Garand Sights - Grind em down or what???

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Bart212

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Hello everyone,

I hate shooting with the Garand Peep Sight. Is there a different insert that can be bought??? as in a regular flat sight or just buy another sight aperature and grind it down a bit. As there's tons of them around it won't hurt to just grind just one little one down.
 
The only other insert available is the National Match sight with a smaller aperture.

http://www.creedmoorsports.com/store/product.php?productid=16375

What is wrong with the aperture? It is far superior to an open style sight, faster and more accurate.

Mark
 
mmattockx said:
The only other insert available is the National Match sight with a smaller aperture.

http://www.creedmoorsports.com/store/product.php?productid=16375

What is wrong with the aperture? It is far superior to an open style sight, faster and more accurate.

Mark
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It's the bluryness the with my eyes the rear peep blurs almost 50% accross the sight. Or should I just learn to ignore it and shoot. My accuracy is pretty good, but maybe a different sight would help out. I used to love peep sights when I was younger but now it sux, I think it all changed when I had Lazer Eye surgery a few years ago.
 
The bluriness may be your aging eye not being able to see the front sight clearly.

The open sight is the most difficult iron sight for old eyes to use. The peep is as good as it gets.

There comes a time to switch to optics.
 
Bart212 said:
It's the bluryness the with my eyes the rear peep blurs almost 50% accross the sight. Or should I just learn to ignore it and shoot. My accuracy is pretty good, but maybe a different sight would help out. I used to love peep sights when I was younger but now it sux, I think it all changed when I had Lazer Eye surgery a few years ago.
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You shouldn't be looking at the aperture at all, if that is what is getting blurry. Just focus on the front sight and shoot. If it is the front sight that is blurry, then it's time for prescription glasses or a scope, unfortunately.

Mark
 
A LOT of people have trouble with aperture sights on Garands and P-14s and Number 4s simply because they never learned how to use an aperture sight correctly.

What people do is try to keep the APERTURE (the little peep-hole) and the front sight and the target all in focus. Well, this is impossible: the laws of optics are completely against it. Your eyes can only focus perfectly on one point at a time and shifting between points of focus is easier, the close the objects are that you are trying to see. You have 3 things to focus on (rear sight, front sight, target) and one of them is so close that you can hardly even see it.

What you do is focus on the front sight and let the target go slightly out of focus. This is not hard to do at all; anyone can do it unless they have a serious eye problem. Aim the rifle where the bullet is to go, check that the sight is where you want it (easy to do) and squeeze the trigger. Bullet goes where you want it.

I haven't mentioned the rear sight because you DON'T USE IT. IGNORE IT. Your eyes will line everything up perfectly for you. Just look THROUGH the thing and concentrate on the FRONT sight and the target.

Grinding down the rear-sight aperture will give you a home-made 'open sight' which has the sighting notch so close to you that it will be absolutely impossible to use.

Hope this helps.
 
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I'm sure we can find you a super cheeep Norinco M14 rear sight aperture to grind down. :D Nobody worries about one of those units. They will swap directly with yer USGI M1 Garand rear sight aperture.... :)

:cheers:

Barney
 
Just pulled out the Garand. Yeah. focusing only on the front post and the target will work out well I think. Used to be able to almost focus everything in. I think that smellie is right about the grinding the rear aperature is too close any way and will just widen up, making lining up more difficult. Thanks for the info guys.
 
Bart212 said:
Just pulled out the Garand. Yeah. focusing only on the front post and the target will work out well I think. Used to be able to almost focus everything in. I think that smellie is right about the grinding the rear aperature is too close any way and will just widen up, making lining up more difficult. Thanks for the info guys.
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Let us know how it works out. If you want more precision, take a look at the link I posted to the smaller aperture sight from Creedmore Sports. I installed that and the National Match front post and the increase in precision is a big improvement.

Mark
 
"...Used to be able to..." A lot of us used to be able to. I think middle age is nature's way of getting even for all the silly and stupid things we did as young bucks. snicker.
"...the rear peep blurs..." It's supposed to. As daft as it sounds. Like smellie says, ignore 'em. You don't ever look at peep sights. You look through the aperture at the front sight and sit the bull on top of the front sight.
"...use an aperture sight correctly..." Exactly. Once you learn how to use 'em, nothing else, iron, will do. They do tend to be difficult to use in low light though. Mind you, like mmattockx says, just an NM front makes a huge difference for target shooting. Not so much for hunting in low light.
"...National Match sight with a smaller aperture..." NM rear sights have finer adjustments, a smaller aperture, are pricey and not exactly easy to come by any more. NM front sights have a thinner blade. 62 thou wide vs 72 thou. Not horrendously expensive either. $28.40US from Gunparts(vs $12.35 for a standard front sight) The NM rear aperture runs $29.85US vs $10.80US for the standard, but you need an NM Elevation Pinion too.
 
