I was trying to help my father sight in his new Model 336 this weekend, and we had real problems with the vertical adjustment. With the factory sight settings, the bullets were hitting 6+ inches high (and 4+ inches to the right) at 25 yds. The ammo was the Winchester 30-30 150 grain hollow points. Even after unscrewing the vertical adjustment screw until it wasn't touching the barrel, the shots were 4+ inches high at 25 and 50 yds. We were shooting over an aluminum gun case with a padded gun case between the gun's fore-end and the metal case. Just to see if it made any difference, I rested my left elbow on the shooting bench and just held the fore-end in my left hand, and the point of impact was still 4+ inches high.
One thing to note is my father tightened the front screw on the rear sight (i.e., the screw nearest to the muzzle of the three screws on the rear sight) when I wasn't paying attention (after we made the horizontal adjustment and tightened that screw), and I don't know how much he tightened that front screw or if that screw even makes any difference as to the vertical adjustment. I would have tried loosening that front screw a little to see what happened, but we were running short on ammo and my father was in a hurry to get back for a family gathering.
I would just put a low-powered scope on it, but my father likes the way it handles without a scope, so we need to solve the problem.
Any insights?
