30.06 Flat shooting zero

[Matthew]

As you may know, I am getting an M1 Garand for Christmas. In planning for this I was wondering what range I should zero at to achieve the flattest trajectory over the longest range. I zero my AR15 at 50 yards, and that gives me an extremely flat trajectory all the way out to 250 meters or so.

The ammo will be M2 ball. Any trajectory/experience information would be great. Thanks.

[dannanchieftain]

I have a garand myself but I haven't shot it in so long I cant remember how it shoots at long range.

I have an old piece of a manual that covers zeroing the rifle however and they used to zero them at 25 yards and that would put it on at 200.

you bottom the rear aperature *and count up 10 clicks on the elevation knob then loosen the screw on the elevation drum without moving the aperature and reset the knob to 2 where it lines up with the line on the side of the sight. carefully retighten the screw without moving anything and this would be the 200 yard battlesight zero.

with my rifle I did this and shot two 3 round groups at 25yards from a rest and all 6 were dead center and touching eachother with no other adjustment. At 200 yards the group was about a half inch high, I was happy with that so I left it that way.

There is a way to use the sight to hit targets out to 600 yards but I am missing most of the manual that covers how to engage targets at long range. Ill assume if you want to hit at 600 you move the rear elevation drum to "6" after it has been zeroed and aim center mass. I personally would never shoot at anything past 300 with a garand.

Remember that any ranges or adjustments with a garand were all done in yards back then and not meters like your AR

[Matthew]

Thanks, DannanC. Do you have an idea of what the trajectory of the bullet is at this zero? With the AR zeroed at 50 yards, it has a 3 inch vertical variance out to 220 yards. What about the Garand?

I'd like to be able to hit a basketball sized target from 10 yards to 250 without adjusting. This may not be possible with the 06, I'm just not too familiar. Thanks.

[dannanchieftain]

Matthew check out:

http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_trajectory_table.htm

this might help you. I dont know much about the ins and outs of ballistics so I dont want to steer you wrong with misinformation.

He has a 150g 30-06 load listed and that I would think would be close to the m2 ball.

you should also check out:

http://www.odcmp.com/

this is the civilian marksmanship program website. They have a forum on there and Im sure someone can answer any question you have about an M1 on there as there are quite a few garand experts that post on there.

[Matthew]

Thanks DannanC.

[HPshooter]

I have an M1 Garand through the DCM program and shot it in competition for a couple years before upgrading to my competition gun.

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/nm_campperry.asp

http://www.nrapublications.org/insights/campperry.html

Sites specific to the M1 Garand:
http://www.thegca.org/

http://www.garandm1rifle.com/

The M2 ball ammo IS a 150 grain Full Metal Jacket bullet.
I could dig out my range card but the data would be incorrect for you. Your gun probably has 1 MOA clicks, and mine has match sights so you would have to divide everything by two. Also my "come-ups" are for reloaded match ammo which, in this case, is about 200 fps slower than your factory M2.

The earlier guy had the right idea. Zero for 25 yards, tweak it at 200, set your dial at 2 and you're good to go.

Also, the .223 (55 gr fmj) and 30-06 (150gr fmjbt) do have very, very similar external ballistics. However, any correlation between sight mechanism adjustments would be very rare. The best thing to do - and by far the most fun - is to take it out to the range and shoot it! ;D

Terminal ballistics, however are a whole other discussion!
www.dogbegone.com :o