How to use iron sights?

I work on several M4gerys a month and I've spent some range time with several entry-level examples. My observations are as follows.

First, the triggers on them routinely suck so bad that they are difficult to shoot well. If you've got a long, grating, glitching trigger add about 3" to your potential group. Secondly, there are a lot of collapsible stocks out there Some of are wobbly at best and most are difficult to get a cheek weld on and still see the sights well. Add 2" to your potential group for those factors. Finally, lots of them have no-name flip up rear sights with substantial fore/aft and sideways play in them. I have actually had to push them forward and to one side between shots to get any kind of idea if a given rifle would shoot. The last one I tested had at least 4 MOA of wobble in the rear sight alone.

If you finally get your irons zeroed and slap an Osprey, or any similar co-witnessed sight between your irons... watch your iron sights groups wander as much as a foot at 100 yards from refraction.

Folks there are some absolutes of rifle accuracy and a ghetto'ed-up M4 violates damn near all of them at once. I keep an old, proven Bushnell on a set of extra-high rings, pre-adjusted to fit the front and back slots on the commonly seen flat-top rail. If I want to know if a given M4 will group, I rip all the crap off the top and cinch that puppy down on there. Typically I am seeing 2-3 MOA with bulk ammo like UMC 55 grain.
 
I keep an old, proven Bushnell on a set of extra-high rings, pre-adjusted to fit the front and back slots on the commonly seen flat-top rail. If I want to know if a given M4 will group, I rip all the crap off the top and cinch that puppy down on there.
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Excellent advice.

A go-to prove scope & mount setup is a great way to check a rifle. Another way, assuming the rifle has iron sights, is to shoot some groups with the irons to eliminate problems with the mounts & scope. That's one reason I like my rifles to come equipped with irons.

For a long time, I thought I was very lucky in terms of getting rifles that were very accurate. I finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't lucky at all. The real disconnect was that a lot of people were attributing accuracy problems to their rifles when the scopes/mounts were the real problem.
 
John, thank you. A hard and fast rule of mine is that I won't buy a rifle that doesn't have a stable, usable set of irons on it. I zero those first and don't quit until I'm busting gallon jugs at 200 yards with them and I'll fine tune them until five shots will stay on a 7" picnic bowl at that distance.

Then regardless of whatever optics I add, (if any) I can always fall back on the sights for any sane hunting shot that presents itself. I guess that's why the commonly accepted wobbly flip-ups drive me nuts. I see essentially all rifles using bottleneck cartridges as 200 yard implements and I expect them to shoot to the above standards- which, in my rifleman's heart I consider lax, but adequate for hunting or anti-personnel use.
 
I've hit a 10" target at 900 yards with bull eye's many times when shooting Fullbore - prone, no rest, off elbows with sling - using only tangent sights/aperture sights. It is a dying art as most of the people I shoot with are mostly older gentlemen and well senior of my years. I see few if any young men shooting this discipline.
 
I can hit big targets with my 45/70 cowboy at 400 yards with a ladder sight if I play with it for a while.

I use sand bags and a bench and a spotting scope and a range finder. It typically takes me 4-7 shots to get on the paper at that range though. One of the nice things about heavy bullets is that wind drift plays less of a role than with smaller and light bullets.

Even after getting it on the paper I do not hit every time and certainly not shooting bulls eye but it can be done. Make sure your front sight is small enough not to hide the entire target.
 
Longtime hunter and shooter, but Im just getting back into shooting irons.
Saturday, I shot about 100 rounds out of my AR-10 from 100 to 400 yds. A 12" plate at 400 is a helluva challenge for me to even see any more! Once I got my sights dialed in, I was hitting it pretty consistantly though.
I have been pleasantly surprised how well I can shoot irons out to 200 -300 yds.
Good sights and a good trigger are a must.
 
good ammo definitely helps. I've met people that have different ways of using iron sights (some people put the target sitting on top of the front post, others literally cover it up with it).

The key to your accuracy is going to be consistency. What ever way you do it, just make sure you do it exactly the same way every time.
 
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