Front sight on my Garand too short...

[Lone_Gunman]

I went to sight in my new (to me) SA Garand the other day and with the rear sight completely bottomed out its dead on at 50 yards. I can see where the front sight was filed down leaving me with a shorter than normal front sight.

Is there a good reason why someone would do this? Is a 50 yard zero useful in a battle situation for a Garand?
Also does anyone have a suggestion on where I can pick up a replacement? I'm supposed to go shooting on Sunday and I would really like to get my Garand sighted in correctly.

[EricClay]

You can file down the front sight a little so when you're shooting out at 800 to 1000 yards the rear sight isn't as elevated as high. When the rear sight is fully extended some issues crop up.

If the rear sight bottomed out is dead on at 50 yards then I wouldn't replace anything. Unless you have problems getting on target in the 100-200 yard range.

Eric

[Lifeon2whls]

^^^ This.

Aside from trying to get a zero on your rifle, you should really be shooting that M1 at longer distances than 50 yards.

[Lone_Gunman]

Thanks for the advice guys. I Plan on taking it out to at least 200 yards on Sunday and hopefully 300 yards. I had limited time last time I went out and spent most of it trying to figure out where my rounds were hitting since what I had read said to start 8-10 clicks up. What is the trajectory of the M2 ball though? I've been looking online and haven't found it yet. Is it still going to be rising at 100 yards of I'm zeroed at 50? If it is then I'm assuming I would have a problem with the rounds being too high at 100 and not being able to drop the rear sight any more.

[6mmintl]

Common on match shooting M1's, I mill down most everyone's who is going to shoot long distance, another trick is to precision grind down end of rear sight (gear rack) to allow sight to go lower in sight base.

Std. sight setting is 12-14 clicks up from base/bottomed.

M2 ball Zero (clicks?) at 200
+3 clicks at 300 from 200 yard zero
+9 clicks at 500 from 200 yard zero
+12/13 clicks at 600 from 200 yard zero

[Lone_Gunman]

Common on match shooting M1's, I mill down most everyone's who is going to shoot long distance, another trick is to precision grind down end of rear sight (gear rack) to allow sight to go lower in sight base.

Std. sight setting is 12-14 clicks up from base/bottomed.

M2 ball Zero (clicks?) at 200
+3 clicks at 300 from 200 yard zero
+9 clicks at 500 from 200 yard zero
+12/13 clicks at 600 from 200 yard zero

Awesome. Thanks for all the info. Can't wait to take it out and really learn how to use it.

[Orlando]

I have front Garand front sights, PM me if interested

[Lone_Gunman]

Took the Garand out to the range today. Got the mechanical zero on the windage at 50 yards by moving the front sight. I got it really close and then fine tuned it by putting one click on the rear sight for windage. I took it out to 100 yards to make sure I was on paper and then didn't waste any time getting over to the 200 yard range.

The 200 yard zero for a center hold ended up being 1 click up from bottom. After dinking around a little bit with the sights and hold I was able to keep my last 19 shots in a 10-1/2" x 14" box. There were a couple of really nice groups and even one bullseye. I'm going to try to get a picture of my target and maybe I'll post a picture over in the centerfire section for he AR fanboys.

[6mmintl]

Where are you located? Sounds like your sight is ground/filed really low, 6-8 up from base for most match guns (with ground down sight racks) .

If in bay area I can help you correct it

[Lone_Gunman]

Where are you located? Sounds like your sight is ground/filed really low, 6-8 up from base for most match guns (with ground down sight racks) .

If in bay area I can help you correct it

I'm in the Sacramento area. How would one go about correcting it short of installing a new front sight?

[Orlando]

Front sights are cheap, buy a replacement