Range Day With the New Garand

My Garand is easily my favorite rifle in the safe.

Depending on your barrel condition, I'm a little surprised at the spread of your group. Unless it's been shot-out, you should see better than that. The sampling of Garands I've shot in the last 5 years have been ~3 MOA at 100 yards, worst case. Mine will do 2 MOA with Greek HXP and I believe it would do a hair better with hand loads when I get that going.

There have been one or two recent Garand-related threads in the last week that I recall having some tips on correctly "seating" the receiver in the stock as well as tightening up the trigger group assembly where it locks into the receiver/stock.

Very nice rifle! I also appreciate the KISS AR setup you have there.

If it isn't the shooter, quite likely an accuracy issue on a newly barreled Garand is due to hand guard(s) that are a bit too long. The should just barely be able to move fore and aft. if the hand guards are tight, as the barrel heats up and grows, the force the hand guards impart on the the barrel will change and shots can go all over.

IME a Garand with fitted hand guards will shoot about 2 MOA. I recommend you try Hornady or Creedmoore Sports Match Garand ammo. If a gun won't shoot it (with a good shooter), something is wrong with the gun.

And congrats on your new rifle, I wish every shooter could have one to enjoy and appreciate - I love the Garand.

There are few experiences in the world of firearms more satisfying than BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-PINNNNNGGGGG!

The box is about 4.5" wide and 3.5" tall, and I think I need something bigger to better dial it in. The front site almost covered the whole box and made it hard to see.

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Keep in mind a standard front sight blade with is about 0.084" -0.010" a NM (National Match) front will be right around 0.065" -0.005" with 0.062 being a nominal width. A standard rear sight aperture is about 0.069" +0.005" to a maximum aperture diameter of 0.074". Consider the sight radius and there you have it.

Something you can try is rather than holding and squeezing with your front blade covering your target place the top of the blade center in the aperture. Place the front sight blade at 6 O'clock on the target. This way your sight picture and sight alignment are at six O'clock on the target. 6 O’clock – With the 6 O’clock hold the front sight is placed at the bottom of the aiming black. For many shooters, this hold allows precision placement of the front sight. The ability to accurately call your shots will come with time and experience. Light changes, which alter the appearance of the target, may affect shooters who utilize the 6 O’clock hold. You may want to give this a read. A Google of "six o'clock hold sight picture" will bring up more results. Anyway it's something to consider. Then when you shoot at various distances note the elevation settings as elevation dope. Enjoy your new rifle and the more you work with the rifle the more proficient you will become. Yeah, after offhand holding the M1 Garand at about 10 Lbs. going to a 5 Lb. AR is a treat.

Ron

It is great that you are enjoying your Garand.

Yes, the front hand guard and gas cylinder should be a little loose. It allows for the parts to expand when the barrel heats up without binding.

Be careful to avoid the "M1 Thumb". The bolt can catch on the follower and appear to be locked back. A light touch on the follower will release the bolt and the bolt will try to chamber your thumb.

As Reloadron said, give the 6 o'clock hold a try.

In avoiding a fat lip, it's not so much the cheek weld as thumb placement. Don't wrap your thumb over the stock, but keep it on the trigger hand side. My thumb is typically resting on the rear of the receiver or so. Otherwise, yes, my thumb will punch me in the face.

You should come out to a Project Appleseed event! We teach the fundamentals of Marksmanship pretty much how the guys who won the war with those rifles were taught. We'll help you get all those shots inside a 1" square at 25yd. (I'd reccommend using an AR or a 22LR to start with just to save on ammo prices, but the fundamentals you'll learn will be the same)

The M-1 is a harsher mistress than the M-4/AR---she wants you to hold on and expects you to remember how you mounted her the last time, giving up few body-to-rifle hints. I was in the same boat 25 years ago and fresh out of basic/AIT (@Ft. Benning) and buying an M-1 . I knew I had the M-16 mounted right because it had been my habit to get my nose on the charging handle. To me there was no similar landmark for easy reference on the M-1. You'll eventually develop a mounting style/grip that works for you and then the memory will build. Be fluid with it now and experiment with the advice you're given. Congrats on your rifle ~ I'd wager you'll be together many years.