Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Vz 98/22 shoots high

I’ve got a Vz 98/22 I picked up last month, and it shoots wildly high. I have no clue how high because even aiming under the 2’x2’ Target at 100 yards it still was flying over the target and into the dirt behind. This one has Turkish rear sights, and a German front sight. Any recommendations to get an at least semi accurate sight setup on this without drilling and tapping or throwing optics on it?

I betcha you've encountered the phenomenon of the "battle sight" typical to military bolt guns of the past. The reigning philosophy was to make the sights hit at 200-500 yards at their lowest or folded down setting, depending on the manufacturer. As a result depending on the ammunition used, bullet/velocity for example, the close range impact tended to be very high. That's why recruits through the ages were taught/cautioned to "hold low". Military thought in the 19th-early 20th centuries had armies engaging enemies at long range, hence the "battle sight" adjusted for that, not to mention careful sight adjusting on the part of scared schitless boys in "the heat of battle" going right out the window.

Solution to your problem: acquire or fabricate a much taller front sight and file it down until your bullets impact at the point you're aiming.

https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...k-steel-black-sku078050000-341-1608.aspx

Have used more than a few.

Greatly appreciated, I’ll have to give it a shot

Agreed. Taller front sight and go from there.

IIRC usually these were set for 300m at the lowest setting, so yes, it will be a bit high at 100 yards. If you can work out how high it is shooting you could work out how much higher the front sight should be with a bit of arithmetic, saving you a bit of trial and error.

Essentially you measure the sight radius, and then divide this by the distance you are shooting (using the same units), and multiply the result by the amount you want to move the centre of your group.

For example, if you have a 24" sight radius, and you are shooting at 100 yards (3600 inches), and you are a foot high, you calculate:

(24/3600) *12 =.08"

In other words, for that set of conditions you'd want a front sight 0.08" taller.

Of course you'll want to measure your rifle's sight radius for yourself, and the correction needed on target (how much too high it is shooting). You may also still have to do a bit of judicious filing to get it just right too, but that should at least get you pretty close.

Oooooh, algebra!

Just hope they are not riding Shetlands

The brownell front sight blade arrived today, and it looks like it should do the trick. Just to make sure I don’t break anything, is there anything special that I would need to do to remove the front blade or should it just drift out with a hammer/punch?

Drift it out from left to right. Goes in right to left.

I’m going to do a Swedish Mauser. It has been suggested to soak the sight with Kroil first. I don’t know if that is necessary, but it will be easy to do.

Got it swapped no issue. Now just to have time to do final “adjustments”…