down.
Better to have and not need, then need and not have. If an AR setup is purely and only for range fun and training, no BUIS might be reasonable, but … otherwise … optics can and do fail, wink out, malfunction, run out of battery power and Murphy’s law “things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance” applies. BUIS do not weigh that much, in fact, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, etc.
I had a TA-31RCO on a gun for a Kyle Defoor class. After about 2 hours of not being able to make the reticle work for me on drills under 50yds, I ended up running irons the rest of the week. And I’d used that setup for plenty of matches and exercises so I thought I was gtg with it. Shit ALWAYS happens when you least expect it.
Funny. I just put a Trijicon TA31 on a new carbine and decided not to go with BUIS.
Frankly, my biggest reason why was I wanted to mount the TA31 a little further aft (has the Trijicon factory mount) due to the short eye relief of the optic. Didn’t leave enough room for a rear BUIS.
All other carbines have BUIS including RDS and LPVO.
I run back up sights on all of my rifles. If I manage to get my hands on an ACOG, I may try the new hotness of mounting it at the very back end of the receiver, and forego a rear BUIS. Until then, all of my rifles will have BUIS.