I've been looking for some backup sights for my carbine for a while now. I love my NEA-15 and the price was right for the NEA polymer sights so I thought I'd give them a shot. I got them in the mail yesterday.
They're pretty rad.
Cameraphone ahoy
I'm sure everyone's first thoughts were that they're a copy of the MAGPUL MBUS. They're polymer in a variety of the typical colours, spring-loaded and have a fairly similar look about them. You slide the sights onto the picatinny rail, then use a crossbolt with an allen key head to secure it in place. That is where the similarities end.
Hugging the rail
The sights are compact. When folded, they're shorter in length and lower in profile than the MBUS. The folded sights hunker right down and hug the rail. The sights flip up with a button located on the right hand side of the sights. While this slightly less intuitive than the MBUS's large top button, it allows the NEA sights to have a sharply sloped fore end, preventing anything from getting snagged on them. Another way they differ is that they do not "lock" in the upright position, but are held upright by spring tension alone. This also appears to be a bulk-reducing trade-off, though I don't anticipate it to cause any real problems.
Both front and rear sight can be ambidextrously adjusted without tools. Front sight elevation is adjusted via a knob under the post. Very cool, and a wonder why it's not a standard feature on all back-up sights at this point. The rear sight windage is adjusted via knobs on either side of the assembly. On both sights, each position is punctuated by a very distinct tactile click.
The rear sight has both large and small apertures, shaped in the traditional "L." This is both a pro and a con. The MAGPUL sights use a small aperture that rotates up into the larger aperture. While this saves space, a common problem is that the small aperture gets dislodged during firing, but does not drop fully out of the way. The result is that the sight picture is blocked. With the traditional L shape, this is not a problem. However, with the small aperture in the upright position, the large aperture sticks out to the rear, and the sight cannot be folded. I see this as a good trade, but your mileage may vary.
Here's where we get into where these sights really shine. The sight picture is fantastic.
You don't suck and we don't hate you.
Once again, unlike the squared-off MBUS, the bottom of the front sight base is rounded. This gives a very wide HK-like field of view, and makes sight alignment a breeze. To top it off, on the top of the rear sight aperture, there is a notch. This is a close quarters battle sight for extreme close range, a neat feature to have.
So far they seem like great sights for the money. The real test will be when I go to the range after the long weekend. Has anyone tried them out yet?
They're pretty rad.
Cameraphone ahoy
I'm sure everyone's first thoughts were that they're a copy of the MAGPUL MBUS. They're polymer in a variety of the typical colours, spring-loaded and have a fairly similar look about them. You slide the sights onto the picatinny rail, then use a crossbolt with an allen key head to secure it in place. That is where the similarities end.
Hugging the rail
The sights are compact. When folded, they're shorter in length and lower in profile than the MBUS. The folded sights hunker right down and hug the rail. The sights flip up with a button located on the right hand side of the sights. While this slightly less intuitive than the MBUS's large top button, it allows the NEA sights to have a sharply sloped fore end, preventing anything from getting snagged on them. Another way they differ is that they do not "lock" in the upright position, but are held upright by spring tension alone. This also appears to be a bulk-reducing trade-off, though I don't anticipate it to cause any real problems.
Both front and rear sight can be ambidextrously adjusted without tools. Front sight elevation is adjusted via a knob under the post. Very cool, and a wonder why it's not a standard feature on all back-up sights at this point. The rear sight windage is adjusted via knobs on either side of the assembly. On both sights, each position is punctuated by a very distinct tactile click.
The rear sight has both large and small apertures, shaped in the traditional "L." This is both a pro and a con. The MAGPUL sights use a small aperture that rotates up into the larger aperture. While this saves space, a common problem is that the small aperture gets dislodged during firing, but does not drop fully out of the way. The result is that the sight picture is blocked. With the traditional L shape, this is not a problem. However, with the small aperture in the upright position, the large aperture sticks out to the rear, and the sight cannot be folded. I see this as a good trade, but your mileage may vary.
Here's where we get into where these sights really shine. The sight picture is fantastic.
You don't suck and we don't hate you.
Once again, unlike the squared-off MBUS, the bottom of the front sight base is rounded. This gives a very wide HK-like field of view, and makes sight alignment a breeze. To top it off, on the top of the rear sight aperture, there is a notch. This is a close quarters battle sight for extreme close range, a neat feature to have.
So far they seem like great sights for the money. The real test will be when I go to the range after the long weekend. Has anyone tried them out yet?
