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I am kinda embarrassed I can' t figure this out myself, but how in the world do you use the sights on the M1 Garand?

I recently got one from the CMP and can not see the front sight through the rear sight. The rear sight is a washer like thing with a very small hole. From looking around online, it looks like the back sight is suppose to blur and you can see the front sight that way. That did not work for me, I got it to blur up a little but the middle looked like a brownish white and I could not make out anything. I also tried too look through that little hole and find the front sight but that did not work either. Is there some way I have to line up the sights first? or put my head a certain way? or anything? or are my eyes just too bad?

If you wear bifocals like me, it's possible you just can't see the front sight. I had that problem with my AR15 and had to put a scope on it.

Get a solid cheek weld on the stock, look through the peep sight, put the front sight on the target, squeeze the trigger. That's how Uncle Sam taught me to shoot an M1.

You should be able to see the sight and target through the rear sight if you have the butt in your shoulder your cheek pressed to the stock and your eyes open.

edit: I didn't mean to come across like a smart burro, I've seen too many folks try to shoot with their eyes closed, usually just before pulling the trigger.

Just happened to me about an hour ago, with a CMP Carbine we just received today. The sight was completely opaque, and I had to look several times to make sure I was looking at the peep. It was a bit of cosmoline that got into the peep hole, and I had to use an unbent paper clip to clean it out. Then, the front sight became perfectly clear through the hole.

I've had the same thing happen before, and the cause was always a bit of oil, grease, film, dirt, whatever that gets into and over the tiny hole in the peep. The hole is just so small that it doesn't take anything at all to cover it. And, the stuff is usually all but invisible, but it clears up completely when I wipe it off (or take a probe and run through the hole).

Thanks for all the replies guys. It turns out that it was like Oldschool had suggested, the sight was dirty. I cleaned it off with a tissue and I can see through it just fine now. It is amazing how little grease was causing the problem, I can not even tell that I removed anything until I look through the sight.

Anyway thanks again, now if I can just stop looking through it and get to bed.

I was going to suggest the same thing, something in the peep, and it doesn’t take much.

Years ago I was coaching, well, assistant coaching my son’s high school rifle team (military school) and one of the newer shooters was having a problem. Seems he couldn’t get a good group and he claimed he couldn’t get a good sight picture. After watching his technique and position for a few shots, I asked him to let me see the rifle.

This was a Remington 513T with globe aperture front and rear sights, at 50 feet the black is a ball which you place in the center of the front aperture and the rear aperture is a blurry ring around that, three concentric circles. Shooting prone a good shooter should be able to make a cloverleaf hole in the target and an expert will make a single hole just a little out of round. A lot of years ago I qualified NRA Expert, so I expected a small group, even without slinging up, and was rewarded with what I expected, not in the x ring, but that could be sight adjustment, but a nice small group.

Just as I finished firing the head coach walked up and asked me why I was firing a rifle without a rear sight on it.

I had not even noticed that the rear aperture was not there and was using the mount as the rear sight.

Glad you got it worked out. I've never seen that problem before. I'll keep it mind though.\

I hope you enjoy your Garand. They are a lot of fun to shoot. You also might find that it is hard to stop at just one. :)

jack010203 wrote: ...now if I can just stop looking through it and get to bed.

We know exactly what you mean!!!
Enjoy!

MechAg94 wrote:You also might find that it is hard to stop at just one. :)

We happy now with 2 Garands, 2 Carbines, one of each for each of us, all shooters.
However, by next week....

And all because DynaBlue "accidentally" bought some 30-06 ammo a couple of months ago.
She has these kinds of "accidents" occasionally, and it's always expensive.

I just want to welcome you to the M1 family. Enjoy your rifle!

I shot expert with an M-1 on the 500 m range at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells back in the 60's. I hated lugging it around for days on end, but came to love the rifle.

Came across this FM 23-5 and thought it interesting:
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref ... FM23-5.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Army Marksmanship Training Manual is FM 23-71.

In honor of this thread, I changed my avatar to me and my Garand, in 1968, somewhere in the Med.

MechAg94 wrote:You also might find that it is hard to stop at just one. :)

That is so true, I havent even shot it yet and am already thinking about getting another one, hope this is not as bad as the 1911 craving i'm still trying to get rid of

How long did it take to arrive? My first one was 90 days and last one was less than 30.