questions on zeroing mil-surp rifles

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silverlance

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I have a lot of milsurps. of them all, I by far prefer my m91/30 sniper and k31 swiss.

this is because i can hit things with them. both can pick off bowling pins at 250 yards.

however, I can't seem to hit squat with my other guns. I always thought that this is because of ammo/gun, but then someone today mentioned "zeroing it in at 100" and I thought to myself... "oh, yeah... I remember that.."

I zeroed my AR15 for 100 yards, way back when. But it never occurred to me that I'd have to zero my Milsurps. don't know why.

Now here's the problem - the last itme I zeroed a gun it was 1997 and it was real easy - just shoot, click the knob, shoot, click the knob, poke the little hole with the bullet tip and turn the dial.

Can anyone tell me how to zero in my milsurps?

The ones I realy need zeroed are an M48 and an M39.

Kev
 
A common practice with militaries seems to have been to set the tangent sights at 300 meters and sight for that, often with the target at 100 yards. They weren't as concerned with getting it dialed in for 100 meters. This is true of many if not most Finns. So sometimes you get high shooting when you take the sights down to 100. Most people will want to shoot with 100 as a base, though. The bad news is if you're shooting really high the only way to fix it is with a higher sight. You can find aftermarket high sights for most rifles if you dig around on the collectors forums. You also need to decide what you're zeroing for. With Mosins I usually pick whatever it shoots best with and gear it for that load.
 
I don't do it the military way. I "battle zero".

I prefer to zero my AR15s at 50 yards/200meters. That gives you +/- 2" all the way out to 250m or so.

All my .30 cal guns (30-06, .308, 7.62x54R, 7.5 Swiss) get zeroed at 200 yards (approx 2.5-3" high at 100 yards). This gives you +/- 3" out to 250 yards or so.

If the gun has such a setting I set the rear sight to 200 yards when zeroing (if not, set it to the sight's lowest setting) and then either adjust, file down, modify or change the front sight to get the zero (with the exception of the Garand, which calibrates at the rear).

I hate fooling with sight adjustments when shooting.
 
hm.

perhaps I need to buy a book on how to battle zero.

I actually have a us army 1986 publication on how to battle zero the m16. but milsurps are a little different.

so it seem slike I will just keep on fiddling with the rear sight until i see a shot group at 100 yards; then I'll try to fiddle with the front sight using a file.
 
If the gun shoots too high (as is the case with a lot of old milsurps), filing the front sight only makes it shoot higher.

I've had to buy new "high" front sights for my Swede mausers, then start filing to zero at 100 yards.

For my czech mauser, I just used a brass flat-head screw, put the head into the slot where the old front sight was removed, then start filing. After zeroing, I painted the screw black. Dirt cheap, and works great. And, it's not one of those funny pointed front sights like on many Mauser.
 
say...

good point about the filing.

hm - just out of curiosity, you are supposed to line up the front post with the v notch so that it forms a flat horizontal, right? in other words, the top of the sight post is suposed to be level with the two top sides of the rear sight v notch?
 
There's lots of little things you can do to make a milsurp front sight taller. I used a roll pin from a hardware store on a round post Mosin Nagant sight, I JB welded a piece of scrap metal to the top of a Finn M39 sight, I traced my old sight on of a piece of shelf bracket and cut it out with a dremel to fashion a taller sight for my 1903 Springfield.

You just have to use a little creativity. ;)
 
I bought a taller front sight for my M96 Swede out of Shotgun News... it has a bunch of surplus rifle items for sale in it.........
 
Another possibility is that the sights used on most milsurps are somewhat less than ideal [/understatement]. www.mojosights.com has several sights that attach to the existing sight base and turn it into a peep sight. You can have your cake and eat it, too; hit stuff, and if you ever want to turn the rifle back to as-issued, you can do it.

Mike
 
My M39 at 100 yards hits high with everything I've tried, except 203gr Barnaul new production softpoints I used this weekend. They actually came in a touch low at 100, first time ever.

So then all others hit high. Lighter the round, higher poi. I've got my vertical pretty much "zeroed" in and I'm experimenting with different weights to find my elvation. I'm not going to alter my rifle, I like it "as is". Barnaul is the first commercial grade stuff I've used. Everything else has been surplus.

In order from hi to lo.

-Czech silvertips went WAY high and displayed poor accuracy.
-Russian 148's also quite high, better groups.
-Yugo 180's much closer to poi and grouped in the sub 4" range.
-Hungarian yellowtip 182'w were almost right on poi, though still above it an inch or two. They gave the best groupings to date in the sub 3" range.

So I'm still on the prowl and there is much out there yet to be sampled.

Wish I was a reloader as Cosmoline has discussed in other threads the proper bullet (Lapua D114?? i think ....that's probobly isn't right) that can be loaded to specs matching the actual Finn M39 load. Wish the Finns would make their ammunition available. :(

Sure is fun though looking for the elusive golden bullet. :D
 
in other words, the top of the sight post is suposed to be level with the two top sides of the rear sight v notch?

Yes......
Click to expand...

Unless you're shooting a Carcano carbine, in which case you bury the front sight post in the deep V notch.
 
For Mausers the battle sight is 300 meters. To modify for 100 yard zero but keep it on at other ranges you will find that with the rear sight all the way back it sits on a ridge, you can file this ridge down some to get on at 100 yards. I did it to a M48A. Do it at the range so you can tell when you have file off enough, keep it level then reblue. This will allow you to shoot on at 100 yards and still keep the other settings for farther ranges correct.
The POI is dependent on sights and ammo used and shooter and also depends on where you place the front sight in relationship to the rear sight.
 
Re. the M-39's, in my experience they all tend to prefer different ammo. The problem is those massive birch stocks, which tend to impinge on the barrel if you're not careful. The design really needs a sleeve like the 28/30's had. In lieu of that you're stuck with shimming.

But the good news is, there are high sights floating around for the M-39. Check over on the collector's forum.
 
Oops, I just dug thru my old targets and it looks like the Hungarian was right on POA and not an inch or so high as I claimed.

So maybe try some Hungarian yellowtip heavy ball. You might start hitting like your other rifles without messing with the sights.

.....and I need to order some spam cans of this stuff! ;)

DSC00705.jpg
 
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