The M14 was my service rifle, and the standard (non-match) iron sights were fine for me. I qualified expert with the irons on a very worn rifle on a rainy day where we couldn't see any silhouette targets beyond 250 meters. I found a got a very comfortable, consistent spot weld with the irons, and when I was later issued a new rifle, it was easy hitting silhouettes with it. I shot 87 out of 90 on a pop-up silhouette course with targets popping up randomly anywhere from 50 to 350 meters. Anywhere within 250 meters, I wouldn't want a scope on man sized or deer sized targets. For smaller targets, longer ranges or old eyes, a scope would help, but you're going to need an add on cheekpiece.

I found the recoil and noise not bad at all, an advantage of its 22" barrel and the 9.5 lb empty weight. I loved it, and if 308 ammo weren't so expensive, I'd have an M1A with iron sights to blast away every trip to the range.