As the others here, I favor having and knowing irons as well, but honestly, modern electronics are quite stout and battery-miserly.
Additionally, once you're more comfortable with the gun, start trying to simply shoot the gun using kinesthetic alignment. The extra points-of-contact that a shoulder-fired weapon affords will make unsighted shooting much more easier than the same with a handgun.
The reason for both?
According to Joe Weyer of the Alliance PD Training facility - who is an SME in the area of CQB/shoothouse instruction - in the 2016 training year, he only saw around a dozen instances of RDS failure in student weapons, and most were battery related issues (lesson? change your batteries based on a set schedule, as-suitable for your intended use and the consumption rate of your optic). Of these instances, -NO- student had time to deploy their folded BUIS, yet EVERY SINGLE STUDENT who had their RDS fail on them was able to complete that run through the house while maintaining acceptable marksmanship standards just shooting "through" their downed optic. Believe me, the instructors/school who utilize that facility are big on marksmanship (
https://alliancepolicetraining.com/ - check the "Instructors" list, and move your mouse cursor to hover over the "Courses" pull-down to see the names of the schools that utilize the APD facilities: Sentinel Concepts, Trident Concepts, Victory First, Centrifuge....), so those standards were likely quite stringent.
Look at it this way:
If one can shoot the handgun from-retention - which is a kinesthetic position - with better-than-center-mass accuracy (i.e. the high-center-chest oval of a v.2 OPOTA Qual target:
https://shop.actiontarget.com/content/opota-rqt2-ohio-opota-qualification-target-version-2.asp) at distances upwards of 10 yards, why would anyone expect anything less of a shoulder-fired weapon such as an AR-pistol?
That said, I'd also encourage you to get a set of BUIS and learn them, too.
Quality BUIS are typically somewhat pricy.
Expect to pay no less than about $90 for "even" the Magpul MBUS flip-ups, which can be said to be at the same time both the entry-tier as well as Gold Standard of this type. Wait until they go on-sale (I'd say the next one would be Washington's Birthday/President's Day or Easter), and they can go for as much as half off that MSRP at reputable retailers such as Primary Arms (avoid Amazon and any discount sellers for the Magpul MBUS: clones abound, and less-than-honest or even simply ignorant sellers often will take advantage of this). Fixed BUIS sets typically are $130 and up, with the Daniel Defense set at the low end, and premium items like the Scalarworks topping out at well above $200.
But in all honesty, you *want* a
good set of BUIS, if you want to invest in having a BUIS in the first place. If these are going to truly be your last-resort (or a primary sighting system, for that matter), you will want something that can take a lot of abuse while retaining zero (and with folding, ones that deploy reliably and stay deployed when you want them to). For CQB use, the XS/CSAT Combat Rear Sight rear diopter insert - as developed by Paul Howe - can be quite useful (
https://civiliangunfighter.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/csat-rear-sight-review/ - as reviewed by Civilian Gunfighter, with pertinent reference links such as the specialized 7/100 yard zero), or, alternatively, you can adopt the "shooting out of the circle/notch" technique - placing the top of the rear sight literally on top of the rear peep, to gain speed when the BSA template favors close-in and larger targets.
With that said:
My Springfield Armory "Saint" AR-Pistol came with a Burris fastfire 3 3MOA red dot reflex site. As I understand.The firearm usually comes with no sights. I'm new to the red dot system & tried sighting in at 50 yards.Not bad results,but think I should have started at 25 yards. I see Springfield offers iron sights,which can be used to co-witness the red dot.Any input as to one or the other,or both.would be greatly appreciated.I purchased the Saint pistol mainly for home defense.My concerns are things like speed of target acquisition in an emergency situation. The red dot seems like the way to go,but Ive almost always fired iron sites.I will be going all out to sight this weapon in soon as I decide best way to go. I think I just may need lots of time behind the red dot to get comfortable.Thanks for any input.The feel of the saint ar-pistol is new to me,but It feels really good in my hand.Becoming good friends
What's your 50-yard zero target look like?
