Gear Check #1 - AR-15 Iron Sights

If you own an AR-15, it’s likely that you have some sort of iron sights on it, either as a backup to an optic or as a primary sighting system. For me, they are a backup system. But, it’s important not to let that become an afterthought.

Case in point: On my Sig Sauer M400, the handguard does not have any picatinny rails; it has M-Lok slots all around it. So, in order to mount a front sight, it requires the addition of a picatinny rail.

Here is what it looked like when I initially mounted the front sight:

Notice how high the front sight sits above the handguard

If I left it like this and simply relied on the optic, I would’ve had a rude awakening if the optic ever went down. When I went to zero the iron sights, I ran out of real estate. The front sight post simply would not turn any further and the rounds were still printing well above where they needed to be.

A new proprietary sight rail, the Magpul front sight, and the tools for mounting/adjusting it.

A Magpul rail section on the left and the proprietary Sig Sauer rail section on the right. Notice how much thinner it is.

Fortunately, Sig Sauer has a fix for this. They make a proprietary rail designed specifically for the Tread M400 rifle. The rail is much thinner and sits lower than a standard rail section. A simple swap of the rails gave me the clearance needed to adjust the sights appropriately and get the rifle zeroed.

Notice how much lower the front sight sits now, as compared to the first image.

There you go. Check your gear, folks. Don’t just buy it and call it good. Make sure it works. Make sure it’s in spec. Then get out and train to test your setups.