What was the reason behind the design of the AR sight? It is hight and the radius is 1/3 shorter than it could be.

Hey Bro,

I'm certainly not Eugene Stoner, but the rifle was built as a combat weapon. From a purely SWAG perspective, I'd say the sights are set at the height they are, because they are generally aligned with the eye of the average shooter when a cheek weld is achieved, particularly from a heads up(combat) shooting position. As to the third shorter length, the farther you place something out on the end of a barrel, the more substantially you impact the barrel harmonics. Considering the original M16s had fairly lightweight barrels, this could well be one of the reasons he chose to sit them farther to the rear. Additionally, a longer sight radius can be more precise, but generally at the expense of being slower to acquire. Since the M16 was designed from the ground up as a combat weapon, I'm sure shot speed was certainly a consideration, as well.

I hope this helps.

Respectfully,

Harry

My guesses are that the sight radius was dictated by what Eugene felt was the optimal gas tube length. The hight is dictated by the fact that the barrel and reciever extension are all in line causing your cheek to naturally be higher than other weapons that are not in line such as the M14 it replaced.

I think the sights are where they are because the prototype AR had the charging handle on top of the reciever, under the carry handle. (Which was there to protect the handle from accidents?)

I dont think that would make a difference. Easy to test if you have an AR. Take some printer paper, about a half inch worth. Lay it on your stock and see if you can get behind the sight. Im betting you will find it difficult to do. This of course would be the same as having sights that are a half inch lower. When I designed my Aimpoint mounts I played with these hights extensively. I can tell you that variations as little as 125 thousands of an inch make a considderable difference.