And there is another little trick you can pull, once you have the critter shooting properly again.

Your front sight is wide and stands there bold as brass. It is wide enough that it appears a bit crude. You can change it out for an NM sight, but, as pointed out, that makes things rough in low light.

So you leave the original wide front sight and you diddle with the REAR sight. Your FRONT sight covers 4 MOA of target. Your REAR sight is adjustable in clicks of 1 MOA.

You put the REAR sight out to the side by TWO clicks and your rifle now is shooting to the CORNER of your front sight blade. It works.

MY M-1 is out 2 clicks right and I aim with the upper-right corner of my front sight. My sight picture on a plate course is just as if I were shooting at a pie with one big slice missing.... and the bullets strike in the middle, which is where I want them. Shooting paper targets, using a 6-inch tarpaper square at 100, I touch the corner of the aiming-square to the corner of the sight blade and the rifle shoots into half an inch, off the sandbags, if you can hold it. I can't, any longer, because my eyes are going, but others have tried it, with my rifle, and they can do it, have done it, many times.

It works. Give it a try. All it will cost you is a clip of ammo.
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Grinding down an aperture sight to make an improvised "Vee" sight won't work. The NM apertures are available with a .520 and .595 aperture dia as opposed to the standard .065 dia. They will allow a finer sight picture.

The latest NM apertures are the hooded or so-called "tin can" style. The first NM sights had the same size dia, but no hood. I found one of the early .595 ones on a rifle and it quickly got re-parked and found a new home on my glass bedded best shooter.

If you want to cheat a bit, go to the range on a sunny day with the sun behind you to better illuminate the target. Use a dull back rectangular paper 6" wide and 4" high as an aiming point @ 100 yds. Center the front post on the bottom of the tgt and adjust the vertical hold so you just have a touch of white showing between the bottom of the tgt and the top of the front post. Look for that same sight picture for every shot. Use one or both eyes and do not look at the aperture. Your eyes do that automatically. Use a wooden kitchen match to blacken both the rear face of the aperture and the rear and sides of the post with soot to reduce glare.
 
Sort of made me laugh. When the army gave me a free M1 at 18yrs old, the rear sight was also fuzzy, as it should be. Your eye will automaticaly centre the front sight in the apeture. At 73, nothing has changed. (except the rifle seems to have gotten heavier);)
 
I have noticed exactly the same phenomenon, John: as we get older, the rifles get heavier.

I think it must be because the rifles are getting older; they put on weight where you can't see it, much as we do.

Sympathise with your Garand problem. You should live in a Free Country such as this one. We don't have to worry about carrying our FALs around because our wonderful Government made it illegal, likely to reduce the incidence of hernia among former Service people. This is how our Government thanks us for our selfless service, even if it was just the Cold War (which very nearly heated up far too much a few times).

Something I think would be really funny would be if the politicians got into another war and had to fight it themselves. The rest of us could sit back and eat popcorn and hot dogs and cheer for whichever side we wanted to win. After all, that's what Serfs are supposed to do: cheer for their Masters.

But I DO sympathise regarding your overweight M-1.
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John Sukey said:
Sort of made me laugh. When the army gave me a free M1 at 18yrs old, the rear sight was also fuzzy, as it should be. Your eye will automaticaly centre the front sight in the apeture. At 73, nothing has changed. (except the rifle seems to have gotten heavier);)
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That rifle has not gotten heavier. You have gotten weaker. Time for some battle PT. Pick up the log! Over your head. Up! Now hold that "raffle" at high port, double time!:p

When I was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL many moons ago I used to do a circuit of the airfield every lunch hour ( it was a big airfield and the temp and humidity was a b*itch in the summer). One of my Marine Corps buddies used to do the same thing, except he would wear combat boots, full web, steel helmet -and carry a training rifle!:eek: I used to jazz the silly bugger about saving himself for the enemy to kill instead of doing it himself.:p The Brits used to have a good saying about PT; Officers shouldn't run as it panics the troops.;)
 
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