Smyth Busters: Should You Mount Your Front Sight Backwards?

Caleb's been out on Reddit again, and he's come to a conclusion: "Reddit is both the best and the worst thing to happen to the Internet." Specifically, he's found posts about mounting a folding front sight BACKWARDS on AR-15s. There are even photos documenting this practice. What's going on? Our myth du jour is the notion that you should mount the front sight so it folds FORWARD to make it easier to deploy and to provide more room on the top rail for your laser sight, night vision device, gun light pressure switch, or any other item you need to mount topside. The guys are not convinced. "I've never run out of rail space," Steve insists. Willing to give it a try, Caleb mounted a Knight's Armament Folding Micro Front Sight backwards on his gray demo AR-15.... and it just feels wrong. He then installed a Magpul MBUS Pro front sight the right way on a Brownells BRN-180™ upper, with a Steiner DBAL night vision laser sight behind it. He still had gobs of rail space behind the DBAL, and the MBUS Pro doesn't interfere at all with the laser sight. So another myth is BUSTED. There's no practical reason to mount a folding front sight backwards on an AR-15. A forward-folded front sight protrudes off the front of the rail, where it's a big SNAG HAZARD and at greater risk of damage than when mounted normally. If your muzzle device is close to the end of the handguard, you also run the risk of burning your hand on it when you reach forward to deploy the sight. And you still haven't really gained a meaningful amount of extra rail space.