600 YARDS WITH MY M1 GARAND

I've always wanted to shoot at longer distances. So when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at the chance and entered the 600 Yard Sight-In Day at the local gun club. This was also good practice for the upcoming John C. Garand Match (I'll do a write-up on this next week).

Never having shot my M1 Garand at this distance, I had many questions. What .30-06 load should I use to carry the distance? How many elevation clicks are required for 600 yards on my service grade 1 MOA sights? How embarrased will I be if I don't "make paper?"


Me and my M1 at the 600 Yard Line

Reloading turned out to be pretty straight forward. I normally use 147 gr. BTHPs for reduced matches (100 and 200 yards). For 600 yards, I moved to 168 gr. Sierra Match grade BTHPs, 46 grs. IMR4895, and CCI No. 34 mil-spec primers.

I had to consult our local M1 gurus for sight adjustments. At 300 yards, I had +11 clicks elevation (typically +6 clicks elevation at 200 yards). With a left to right 10 mph wind, I had 2 clicks left. That got me on paper fairly well. At 600 yards, I had +21 clicks elevation and 3 clicks left.


At the 600 Yard Line with Spotters to Help Sight-In

When I first arrived, it was a little intimidating to see how FAR 600 yards really was! And looking around at the shooters, they all looked serious, hard-core, big-bore, and seasoned. When I got to talking to many of them, I was surprised to find that for many it was also their first time AND that they were just as apprehensive as I was.

I was assigned Relay 1, Target 19. Meaning I was to shoot with the first group and work the target pits afterwards.



Relay 1 proceeded to move their gear and setup at the 300 yard line. All shots were done prone. Some folks brought sand bags and scopes. I used my service M1907 sling in prone position and of course iron sights. I was told that at these distances scopes really does not provide an advantage over iron sights. In fact, scopes may even be a hindrance as shooters may even run out of elevation clicks if not zeroed in properly initially for these distances.

At 300 yards, it was fairly easy to sight in and hit paper. The effort only took 10 rounds to zero in so I saved the rest for where it really counted, out on the 600 yard line.


In the Pits with the 600 Yard MR-1 Targets

Having my confidence built up at 300, I felt good to move to 600. But once I got there, those MR-1 targets looked awfully small. Looking through my M1 front sight posts, the black kind of looked like a BB on top of a refrigerator! I kid you not.


A Garand View at 600 Yards

So I started with +21 clicks from a 100 yard zero. I started shooting and noticed that I was getting on paper. The trick was to watch the wind flags at 300. The only problem was that the left flag was being blown down and the right flag was being blown right. The wind really did make it a bit more tricky to get within the 10 and X rings.


Order of the 600 Yard "X" Certification

The objective, of course, was to effectively shoot 600 yards. And "effective" means being able to shoot 600 yards at a piece of 8.5" x 11" paper (certificate) representing the 10 and X rings of an MR-1 target. At those distances, one cannot even make out the paper.

I finished my string and ended up with THREE shots on the certificate. One in the X and two on the 10 rings. That sure was a relief when the target came back up with a black spotter on the certificate. I know not everyone hit theirs. Working the pits, there were many we could see that did not make it on.

At the end of the day, the shooters and pit workers gathered at the 600 yard line. The "Order of the X" certificates were handed out to all participants. Though the event boasts a 95% success rate, this day I don't believe this was achieved. However, 100% did have fun!