Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters M1 Carbine sight-in issue

Hoping I can tap into some of your experience... my friend asked me to take a M1 Carbine out and check where it shoots with ball ammo. I don't know much about these but it seems to be shooting high at its lowest sight setting --- 6" high at 50 yards and still climbing at 100 yards.

How do you adjust to shoot to point of aim at 100 yards?

I take it you are dealing with a carbine that has one of the two types of adjustable sight and not the "flip sight", "L-shaped" type.

If it's at the "100 yd" setting (the lowest on the adjustment ramp) and still hitting high, the only thing you can do is buy and install a higher front sight. They're commonly available on Fleabay but if he's worried about matching parts, some types of replacement parts can get a little pricey. The old sight can be fairly easy to remove or it can be a bear depending on how much oil/dirt has seeped in and solidified between the sight band and the barrel. You have to punch out a fairly small pin to release the sight barrel band from the key that holds it in place. If you take this route, try to make sure (by pictures or description) that the front sight is the ORIGINAL height and has not been filed. Otherwise you could have the same problem with a replacement. I've had to do this on a couple of mine.

When the carbines were produced they had taller than necessary front sight blades. The various companies that made them had shooters that would shoot them and if they were too low they would hand the rifle off to someone who would give the front sight a few swipes with a file. By trial and error they would get the front sight blade at the right height but they got very good at it.

The problem is that practically all carbines were rebuilt at some time or another and sights that came off of one rifle might be installed on another during the rebuilding process. Unfortunately, all the carbines weren't necessarily retargeted after being rebuilt. If you take a look at the front sight blade, they'll almost all show evidence of that original filing at the factory.

I'm guessing that is where your problem is coming from. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the excellent info and you are correct, I do not have the flip sight.

I'll get with my friend and look for evidence of filing, and then likely proceed to a taller front post.

Kevin

I noticed your handle -- so what did (do) you fly?

I retired in June '93 after 21 years, 11 months and some days. I was pretty lucky and was in a flying billet for all but about 8 months when I was on the COMUSNAVCENT staff toward the end of the first Gulf War.

I got to fly some pretty neat a/c and do lots of pretty "cool" stuff in that time , scared myself and/or got the $hit scared out of me more than a few times ; also spent a lot of time away from home .

A/C types (not in chronological order):T-34B, T-28B, T-2A,B,C, TA-4F,J, F-4J,N,S and the F-14A.

I, along with about 25 other retired "old farts", am currently a flight simulator instructor in the Navy "Strike" (or jet) training syllabus. I guess they figure we've got some kind of knowledge to pass on the flight students

Speaking of flight students...I'm constantly amazed at how well prepared they are for their training events. MUCH better than I and my compatriots were in our time. They'd make any Mom and Dad proud and they make it easy for me to love my job!

Sorry for taking this OT, but do you think that video gaming has any influence on modern flight students' preparedness?

Could be. All of the latest jets have some form of Multi-function display (MFD) which are simply CRT's with different mode buttons around the face of the instrument. That probably makes them a little more comfortable accessing/managing information that is displayed but it's pretty hard to simulate the motor skills involved without being hands on the actual stick and throttle.

They still have to be able to interpret what their eyes are seeing and get the appropriate response to the hands in order to make the jet do what they want without thinking about it (also known as hand-eye coordination) .

It's sorta like driving a stick shift. At first you have to do a lot of thinking about what's going on but after a while, it becomes second nature.

Thanks for your service!

That's a heck of a career -- my thanks also for your service

The Army armorer's guide describes the front sight filing exactly as navlav8r described. Thought I might be able to add something but he described it perfectly.

Thank you for your service!