M4 Sights...

[Albiscuit]

So I am looking into the different versions of sights for the M4 I am about to buy and am getting overwhelmed. My local store only stocks very expensive ones and seems to be quite pricey in general so want some advice from users rather than someone looking to make a sale

In the gun picture thread I see a variety of scopes eotechs and what look like magnifiers too, as well as other stuff I am not sure of. I am not sure on the benefits/costs/uses of each.....

I want an all rounder M4 with decent sights for CQC and woodland skirmishes. I dont mind having different sights for the different variants as changing for the venue is not a pain but would prefer a set up which gave me a good balance for both.

What are the differences and what type of sight and makes would you recommend??

 

[Sitting Duck]

normal iron sights work fine if they are zero'd and set correctly

if your local cqb allows then plonk a laser underneath or side of rails

but many sites are not so keen as there is no way to measure the

intensity and most would allow red not green lasers

good for hip fire, but they see you coming up stairs/corridor

bit like torches in tunnel skirmish - but htf do ya find ya way sometimes

seriously - a good set of stock sights is fine for most setup's/sites

no point having a shut the hell up scope if badly set or you can't shoot straight

and if you can see the enemy in your sights - don't mean you can hit them if out

of range or badly setup - yeah go for nice scope if ya gun is really sweetly tuned

or you doing DMR but c'mon - you probably shooting at like 100ft to 150ft at enemy

if you can't get your aiming correctly on iron's at that range then you best get contacts

 

[mr-bodycounter]

As far as sights go you have your four main types:

Iron Sights - Standard issue and come on most of your weapons. Usually an aperture at the rear sight and a pin at the other end. Cheap, effective, durable and don't need batteries.

Reflex Sights - (Often known as red dots from video games) Not to go too sciencey on you but they work on reflecting a form of dot or cross-hair onto a piece of glass or plastic. An advantage of them is that you can comfortably keep both eyes open and see through your sights. Can be cheap or very expensive and run on batteries.

Holographic Sights - I know you speak of an eotech replica (it is not a real one most likely as they are very expensive) but that sight is unlikely (99% certain it is not unless it is hundreds of pounds) an actually holographic sight. The reason is holographic sights work on holograms to give a supposedly more accurate sight picture and reduce parallax (the problem of having two eyes in two different places), they are very accurate for real steal fire arms but not that necessary for airsoft as an airsoft gun does not give real accuracy comparable to a real M4. The sight you are viewing is probably a reflex sight as sights are classified by how they work and although it looks like a holographic sight from video games it is just visually the same and is scientifically no different to the standard to another reflex sight.

Scopes - These are quite simply for your long range shooting and are good due to their magnification. They will have numbers in the title and this is how they work: for example a 3-9x50E sight means it has magnification levels from 3-9 (A single number means fixed magnification). The 50 refers to the object lens size (in mm) which refers to how much light is let in. Some sights have an E at the end and some do not, the E refers to whether the sight has electric illumination of the cross-hair (which again requires batteries).

As far as my recommendation goes I would say for your average M4 your iron sights are more than sufficient, however, if you plan to go for an expensive scope/reflex sight that can break (which is basically everything except iron sights) get a speed BB shield as they will protect your investment (do not get a cheap chinese clone as they will give up after 1-2 shots in cqb).

Hope I helped and just remember to zero any sight you get in your garden before you skirmish with it!

 

[GingerBreadMan]

If you get a cheap reflex or holographic sight with a bb shield it will allow you to aim much faster in cqb than the standard iron sights would.

 

[Albiscuit]

Perfect.... Thanks a lot.

I do like the look of scopes and sights so doubt I will be sticking with the irons, but the break down really helps.

I use a red dot sight on my MP5K and find it much more useful than the iron sights and looks fricken awesome too