I received my T&E “Iron Dot” from the guys at LaRue and installed it Sunday, I will be attempting to break it this week
It fits exceptionally well, and is rock solid on the gun, it is more solid than the factory iron sights!
The AK’s top cover can be removed with out removing the sight.
The back up irons are clearly visible through the optic.
I am very impressed so far.
FYI I am not affiliated or beholden to LaRue in any way.
I wonder if it will pass the test I have already subjected the Rifel Dynamics AK to…
Received and installed my LaRue AK Iron Dot on my Arsenal SLR 107F yesterday. Installation was snap thanks to the good directions provided with the optic. The mounting is low profile, solid and provides a good co-witness sight picture. The mount looks like it will do a good job protecting the optic.
The concept is really good I think, but I am not overly confident with the Burris optic. They have had some issues with them and do not think they are the highest quality.
As someone that owns a Burris, Doc optic, Trijicon reddot, Pride Fowler, JPoint and a no name version of the Doc, I find them somewhat difficult to use on guns becasue the dot can “disapear” if you do not have the weapon in just the right position. This is why I like the Micro for a serious weapon as the dot is much easier to pick up.
I would like to see LT make a mount like they did, but with a rail on it for the Aimpoint Micro.
One last thing about all these little reflex dots. None of them are waterproof and you can lose your dot if just a little debry or water gets into the optic.
The LaRue Iron Dot was a snap to set up, and zero.
LaRue gives instructions, saying to zero the new irons first and them adjust the red dot to the irons. So I quickly zeroed the new irons, as the point of impact had moved 6" up and 2" left from the zero with the factory irons zeroed by Jim Fuller of Rifle Dynamics, which was dead on at 25m.
Once I had the irons dialed in I simply set the red dot to sit on top of the irons and then confirmed the the zero was correct. Locked the red dot’s adjustment and I was good to go. Then a friend and I shot 180 rounds through the AK with no problems and the sight maintained zero without a problem, when you think that these were made to be mounted on a pistol slide the recoil of an AK is nothing.
The red dot is a huge improvement over the standard iron sights and is fast and bright enough even to use in the bright sunlight. The only issue we had was that when shooting into the sun the lens/screen can show refracted light which can be distracting and obscure the target even though the red dot is still visible.
Here is the view showing a co-witness with the irons and a 25M zero:
Note that when using the red dot, as it is essentially parallax free to about 50M, so you no longer need to align the irons and the view can look more like this:
I think the only thing that could be done to improve this sight would be some sort of sun shade or hood extended forward, to reduce the glare effect of shooting into bright sunlight, the red dot was still visible, it was just the glare that obscured the target.
Overall it is an excellent sight and well worth it.
I feel it’s my duty to bring up that I’d love to see this idea executed with an Aimpoint Micro. Having said that…
Am I wrong, or are you now forced to make ALL adjustments to the irons via moving the front sight post? I’m not a fan of that. I’m one of those wierdos that wants to center the front sight post in between the ears and do all of my adjustments on the rear. If we’re building a new rear sight, why not build windage and elevation adjustments into it?
I find myself wondering if a Micro would give a good co-witness in a similar position. Getting the optic low is the key, and I’m thinking the mount for the Micro would have to be built in to the setup, not simply a rail the Micro can sit upon.
With a regular ak you make all your adjustments with the front sight. The elevation at the rear just has to do with the needed elevation for various ranges. At least that’s they way I understood it.
That has been my experience as well. I finally got out to the range yesterday and zeroed the iron dot. I found the LaRue replacement rear sight to shoot high also. So far I’m happy with Iron Dot and really like the speed accuracy at 50 yards and less. I’ve only got about 150 rounds down range with mine and need to do more testing.
I think I’m going to pick one of these up for the carbine class I’m taking next month. I think it would be nice to have experienced irons, the Aimpoint Micro, and the Iron Dot by the time my AK experiment is over with.
