Guys,
I’m finally taking delivery of an LMT upper to go with the LMT lower I bought from Grant waaaaaay back.
No carry handle with this one…gonna put some optics on. (It’s for my young son…and I think it will be easier for him to have a good time & hit the target if he’s got a little help.)
What do you guys think of the Magpul BUIS? I never even thought about BUIS before…but I guess I’ve got to start.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
First, I think they’re not made of iron. 
They work well. Truth be told I’d rather have Troys… But for $100 less for the pair they make good place holders. I like the Troy BUIS because they’re smaller and fit under some optics that the MBUS won’t. I like their springy-ness though.
I’m going to qualify my opinion here by saying I know almost nothing about ARs and I’ve only taken my newly finished and first AR to the range once - the MBUS on there was easy to sight in and I experienced no looseness or loss of zero in 100 rounds or so of gentle use. Not much help, but it’s what I’ve got to offer at this point.
The sight seems sturdy and well made, but I haven’t had a chance to push it yet.
I bought a set, haven’t installed them yet.
AFAIK the market for these sights is exactly guys like you and me. We want a BUIS, but we don’t necessarily need something as nice as a Troy, and the MBUS give you a very economical alternative. In the age of Aimpoints with 5 year battery life, and that can survive being tossed up and and down a gravel range, the need for a BUIS is more and more diminished, and when you factor in a non-professional usage it is even less so.
I still prefer the Troys, and have some reservations about the MBUS, but at the price I don’t think you can beat them. Time will tell.
I have a set of Magpul MBUS and then a few sets of Troys. My unscientific opinion is:
Magpul MBUS
Pros
[ul]
[li]More affordable
[/li][li]Fun karate chop action and sproing-pop noise upon activation
[/li][li]Very light (not that backup sights are that heavy anyway)
[/li][/ul]
Cons[ul]
[li]Bulky
[/li][li]Have to slide on and off rail (not a huge deal for one time mounting, just bugged me because I had to move some stuff around)
[/li][li]Sight picture isn’t as crisp, in my humble opinion. Especially when looking through the smaller rear aperture, the sight picture is slightly fuzzier to my eye than irons (I think because of the relative thickness and nature of the plastic aperture).
[/li][/ul]
Troy
Pros
[ul]
[li]Absolutely bombproof
[/li][li]Crisp, clean sight picture
[/li][li]Easy on/off anywhere on the rail without disturbing anything else (again, not really a huge deal for one time mounting)
[/li][/ul]
Cons[ul]
[li]Expensive
[/li][li]No fun karate action
[/li][li]Expensive
[/li][li]Did I mention expensive?
[/li][/ul]
I have the Troys on my 5.56 AR’s and the MBUS rear is on my .22LR AR. Part of that, though, is simply because I had the Troys before the MBUS. If I had to buy them all right now, starting from scratch, I’d probably choose based on the following:
Does the rifle have a decent optic?
Is it a ‘serious’ or ‘fun’ gun?
Is it my only gun or do I have multiple?
I.E. I would put Troys on one of my carbines even though it has the Aimpoint T1. Then I’d also put them on my carbine that has no optic. From there, I’d put MBUS on my other carbines since they have optics and I don’t need that many sets of bombproof sights.
I like the MBUS, and as others have said for the $$$ they are very hard to beat!
The plastic they are made from is thick, which is part of the bulk that has been mentioned. And while they are light weight, they felt more substantial than I would have initially though. They aren’t as low pro as some other sights like the Troys, and do require a bit more realestate. But not unreasonably so, and if you are just running an aimpoint on top and not a magnifier, it seems that space conflicts should be minimal.
I have always liked spring loaded sights (personal preference), and I like the way that these deploy. No small buttoms to push or levers to flip. Seems like a very gross motor action. I don’t know if they were designed with this in mind. But smotth effecive motion, seems to be improtant to Magpul.
I’m not crazy about the aperature design, and there seemed to be a bit of molding flashing in the aperatures, but the are certainly more than adequate and these aren’t Camp Perry sights anyway. Mine has yet to have the small aperature used, as I flipped it out of the way when I mounted it, and will probably leave it that way.
