AR A2 Sight Removal

[Chevusa]

Does anyone have personal experience removing the A2 style front sight post? I saw a video showing that it's pretty easily removed by knocking out 2 pins. It is really that easy? I have an M4 style carbine with the removable handle and I want to take that off and remove the front sight to install an EO Tech sight. I understand I would need to install a new gas block and some kind of extended quad rail or something like that to cover the gas block.

Is this an easy task to take up or should I try the co-witness thing? I was trying to avoid that.

 

[Tisto]

The front sight post is rather easily removed by drifting the 2 pins out. THEY ARE TAPERED PINS AND ONLY GO ONE WAY. You will have to replace the sight post with an apropriate gas block and new gas tube. You might want to try to find a gas block that fits as a direct replacement using the taper pins as opposed to a standard set-screw or clamp-on type gas block. Having no idea if the barrel underneath your sight post has the same finish as the rest of the barrel, and because the cuts for the taper pins would be exposed.

 

[HEX]

Well, yes it's just two pins, plus the pin holding in the gas tube. They're most likely going to be solid tapered pins (that's the correct pins, but I've seen some weird stuff on rare occasions). You just have to be certain you're punching them them the correct direction due to the taper (measure them). Use a flat steel punch and expect some frustrating resistance in getting them to cooperate and move.

That said, why do you want to avoid co-witness ? EOTechs are designed with an absolute co-witness picture in mind and (at least in my opinion) work especially well for it; although it does require a folding rear to be most optimally utilized and a flip up front is even better should you wish to have an unobstructed picture. Personally, I actually particularly like the way the EOTech reticle sort of crowns the front irons and it may even make it easier to pick up in certain conditions. The reticle style is (again my opinion) much better for co-witness than a plain red dot. and the absolute alignment is more intuitive for me than a lower third style. Most importantly though, it's a piece of tech can fail or run out battery power, so not having backups is never really wise.

You could still remove your A2 front and get either a railed handguard or a railed gas block, get a set of quality flip ups, and have the best of both worlds.

 

[Chevusa]

@HEX I guess I"ll try it that way and see how I like it. I just thought the co-witness would be a pain and more difficult to use. So you suggest I remove my handle/rear sight and install the EO Tech and a flip up rear sight behind that? I can always remove the front sight if I don't like that setup I guess and then install a flip up front sight.

 

[Vapor]

I lower 1/3 co witness my aimpoint. Works well, you can always do the same with a riser.

 

[dsdmmat]

You can dremel off the upper portion of the front sight as well. I have done it once and seen it done on quite a few projects. The nice part about this set up is you end up with a low profile gas block that will never loosen up under you free floated hand guard.