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Thanks for letting me try her out. She sure shoots well!Well I snuck out today just before sunset and put 20 rounds of PPU 150 gr FMJ Garand ammo and ~40 rounds of my reloads that I hadn't seen/shot in awhile (46 gr of Varget under a Hornady 168 gr BTHP)
Anyway it shot very well. The PPU shot very high, I had to use a very low 6 o clock hold to hit my 8" steel plate at 120 yards. My reloads on the other hand shot even better - I only had to aim at the edge of my steel plate to hit it. Rear sight was lowered all the way down. This normal with the A3?
Sorry guys no paper targets. Just grabbed my steel and ran off to the range.
No problems ringing the 8" plate at 120 yards. I realize that's no groundbreaking shots but good enough for me and I'm plenty satisfied with how it shoots.
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You have to remember they are not zeroed to match the rear sight setting when set up for a battle zero.
IIRC the 1903/A3s are zeroed for 287 yards on the 200 yard setting. So in the end if your aiming center mass or as my great uncle told be "belly button hold" from 0-400 yards aprox you would hit your target upper chest inside 250 yards belly and groin out to 400 yards... so basically asbout 4-6" high at 100 yards.... also why mosin nagants tend to shoot high.
you would need to change out your front sight if you want a closer point of vs point of impact..... try shooting a target at like 16-18 yards, should be dead on.
im sure that rifle will shoot better than that. make sure your action screws are tight about 45-60 inch pounds...
theres is a lot to do to make these rifles shine.... getting a C stock helps to start. Also poke around the gun forums like gun boards, milsurps.com and look for Bob S got my rifle shooting much better.
For starters clean the bejeez out of the barrel....I think i got about 5lbs of copper out of mine!
you can find good info here also https://archive.org/details/TM9-1270
Lots of fresh lead on the center of that plate. Looks like a real shooter!
I really like Varget and 168 SMK's in Garands and Springfields. 46.5 grains and 3.30" OAL perfect for both. I think the .5 grains between my load and yours is negligible. HXP brass holding up very well with this load. Accidental luck that I found out Varget was good for these. I had dropped Varget in favor of Benchmark for .223 and ended up with extra jars of Varget and no use for them. Now they are no longer 'extra'.
Looks like you did very well once you returned the lemon typewriter.
Actually the reason its shooting so high is because you have the E height front sight blade. There were 5 different blades from A to E with A being the tallest. I had noticed it was an E blade in your pics but forgot to mention about that.
Here's the heights:
Front sight height
A .537
B .522
C .507
D .492
E .477
So you want to track down an A height or even a B height blade. The lowest rear sight setting is 200yds and its POA=POI but an A would give you the height you need for 100yds and you can get one from Numrich that is supposed to be A height or maybe even a little taller.
http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/524900.htm
Its a repro but who cares, just hang onto the E if you want to have a USGI blade for it.
Thanks for letting me try her out. She sure shoots well!
yeah its pretty easy to change out, I'd just get the one from Numrich if I were you. Better to have one that's taller than you need than too short. You can always file it down and/or adjust the rear up.
You need to decide on what you want to do.
I am guessing you are using a center hold so if that's how you shoot then stick with it. I grew up on center hold with the "science" behind it that you don't know the size of the target. Battle zero is a different ball game.
The 6 o'clock hold is just fine for shooting a known target size such as the the SR 1.
I used the 6 o'clock hold for several years shooting the M1 .....but I will tell you I was having trouble with consistent scores. Old marine at my club said center hold. My scores have stayed up since. Also found wider front sights to help greatly.
That said decide on your hold and what zero you want. 6 o'clock, center, flat tire, frame,
If you want 100 yard zero set up a target @ 25 yards take a few shots. Now if you are going with center hold/ poa=poi @25 yards you will be about .5" low. So now you need to measure how many inches of correction you need.
You can do this at 100 yards also if you like. By the sounds of it you shooting about 4-5" high?
ok so if you wanted to be point of impact to be point of aim at your 120 yard target with your rifle set on the 200 setting your FRONT sight would need to be aprox .030" taller.
now all this is rough estimate...you need to adjust your zero to your ammo you will use the most and to your hold/distance.
as for front sights The few I bought from numerich SUCKED you could pound out a better sight yourself! mine where also flimsy and could be bent with fingers. Numerich provided a full refund.
I bought a few sights from Bill Bentz got the .100" USMC style front sight and USMC style front hood/sight protector. I have my rifle zeroed at 200 on 200 when i shoot at 100 I just use "flat tire" hold on the SR1. I "zeroed my rifle to 150 grain bullets running a tad over 2600 fps. My basic load for M1 and other 30-06 I shoot.
if you want to use 25 yard to figure out a rough zero change you will need aprox .030" of sight hieght change to move impact 1". your average rifle sight correction is aprox .008"@100yd=1"
looks something like this on paper amount of error you need in correction X sight radius. ex: 3" correction X 28" (I think thats the sight radius on the A3)=84 then divide by target distance in INCHES 100 yards is 3600" = .023" correction needed.
have fun
here in post 4 is a decent chart on the MOA differences between the rear sight settings...its darn close and has helped me out more than a few times when shooting diffewrent ammo and cast.
http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=54746
Thanks for all of that great info mac. So the sights from Numrich suck? Fingers crossed that I get a good one lol. I also came across that Bill Bentz guy on other forums and sent him an email inquiring about his front sight blades that he makes. I wonder what he charges for them and if he's still making/selling them? Hopefully he'll get back to me.
I prefer a center hold but can deal with a 6 o clock hold as long as I don't need to hold almost a foot below the target in order to hit (which is what my E sight blade is making me do).
Nice! Looks like a much wider sight too?
Bill makes the nice wide USMC style front sight. .100" wide.... so much better than the thin sight. Love mine along with the larger front sight protector.
Horizontal string almost vanished after switching to USMC front sight. Doesn't get lost in the bulls eye either.
For the record th USMC wide sight was not used on the 1903a3....not even sure if the Marines ever where issued A3?
Ohh gotcha. Sounds like I really need to get a hold of one of these!
As far as I know Bill is still out there. Sadly lots of these guys that make good stuff are going the way side.
I know lol. I'm glad it's working. Hopefully this will help it shoot even better.M pro 7 ain't cutting it lol.
Depends on your preference- surprisingly I seem to like a narrower sight but that's all for 6 o-clock hold.
are you using the Mpro CLP or the straight cleaner? The cleaner does a good job on grease, oil, soot/dirt and corrosive salts but isn't for removing copper.
If you like a 6 o-clock hold, the standard width front sights should be fine and possibly desirable. I shoot my best groups with my 03 NM, which has quite a narrow front sight. I have an AR Krieger barreled service rifle I built- forget the dimension but front sight is fairly wide. I thought it was pretty accurate until I began to beat it with the 1933 '03.
Thicker front sight should be just the ticket for center hold or flat tire hold. Depends on your preference- surprisingly I seem to like a narrower sight but that's all for 6 o-clock hold.
you might want to check with Glenn and see if he might have some sight blades for it if you haven't ordered one yet
You can go straight to a copper remover or bore foam. My first 91/30 still bled blue after three range trips.
T