USMC Sights

[RCS]

original set of USMC sights

[Art]

Nice, originals are still sometimes available, though increasingly hard to find.

[John Beard]

Thanks for sharing.

J.B.

[Dollar Bill]

I understand the USMC front sight blade is thicker. Is there a difference in the rear sight?

[Art]

I understand the USMC front sight blade is thicker. Is there a difference in the rear sight?

The front sight is thicker and higher resulting in a battle sight zero of about 200 yards as opposed to about 550 yards using the previous sight. There are no changes to the battle sight notch. The rear sight slide with the small aperture and little "u" notches is replaced with a slide having only one large .10" aperture. This results in a much more usable combat sight than the old 1905 version.

[Rock]

The front sight is thicker and higher resulting in a battle sight zero of about 200 yards as opposed to about 550 yards using the previous sight. There are no changes to the battle sight notch. The rear sight slide with the small aperture and little "u" notches is replaced with a slide having only one large .10" aperture. This results in a much more usable combat sight than the old 1905 version.

Seemed like a good idea. I wonder why it wasn't adopted for all rifles in service?

[Art]

Seemed like a good idea. I wonder why it wasn't adopted for all rifles in service?

There is a sticky on this forum about the Marine Corps modifications to the M1903 rifle by Maj. Culver that addresses the USMC process on the M1903 rifle in detail. Basically the Army worked on a lot of ideas for improving the M1903's awful battle sight but none were actually adopted before work seriously started on the M1 Rifle. The Marines, as Maj. Culver stated, being practical and broke came up with a simple and cheap solution.

Not all M1903 rifles used by the Marines were converted to use the USMC sight modifications. When the Corps ordered the modifications rescinded many, if not most, rifles were not converted back to the old M1905 pattern. From what I can see a lot of Marines, probably a majority carried M1903 rifles with the Marine sight modifications into battle on Guadalcanal and the other early battles of the Pacific War until the M1903 rifle was replaced in frontline service by the M1 weapon in early to mid 1943.

I strongly recommend reading Maj. Culver's monograph which is excellent.