Garand shooting high

[absolute0]

My recent purchase from the CMP, a 1955 SA Garand, is shooting 6" high at 100 yards with the rear aperture sight bottomed out.

What can I do?

Are there taller commercially available front sights I can drop in or other remedies I can try?

 

[Gator]

DGR sells them.

 

[mustanger98]

When you get to the range, set up a target at 25yds. That's right; I said 25yds. This is how you find your rifle's Battlesight Zero. This is usually between 9 and 13 clicks elevation from the bottomed out position you're currently dealing with. The shoot your rifle at 100yds. It should shoot a mite high, but it'll be falling in dead on at 250yds or so.

If you want a 100yd zero, after you find the battlesight Zero, get your sights dead on at 100yds, and then you can loosen the elevation knob's screw and pull the knob out and turn it to the 100yd position which is the un-numbered tick mark below the 200yd position. Then simply let the knob back into position and tighten the screw. I did this with my Garand and it works real well.

 

[BoySetsTheFire]

I think I understand your problem and it just doesn't sound right to me. I know you are talking about elevation. However, consider that one mark on the windage gauge is 4 inches at 100 yards and one click is 1 inch.

Each of those marks is approximately 1/32 of an inch. Each click is 1/128 of an inch. Each click (1/128") is equal to 1 MOA or one inch at 100 yards. If you are shooting 6" high with the rear sight at the bottom, then your sights are out of elevation alignment by 14 clicks. That's about 1/11 of an inch and that's a lot.

If the sight is properly mounted and the barrel/receiver is properly assembled, this should not be the case unless someone has filed down the front sight.

I can only think of two possibilities:

1. You are not familar wit the M1 sight picture and are sighting incorrectly. Likely that is not the case.

2. There is an alignment problem. CMP usually makes things right and I would give them a call to discuss. You can talk to John Mclean - Armorer or email him at [email protected]. He is very helpful to people with M1 questions.

 

[mustanger98]

I had the problem backwards... sorry about that. Your rifle's shooting high of Battlesight Zero. There's another fix I know of... the bottom end of the rear sight... the lower corner can/has been known to be filed off to allow the sight to be bottomed out lower.

Tell you what... I'm a frequent poster over on http://www.rifle-company.com and there's some really knowledgeable people over there where M1's are concerned.

 

[Steve in PA]

Another possible problem is that the front sight was filed down.

And, are you using the correct sight alignment/sight picture when shooting the M1? Many people are unfamiliar with the correct way to shoot a Garand.

 

[absolute0]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. The front sight doesn't appear to have been monkeyed with or altered, but I'm certainly no expert. It'd probably be worth comparing side by side with one that's known to be unaltered to be sure.

As for sight picture , I'm using a 6 o'clock hold on a 2 inch orange target dot with rounds impacting about 6 - 7 inches above 12 o'clock. I've got several rifles equipped with aperture sights so I'm familiar with them.

The range master where I shoot regularly is a Korean war era Marine vet, you'd be hard pressed to meet a nicer fellow. He gave me a great 15 minute primer on field stripping, wear areas to pay special attention to, and a few things to look at when evaluating an M1 rifle. I asked him to send a few rounds downrange. Although his eyesight isn't what it once was, he was getting similar results so I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the shooter

 

[ocabj]

Get a taller front sight from DGR, as mentioned.

Use SR targets for sighting in (or SR-1 if you only have 100 yard max at your range).

 

[Sheldon]

Man, you can see a 2" dot at 100 yards??!! That is some good eyesight you have there. I wonder if the small target isn't part of the issue as a 6 o'clock hold on the bigger sr-1 target would be a lot lower than the 2" target you're using.