Garand Encore

The earlier Garand post was popular. Let’s revisit.
I mentioned that I had a problem with elevation zeroing. Back at the bench I disassembled the sight group by unscrewing the captive bolt on the left side and the flat-tipped head on the windage side.

I should have taken a picture of the peep sight when I pulled it out. What a marvelous piece of machinery! It’s a ratchet with the same curve as the upper body of the top of the sight unit. It was in perfect condition with a sheen of clear oil.

By disassembling the unit I had a better understanding of the correct operation. To rotate the elevation knob without it engaging the peep sight ratchet, both the captive bolt and the flat tip head on the windage sight have to be loosened. This allows the elevation knob to be pulled out far enough so that it can be freely rotated. As in to the zeroed position.

Let’s go back to the range!

The TM for the Garand says to zero it, start by rotating the knob to its lowest position, then up 8 clicks, then fire to see if it’s close to zero. I did 7 clicks because I don’t need no stinkin’ instructions, and this is what I got:

Left target, circled in red. That’s with the old Greek ammo. I dialed one click right windage (because I can’t leave well enough alone) and used the American Eagle ammo and got the right target. (One of those four shots was later, but I can’t recall which. D’oh.) But the American Eagle is 50 fps slower, so the elevation drop makes sense.

The gradations on the elevation knob are in 100 yard increments going up to 12.

But, damn, those are hard to see with old eyes and snow blind from the bright sun. I might just use some white on them. Anyway, now being zeroed, I tested the marked gradations on steel. At 200, the shot was high – dialing back to 100 put it on target. At 300, it was also high, and dialing down to under 200 brought it on target. Once the Long Range opens up again, I’ll test out to 1100 yards. There will be pictures. And some more drone footage.