With an unmagnified RDS, it should be just as good as with either irons or with a magnified scope. If not, you'll want to re-try.
The RDS does take getting used to, if you haven't used one previously. Similarly, there are certain technical considerations that you'll want to take into account.
First, you'll want to get used to using the unmagnified RDS as they are supposed to be used:
both eyes open,
threat focus. Doing so, you should literally be "blowing through" the sight (this is why the size of the dot's window and how big or small the body of the sight is really does not matter at all, when the RDS is properly used), and the dot should appear to be projected on your target, at your intended POA, just as it would a laser projected directly onto the threat.
This works well for those "emergency" situations because as humans, we're hardwired to bug our eyes out during episodes of dire stress, and similarly, we are also hardwired for threat focus. This is why the RDS helps with speed-with-precision, when the threat is close-in.
Having both eyes open and using threat focus will also help you mitigate any vision deficiencies you may have that may not play well with the RDS, such as astigmatism. Shooters with astigmatism often report seeing the projected dot imperfectly, describing the dot as a blob, starburst, comet, comma, or other aberration. Using both eyes, threat-focused, this effect will also be minimized as much as possible as based on the capabilities of your eyes.
According to SME John "Chappy" Chapman, with corrected vision, a good shooter, even with astigmatism, should be able to successfully engage torso-sized targets out to the 300 yard/meter line, with a good modern unmagnified RDS with a 1 to 4 MOA dot size.
[ Note: If you have significant astigmatism, using the optical principles cited in the following The New Rifleman article -
http://www.thenewrifleman.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-ar15-iron-sights/ - by forcing the dot through the rear aperture (i.e. co-witnessing the dot), you should be able to more cleanly resolve the dot, but this will come at the sacrifice of speed. Here, shooters with astigmatism then have a decision to make, regarding this compromise and how/when they will want to bias their technique. ]
If you are having trouble at the 50, you can even take the gun in as close as the 10 yard line. Use the following method and target (which can be printed for free via the link in the article) -
This recent video (below) from Frank Proctor at Way of the Gun and Trigger Time TV is excellent. In it, Proctor talks about why he uses the 50 yard zero, how to achieve a 50 yard zero at 10 yards, …
jerkingthetrigger.com
and
You may remember Frank Proctor’s method for achieving a 50/200 yard zero at 10 yards with your AR-15 that was mentioned here a few months ago. I have been putting it to good use. It is a very…
jerkingthetrigger.com
Watch the video linked by the article, too, and pay attention to both what Frank Proctor and the article noted: that when using this target at the 10 yard line, you really need to do your due diligence - you'll literally want the bullet holes to be touching each other as they print on that paper. The ratio of how you adjust the sights to move POI up-close means that things can really open up a lot when you then push your target out to the 25 (I like this target -
http://www.arma-dynamics.com/red-dot-zero-targets.html), and finally to either the 50 or 100 to finalize.
Also, as you zero the RDS, remember your fundamentals.
A lot of shooters will think that just because their RDS's product literature reads "zero parallax" or "no parallax" that they can goof off behind the optic and it'll still be good enough. Below, John Spears of Forge Tactical and the APD SRT explains why this is -NOT- the case, via a Surefire Field Notes segement (I know the link reads "Handgun Red Dot Sights," but Spears even notes that this is just as applicable for long-guns):
Be sure you have a good and consistent cheek weld, and that the center of your visual axis (dominant eye or sight eye) corresponds to the dot reticle, aligned to the center of the sight body.
Finally, if you are used to irons, you can use them to cheat the system during zeroing.
If you are a good ironsight shooter, you can set up your BUIS, first, and then while looking through aligned irons, crank that dot to where it is supposed to be: on top of your front sight post (while properly maintaining sight picture through the rear peep, of-course!).
Once you flip down your BUIS (or as you are looking "over" them), that dot should be quite close to ideal, making refinement much easier.
Hope this helps!
