An embarassingly stupid question.

[Cessnapilot89]

How do I use the rear sight on my 03 Springfield? What do all the different apertures do?

[Father Ted]

The sight on 1903's are insane when you first try to figure it out. But they are interesting and accurate once you get acquainted. You must search for a tutorial or pick up a field manual for the visual, to hard to put into words only...
Sorry, that wasn't much of an immediate help.
Cheers

[Discogodfather]

This is a good manual, but it does not show you the visual.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3vgQuY3vA0FMlVOcmE3NS1Lbkk/edit?pli=1

[Cessnapilot89]

Thank you!

[Enfield47]

Here's a video on the apertures that might help.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t6cBa_4hFd4

[SonofWWIIDI]

I don't know of this will be a lot of help, but it might be.

https://archive.org/details/FM23-101943

[Tonymin]

I bought one last month. What I like is to raise the ladder sight and use the bottom notch of the triangle. The peep is too small for me. I raise it to about 2 on my rifle. It is deadly accurate

[knucklehead0202]

I hate aperture sights. Only one I've ever shot worth a damn with is the type99 jap rifle believe it or not. Those things piss me off.

[rdfact]

The OP's question sounded odd, how tough could it be? But not having a 1903 (I have an 1903A3) I had no idea. Are there really six different sight apertures or notches?

[Tonymin]

It took me quite a bit of research and 4 range trips to figure it out. I am stupid too.

[Armistice]

From the pic, I just use C. I figd the rest were for other crazy things I don't care about

[Flyin Brian]

Cody, I didn't watch those videos and haven't read the manual in years, but the one thing I would recommend paying attention to is the windage knob. The way the gears are cut, you only want to make the final adjustment going counter-clockwise. I can't remember exactly, but I think if you need to turn it clockwise, go past the desired setting and then turn back to the spot. This way the spring will not be compressed and it won't move from recoil.

I may be wrong on the direction, but you will see what I mean as you play with the direction of the windage.

FB

[Cessnapilot89]

Thanks Brian! I appreciate the advice.

Just picked this one up yesterday, has a big hole on the side of the receiver.

[smle-man]

When the sight is folded down, the notch is your battle zero sight. The sight is down when moving and or for bayonet fighting. The peep sight is for precision shooting when light and weather conditions allow. the notch in the triangle is for lower light conditions when acquiring the front sight and target with the peep will be difficult. It is less precise than the peep but better than the battle sight. The upper notches are for volley shooting. Until the widespread use of heavy machine guns, soldiers on line were used to fire at extreme range in platoon and company strength so that their plunging fire could saturate an area even behind masking terrain features and deny the terrain to opposing forces.

[pro-nra]

I hate aperture sights. Only one I've ever shot worth a damn with is the type99 jap rifle believe it or not. Those things piss me off.

All elase being equal, aperture sights are far more precise than a tangent sight. They are still used today in modern M16 so that should tell you it works.

If you want to shoot accurately with an 1903, you should invest in a P.J. O'HARE micrometer adjustment tool. It will allow you to adjust your elevation more precisely than just "feel or sight". Original P.J. O'HARE are rare and cost a small fortune (I'm poor). The one I bought cost me almost as much as a darn 1903. There is a cheaper reproduction used to be made by IIRC Ray-Vin. Not sure who make it now.

In addition, you can replace the aperture with a smaller or larger to suit you need.