All in all a very high bang for the buck factor with these! But that’s no surprise they are from Magpul! For my current needs it’s all I envision needing, and unless it breaks easily (which doesn’t seem likely) these are probably what I would buy again in the future.
-RD62
anybody done a torture test? 
seriously.
I love magpul stuff but for iron sights I’m going to stick with steel/aluminum for a SHTF gun.
somebody will say that polymer worked great for Pmags but mags doesnt have to retain zero 
I wouldn’t mind a metal version
Mount them up, I’ve got a suburban to drive over them with but they have to be mounted on your rifle or it doesn’t count!
Buckaroo
I just bought a pair a couple weeks back and put them on a spikes .22 upper. So far I’m very happy with the cost/quality but if money was not an issue I still prefer the Troy sights.
I bought a rear magpul mbus and when it came I thought it was really cool. Some of the magpul kool-aid wore off and I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I prefer troy buis. Something about the apertures on the magpul makes me less than thrilled about the MBUS. To each their own, for the money though you can’t beat it, plus it has cool karate chop action. As for me I would rather pay more and get a Troy BUIS
They are fine. Time will tell whether they are they will live up to the hype. I got mine and they are huge. Look like a 4x4 siting atop my rifle, so as far as aesthetics go I’m not a fan. I still prefer my Troys. But the price was right on the MBUS. Yes they are fun to deploy.
I was taking some pictures of them earlier, next to a set of Troys. Will post when I’m done with that.
I can help with 1/2 of that. 
I think the market for these is hobby guns and fun guns. I wouldn’t want to take a set to a known fight or deployment.
I am disappointed with mine. As mentioned, you have to slide it down the rail to install it but worse is that it folds too far back which means I have to move it forward one rail slot. This makes it further from my eye and produces a shorter sight radius.
After so long in development (they announced the MBUS at the 2008 SHOT Show), they could have done much better.
I am interested in seeing them. I like that they fold flat, a plus. I worry about their robustness, a minus. I like that they come in colors, a plus. I hope they’re cheap, under a hundred for a pair, a plus; I’d rather put that $$$ into optics. Availability after announcement? Magpul gets a check in the minus column. I’d rather they not tease us with stuff months and years in advance but I understand, they need to drum up and gauge demand, still, it is irritating (to punish them I am going to boycott the Bushmaster Masada if it ever see the light of day, no matter how good it is/might be). I’m going to wait and monitor the experiences that others have with MBUS before I commit. If I don’t like what I hear then I am just going to mount HK style fixed sights or a Fastfire at the one o’clock.
Most of us are using them in our local ranges or backyards. Not the sandbox. Don’t loose sight of that.
Hobby and fun guns aren’t a bad thing, and if the bad guys decide to come here… let them do it at their own peril. We will be ready for them.
I am going to get a FG Mbus rear once they are in at Brownells (gotta order a number of other things from them as well and waiting on this in particular before placing the order).
Why is sliding it onto the rail a problem? NBD in my book.
Loss of sight radius? Is the loss even half an inch?
After so long in development (they announced the MBUS at the 2008 SHOT Show), they could have done much better.
Looks like they accomplished what they set out to do. So far, so good.
I have a set that I’m treating very badly. It’s a sample of one, of course, but they’re doing well. So far, they’ve survived toddler testing, some drop testing, bored troops on night shift, and me fiddle-#$*&#% with them constantly. They’re holding zero and doing well.
I don’t go downrange, but I go out in search of bad guys. The MBUS are on the gun that goes with me.
I think Rob put it well in his comment below. They’re a BUIS. No more, no less.
I ordered a set to try out on one of my training guns to see if I like them. Once I get them in hand I’ll let you know what I think. So far what I have seen is positive.
I don’t think Magpul would put forth a product that had not been tested repeatedly and was GTG.
That being said, they will have to be pretty damn impressive for me to give up my Troy’s.