At what distance were the 98K's zeroed at?

[Paul101]

I've got a 1935 S42/G(russian capture) and I was correcting the horizontal pitch of the front sight on a 50yd range with Yugo 55 ammo 196 grn head.
I centralised the POI with drifting the front sight blade with a brass punch, which was the easy bit,
but the POI was 8 inches high from POA with sights set at 100, would that be correct?


The mauser is my first military bolt action rifle that I've owned and I do like it alot and dont really want to mess with it.
Thankyou.

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[Patrick Chadwick]

but the POI was 8 inches high from POA with sights set at 100, would that be correct?

"correct" is not quite the correct adjective in this connection. Many military rifles were zeroed at 200 or 300 meters and I have no idea what the Russians did with captured rifles. But 8" above POA at 50 sounds like a rifle that will have a POI in the target frame or off the paper at 100 if you aim at the center of the target. All my Mausers* have needed to have an extra tall foresight blade fitted to get on target sensibly at 100. In many cases, the "original" blade was a stub worn down to near-uselessness. If you want to shoot your rifle satisfactorily, you do not need "correct", you need to hit the target.

Typically, this means hitting the center of an 8" black at 100 meters (or yards) while using the 6 o'clock hold, i.e. aiming with the top of the foresight blade a gnat's whisker below the "6 o'clock" of the black, with the smallest possible sliver of white between the blade tip and the black of the target. trying to aim at the center is very difficult and enormously light dependent. And if you do try to aim at the center, you will probably have a POI that is way up above the 8" black, requiring correction with a foresight blade that is so high you may have difficulty in finding one.

So you need to use the 6 o'clock hold and have a POI that is 4" above the POA at 100. The trajectory of any bullet (there is no such thing as a truly flat trajectory) means that the POI/POA difference at 50 will be different. How much depends (amongst other things) on the load. All you can do at 50 is to make sure that the shots are centered horizontally, and in the black vertically, using a 6 o'clock hold.

To reduce the risk to the target frames, our range rules require that a rifle be set up at 50 before you are allowed to try it at 100. As a result. I have fired a great many rifles at 50 and then at 100. And I have not yet found a worthwhile formula to calculate the difference.

Summarizing:
Center horizontally at 50, check that the POI is actually in the black and not way up in the white, then go to 100 and use the 6 o'clock hold on an 8" target black and the backsight on the bottom setting. Replace the foresight blade with a taller blade if necessary to get the POA down to the center.

Tip: Remove the original blade, and keep it to one side. Then fit a new foresight blade that is taller than absolutely necessary, and do NOT file it down, so that you have some leeway for adjustment with different ammo! If you file the blade down for a perfect match, you will kick yourself one day when you want to/have to use a different ammo or load! Trying to correct a high POI by holding the aim down in the white is not going to improve your grouping.

*From M1871 through to FN-Israeli ca. 1950, and including the Swedish M96. No rhetorical exaggeration, in this case I really mean all.

[Paul101]

Typically, this means hitting the center of an 8" black at 100 meters (or yards) while using the 6 o'clock hold, i.e. aiming with the top of the foresight blade a gnat's whisker below the "6 o'clock" of the black, with the smallest possible sliver of white between the blade tip and the black of the target. trying to aim at the center is very difficult and enormously light dependent. And if you do try to aim at the center, you will probably have a POI that is way up above the 8" black, requiring correction with a foresight blade that is so high you may have difficulty in finding one.

So you need to use the 6 o'clock hold and have a POI that is 4" above the POA at 100. The trajectory of any bullet (there is no such thing as a truly flat trajectory) means that the POI/POA difference at 50 will be different. How much depends (amongst other things) on the load. All you can do at 50 is to make sure that the shots are centered horizontally, and in the black vertically, using a 6 o'clock hold.

To reduce the risk to the target frames, our range rules require that a rifle be set up at 50 before you are allowed to try it at 100. As a result. I have fired a great many rifles at 50 and then at 100. And I have not yet found a worthwhile formula to calculate the difference.

Thanks for the quick reply.
sorry, I forgot to mention that i was using the "6 o'clock" hold.
I'm mainly using the mauser on the Stanta battle ranges with my club, shooting at fig.11's, but I'd like to try abit of gallery range shooting with it.
I might get a new blade , but they're hard to find in the UK and the US dont like exporting. I'll try some othe ammo that I've got and see what the difference is.
Or I could live with it and allow abit more offset of aim. I just love shooting it more tham my remy vls .308.
Thankyou again.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Why look to the US for a Mauser foresight blade?

Try looking in Mauserland!

https://export.frankonia.de/scripts/home/home.php

in particular

https://export.frankonia.de/scripts/...zteillager.php

Not every tiny spare part is listed on the website. Send them an e-mail.
P.S: another tip from my experience: instantly get 2 of the extra-high Mauser blades. That way you are ready to fix the same problem next time you find a Mauser you can't resist!

[Claven2]

For starters, K98k rifles were designed for a 6 o'clock hold. The sights go down to 100m, so using a 6 o'clock hold on a standard rifle target, at 100m, you should be within reason. Next, the WW2 era K98k was designed for a 198gn FMJBT bullet travelling at 800m/s. What type of ammo were you using?

[Paul101]

For starters, K98k rifles were designed for a 6 o'clock hold. The sights go down to 100m, so using a 6 o'clock hold on a standard rifle target, at 100m, you should be within reason. Next, the WW2 era K98k was designed for a 198gn FMJBT bullet travelling at 800m/s. What type of ammo were you using?

I was using 1955 Yugoslavian, but I've also got some 1971 Portugease FNM and some commercial Privi Partisan that I'm going to try next time. All FMJ.
Thankyou.

[mac1911]

If your looking to get your gun dialed in for 50 yards. There is a easy way to figure out the "rough" adjustment to get you close if you choose to get a taller sight.
Take your 50 yard groups(now I'm going to us yards/inches) measure your needed correction from the center of the group you fired to where you want the group to impact.
You mentioned 8" high so we will go with that. So
Correction need is 8" multiply that by your rifles sight radius....approx 20" 8x20=160" now dived that by yards converted to inches.... 50 yards x 36" = 1800. Then devide 160/1800 = .088 . Your front sight will need to be .088 taller to get you closer to your point of aim.

As mentioned you will thank yourself later if you get a front sight that's a good amount taller. Especially if you bulk of shooting will be from 100 yard or less. I have a 1903a3 that I did my 100 yard zero with the rear sight set on 300m
I adjusted the front sight until my poi vs poa @ 100 yards falls into the 10 ring of a SR1 nra target with a 6 o'clock hold on the black. This gives me some wiggle room when shooting closer in and more than enough out to 500 yards which I don't do much anyway.