A Better Sight Picture

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[dcs_fancy_header bgcolor=”#ffffff” color=”#000000″ fweight=”bold”]Getting the most from your iron sights with the Blitzkrieg Components Chevron Front Sight Post.[/dcs_fancy_header]

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In this day and age of high speed, low drag optics; war fighters, law enforcement officers as well as the general shooting public have increased hit probability at longer ranges. Close target engagements are also made quicker thanks to the wide variety of red dot reflex and holographic sights on the market. Because of the availability, there seems to be a tenancy for some shooters to rely too heavily on optics while the basic fundamentals of shooting slip away into obscurity. I myself use optics on most of my rifles, assuming the budget allows for it, for the very reasons mentioned above. Even though we enjoy the edge optics give us, it is no excuse to neglect proper fundamentals. This includes using good old iron sights. Iron sights are still immune to dead batteries, electronic failure, cracked glass, condensation and all the other problems associated with mechanical and electrical optics. That is why many shooters, myself included, will use back up iron sights with our optic equipped rifles.

[dcs_img_center “Photo by Jody Lewis, Guns & Tactics Magazine”
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Thanks to the wide spread use of the 1913 Picatinny rail, which is found on most AR rifles these days, optic and iron sight placement is made easy and is user customizable. When it comes to back up sights for the AR or similar rifles, there are iron sights of the fixed variety, or of the folding. Some can also be mounted at 45 degree angles to provide a back up means of aiming should the primary long range optic no longer be ideal. These sights, while all different in some ways, typically all have one thing in common. They all use the standard, square, AR front sight post. Sure there are a few varieties out there. For example, the post could be all black, have a fiber optic or tritium vial in it, be painted a different color, etc, but they are for the most part the same design concept.

Blitzkrieg Components, LLC decided to take a different approach to the hum drum world of traditional AR front sight posts. Blitzkrieg Components, LLC was founded by retired Marine, Brian Hormberg. Brian served our great nation for 20 years. He has served in a wide variety of capacities during his time of service. Brian has trained with a large assortment of weapon platforms that ranged from small arms to tanks. He is also an accomplished competition USPSA shooter who knows that speed and well aimed shots can mean the difference in a gunfight or a match. Brian started Blitzkrieg Components, LLC to develop innovative, high quality firearms components. Their first offering is unique. They have moved away from the square, vertical post and replaced it with a Chevron. The concept for the Chevron design was actually conceived during his time shooting with one of the shooting teams for the 2nd Marine Division.

[dcs_img_center “Photo by Jody Lewis, Guns & Tactics Magazine”
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I had a chance to catch up with Brian at SHOT SHOW 2014 and pick his brain a bit on his reasoning for choosing the Chevron design. According to Brian, “The idea behind it is to get speed with precision.” He went on to explain how the shooter gets “a bold, fast sight picture that you can pick up real easy with a bright white strip in the Chevron, but a sharp, precise aiming point for precision shots at long range shooting.” The design works very well and is extremely easy to pick up, even for low light shots. For closer work, simply place the Chevron on the target and press. For the longer shots the sharp point works well. The eye naturally is drawn up to the peak of the Chevron sight for a nice, sharp aiming point. The Chevron is not completely opaque, meaning the target is visible both above the point and between the lower segments. This means more of the target is visible and not obscured.

The sight is made of 416 stainless steel that is Melonite coated and stands a ¼ inch high. The sight currently comes in two flavors. One has the bright white strip and the other is a solid black. They are also developing night sight options with both tritium and glow paint. The Blitzkrieg Components, LLC Chevron comes with a special sight tool. It is unique as the Chevron has thicker walls than the traditional post. Because of this a traditional sight adjustment tool will not work with the Blitzkrieg Chevron. It will work on any AR sight housing as long as it uses the traditional square front sight post. Simply remove the old post using the traditional sight post adjustment tool and replace with the Blitzkrieg Chevron post using their proprietary sight adjustment tool.

[dcs_img_center “Photo by Jody Lewis, Guns & Tactics Magazine”
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We installed the Blitzkrieg Components Chevron Sight in a wide variety of popular iron sights to include Daniel Defense, Magpul MBUS and Diamondhead. We also tried HK style hooded sights from manufactures like PRI, Midwest Industries and Troy Industries. All worked without issue and installation was simple and took all of 30 seconds. It should be noted when using the Chevron sight you will only have two positions per rotation instead of the standard four. This is due to the unique shape of the post and the fact that it doesn’t have four equal sides like the traditional square post. Like the traditional square post, the Chevron sight will also co-witness with reflex and holographic sights.

Brian set out to “give people a better sight picture they don’t normally get with iron sights and try to re-invent iron sights a little bit and get people back in the game with them.” He also expressed that “there’s a lot of capability […] and you can be really accurate with an iron sight, but giving you something that is a little easier to aim can really help you.” So far, the reaction to this new sight has been nothing short of a home run. It works very well and is attracting lots of interest. I plan to replace all of my sight posts in favor of the Chevron Front Sight Post.

[dcs_img_center “Photo by Jody Lewis, Guns & Tactics Magazine”
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The sights can be purchased direct from Blitzkrieg Components, LLC or one of their certified dealers. The all black version will run $34.95 and the white strip version will cost $39.95.

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