I was issued my first garand in 1954, if memory serves, and shot them in competition for more years than I care to admit. It was with great reluctance, at +/- 70 years of age, 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.

Took a while, but a plan slowly emerged to replace the iron sights with some sort of optical sight. Unfortunately no (acceptable to me) sights/mounts were available. First off, I did not wish to make any alterations to the rifle (drill/tap), but when I saw the Burris Fastfire II, the wheels began to turn. The FFII is not much larger than the original rear sight on the garand and the "ears" through which the elevation screw mounts would make no-drill mounting rather 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 about the same as a scope on an AR in that I can use a "chin weld" rather than a cheek weld on the stock.

I made a wooden "dummy" base that fit between the ears on the receiver and took it and a FFII to a gunsmith friend and 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 didn't have 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 . The only thing I would change in the mount is to use a larger allen screw for elevation adjustment and perhaps drill holes so that these screws could be adjusted without removing the rail.

Observations so far is that my 75 year old eyes still aren't what they once were so, with the 4 moa dot and no magnification, I can't expect to shoot up to the capability of this rifle.....

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 ).

.....but it should shoot 4moa and get the old girl out of quarantine. Plan to shoot again next week if something doesn't bend, break rip or tear and we shall see.

Regards,
hm

Nicely done!

An elegant solution to a situation, iron sights and old eyes, we will all face someday.

6" high at a hundred? That's no problem.
What is that saying?. "aim low men, they're riding shetland ponies..."

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
An elegant solution to a situation, iron sights and old eyes, we will all face someday.

6" high at a hundred? That's no problem.
What is that saying?. "aim low men, they're riding shetland ponies..."

Adjusted pitch on the base and got it dead on @ 100. Aiming black was 6" and the 4 moa dot left a very slim black ring showing around the dot. Shot one three shot group w/some old 60's LC M2 ball ammo and had two shots about 1 1/4" apart but the third shot was a "flier" opening group up to 6". I think with the proper size target, group would settle down considerably.

Regards,
hm