I was issued my first garand in the early '50's and have shot them in competition for more years than I care to admit. It was with great reluctance that I was forced to admit I could no longer see the sights well enough to be proficient in its use and relegated my fine old warhorse to the safe about five years ago.
Took a while, but a plan slowly emerged to replace the iron sights with some sort of optical sight, but no (acceptable to me) sights/mounts were available. I did not wish to make any alterations to the rifle (drill/tap), nor do I care for the side mounted scope, but when I saw the Burris Fastfire II, the wheels began to turn again. The FFII is not much larger than the original rear sight on the garand and the "ears" of the garand receiver through which the elevation screw mounts would make no-drill mounting fairly simple. The small size made the FFII ideal as it does not interfere w/top loading and clip ejection of the garand. The FFII mounts a tad higher than the original sight, but a "chin weld" on the stock similar to that used with an AR works satisfactorily.
After removing the rear sight, I made a wooden "dummy" base that fit between the ears on the receiver and took it and the FFII to a gunsmith friend. A few weeks later picked up the finished product.
Before:
After:
The base block pivots on two screws turned to fit holes in the "ears" and is locked at desired angle to achieve elevation zero by two small allen screws, one in front of and one behind the mounting screws:
With sight mounted:
Took it to the range last week, but lacked sufficient elevation adjustment on the sight and did not have correct size allen wrench to adjust the base so ended up w/it sighted 6" high at 100.
Observations so far is that my 75 year old eyes still aren't what they used to be and while I cannot expect to shoot up to the capability of this rifle with the 4 moa dot and no magnification, it should shoot 4moa and get the old girl out of quarantine.
Target on left 10 shots @ 100 yds sitting rapid fire, right hand target 10 shots slow fire @ 100, both shot with original iron sights a number of years ago.
Hope to get out and shoot it again next week and we shall see.
Regards,
hm
Took a while, but a plan slowly emerged to replace the iron sights with some sort of optical sight, but no (acceptable to me) sights/mounts were available. I did not wish to make any alterations to the rifle (drill/tap), nor do I care for the side mounted scope, but when I saw the Burris Fastfire II, the wheels began to turn again. The FFII is not much larger than the original rear sight on the garand and the "ears" of the garand receiver through which the elevation screw mounts would make no-drill mounting fairly simple. The small size made the FFII ideal as it does not interfere w/top loading and clip ejection of the garand. The FFII mounts a tad higher than the original sight, but a "chin weld" on the stock similar to that used with an AR works satisfactorily.
After removing the rear sight, I made a wooden "dummy" base that fit between the ears on the receiver and took it and the FFII to a gunsmith friend. A few weeks later picked up the finished product.
Before:
After:
The base block pivots on two screws turned to fit holes in the "ears" and is locked at desired angle to achieve elevation zero by two small allen screws, one in front of and one behind the mounting screws:
With sight mounted:
Took it to the range last week, but lacked sufficient elevation adjustment on the sight and did not have correct size allen wrench to adjust the base so ended up w/it sighted 6" high at 100.
Observations so far is that my 75 year old eyes still aren't what they used to be and while I cannot expect to shoot up to the capability of this rifle with the 4 moa dot and no magnification, it should shoot 4moa and get the old girl out of quarantine.
Target on left 10 shots @ 100 yds sitting rapid fire, right hand target 10 shots slow fire @ 100, both shot with original iron sights a number of years ago.
Hope to get out and shoot it again next week and we shall see.
Regards,
hm