The stock front sight on a Garand is so broad that it makes shooting tight groups an issue
I missed this statement way back in Dec.
You will find this complaint in the American Rifleman of the 50’s, and in Hatcher’s Book of the Garand.
The target of the period, the 5V, had been developed in tandem with the 03. At least I believe this because the target is about the same width as an 03 post. Anyone who has ever looked at the 03 post will notice just how thin it is, and that was a characteristic of 1873 Trapdoors and Krag’s. Thin sights and tiny rear notches were what was used on rifles and handguns.
Maybe the idea was down the same path that nasty medicine is better than nice medicine, therefore accurate shooting can only be conducted if you can’t see your sights or the target.
I have shot on the 5V with an 03, and my recollection you took a 6 OC hold, there was not enough of the target for a flat tire or center hold.
I have shot on the 5V with a Garand and the standard combat post and it was OK at 200 yards, little difficult at 300 yards, and very hard at 500 yards. The 5V black is just a pinpoint at 500 yards and it is very hard to center on the wide post. This is why you find those 0.063” “National Match” front sights for Garands and M1a’s, these were for use on the 5V.
I think the 5V went out somewhere 1968 to 1970. It only hung around because Army shooters were obstinately resistance to change and the Army was bringing the big money to the table. There is not much change to the first, but the second sure changed. It had been noted for years that the 5V target was inadequate to discriminate between shooters: one year the winner of the service rifle at the National Matches won by one point, but the second place shooter had 73% more “V”’s. Clearly the second place shooter was a harder holder. If you ever shot on the 5V, match winners are determined by V count. You may win if you drop a point, drop two points and you might place, drop three points and you are out of it. Once the DCM money was cut by Congress for the National Matches and everything, which was 1968, the NRA was able to dump these old archaic targets.
Target shooters confused the thin blade of the 03 with precision, complained about the wide post of the Garand, and it took an act of Congress and the NRA to replace the 5V with a wider decimal target.
Below is the old 500 yard target above the 500 yard 5V. The old 500 yard target had a 12 center ten ring, at 600 yards the seven ring was blackened out, but the same ring dimensions were kept.
At the 500 yard matches I shot, all the post shooters preferred the 600 yard target at that distance as it was much larger and much easier to locate a flat tire or center hold in the bull.
The match director at one 500 yard match, he preferred the 500 yard target because he shot an aperture front and he knew the difficulties post shooter had with that target!
, but it might not :banghead:
