They aren't US barley corn sights intended for 6:00 holds. Many European battle rifles were originally sighted for high poi vs poa, out to 300yds specially Mausers. ( Something about carry over from volley fire tactics, Maximum point blank range and even human nature (estimating range eyc). Try burying the front post in the v-notch. All my Mauser shoot way (18" or so at 100) high if I sight them " by the book"

There are good articles out there on this with a little Google-fu.

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Most armies sighted their rifles such that aiming at a standing soldier's belt buckle with the 'default' sight setting would result in a lethal hit out to perhaps 500 to 600 meters. They are almost all set to hit high.
That being said, two feet high at 75 yards IS a bit extreme.

I would try checking the gun part suppliers for taller front sights for your K98.

OR:

You can try building up the front sight (while trying to retain the sight profile) with some JB Weld. I have had more than a little luck with the JB Weld approach, The extensions I have made stay on the sight and are pretty resistant to accidental bumps, but if you want to sell the rifle in the future, the sight extension is also pretty easy to deliberately break off.

 

There's differents original k98 front sight heights available on ebay.
I have used JB weld as well on many rifle and it worked great. Build up a higher blade at home. Bring a small file at the rage to ''adjust'' it.

 

If your rifle shoots consistently at the points you indicate, simply school yourself on where to hold. Changing sights is needless.
When I fired M 14s in basic training we determined a zero and went from there.
I don't recall details but they trained us to visualize the bullets travelled in a bit of an arc.
We used 50, 100, 250, and 450 meter torso sized targets.
We never changed the sight adjustment, just held a sight picture as we were trained.

Shooting should take personal skills and adaptability into consideration.
Serious technical shooting is a whole other deal, but not really applicable to issued weapons.

 

change out the front sight to get the sight picture you want, your not at war and if you go to war with your 98 just change the front sight back.

 

+ get a tool to properly service the front sight instead of making a bubba job of it.

 

I have an RC and a matching Western Front Capture. Both shoot close to six o'clock holds at 100 yards using the lowest rear sight setting (2) using the 196 grain FMJ Yugo sniper loads.

The K98 was designed with a 196 grain bullet. The Gew 98 used a different bullet (148 gr I think) and this will shoot differently in a K98. Just in case you are using 148 gr Turk ammo.

Also the PPU stuff is vastly underpowered and shoots way low. Maybe the previous owner filed down the front sight if he was using PPU.

Just a thought to double check ammo selection.

 

The ammo I'm shooting is 196gr soft point ppu ammo so it wouldn't be that but I was thinking trying a different ammo and see if anything changes since it does shoot quite high

 

If you are unable to adjust you POA to match POI visually as suggested, you might try some Swedish Mauser front sight blades. They are available in several heights that you can play with to get what's best for you. They do offer a different sight picture being a square blade rather than a wedge like the originals.

 

Trying different loads certainly won't hurt. Maybe a different bullet powder combo will bring it down to useable POI

 

The tangent sights on European battle rifles were not designed for precision shooting, but they should shoot to their battle sight zero. It is true that many had battle sights from 200 - 400 meters, and will shoot high at 100 yds. Simply look at the lowest graduation on the rear sight. If memory serves me correctly, the Polish K98 has a 200-meter battle sight. The Kar 98k, however has a 100-meter battle sight, and shoot be very close to point-of-aim at 100 yds. The tangent bed (replaceable on the 98k) simply mirrors the trajectory. That will be roughly +2 moa @ 200, 3 moa @ 300, 5 moa @ 400, 8 moa @ 500, 12 moa @ 600, etc. My F/TR .308 is +22 moa @ 800, with a 190 SMK @ 2500 fps. That is very close to s.S Patrone (196 - 198 SPT @ 2550). My .308 is + 32 moa @ 1000. If you are 2 - 3 ft. (24 - 36 moa) high at 100 yds, then you either have a 1000 yd battle sight, or something is seriously wrong with your rifle. Non-standard ammo will not be that far off, and the front sight would have to be ground to the base, for this situation. I believe that you have something else going on. I would give serious attention to the bedding. I once corrected a RC that was about 12 in off @ 100, by simply turning over the recoil lug. They are not reversable. This BA would rock on the recoil lug, so that when you tightened the action screws, the barrel rose about 1/4" out of the barrel channel. Imagine the stress when you put the bands on and bent the barrel back down. Post some detailed photos of your sights, so that the experts here can determine if they have been altered. Meanwhile, remove the BA and lay it in the stock, without bands or screws. It should lay solidly in the bedding, without rocking. If the rear tang and barrel rock opposite of each other, look to the recoil lug. If the action is solid, but the barrel does not lay in the channel, then you may have a warped stock, bent, or incorrectly installed barrel.

 

 

Front sight is pushed off the witness mark but looks to be the right shape and height. Nothing stands out about the rear. In the last picture, the tang seems to be sitting a little high. I would remove the bands and handguard, take the action screws out and inspect the bedding for any epoxy or shims. Make sure that the bushing for the rear screw is there, and that it is flush with the wood. If all looks good, set the BA in the stock, without screws and see if there is any wobble. If no wobble, put in and tighten the rear screw and see if the barrel lifts up. If all is still OK, put in and tighten the front screw (just tight, not gorilla tight), and try shooting it without bands or handguard, to see if your point of impact shifts. I would try a couple of different loads, just in case the one you are shooting is REALLY out of spec.

Also, and I expect that you know this, your sight picture should be with the top of the front even with the top of the blade - where the notch is. At "1", the top of the elevation slider sometimes sits above the blade, giving a confusing sight picture. If you slide it up to "2", it should be dead on at about 20 yds. The trajectory of the bullet crosses the line of sight twice.

 

Before you "zero" any rifle....learn about Maximum Point Blank Range first....
Nothing like zeroing a rifle just to destroy it's accuracy for any other range adjustment.

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Before you "zero" any rifle....learn about Maximum Point Blank Range first....
Nothing like zeroing a rifle just to destroy it's accuracy for any other range adjustment.

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

that is good if one is going into WW I combat

 

We may be going after the wrong thing here. We are dealing with a barleycorn front sight and it needs to be used correctly.

If I am seeing that last picture posted correctly (the one taken over the sights with the front sight out of focus), it looks to me like that the sights are 'aimed' such that the notch in the rear sight is filled to where the sloped sides of the front sight fully fill the top portion of the notch, and the actual top of the front sight extends significantly ABOVE the notch.

If this is the case and is the sight picture actually being used, OF COURSE this rifle is going to shoot very high.

The correct alignment is to have the TIP of the front sight even with the top horizontal parts on either side of of the rear sight notch, with equal amounts of light visible on either side of the top of the front sight.

The sights should look more like this: =W= than this: =^=

 

I had a very similar problem with my Kar98k (mismatch). There are a lot of potential reasons why these rifles shoot terribly high but I'm really sure that was not meant to be. Germans did learn how impractical was to well dug up enemy soldier from 75 meters when rear sight minimum is at 400 meters. Even Rommel himself mentions this in "Infantry attacks". Quite sure they fixed this problem after first world war.

So how to get your Kar98k shoot well? I did these things and I'm perfectly fine accuracy at 150 meters.

1. Make sure that action + barrel fits well with stock. Check that stock has no cracks, metal is not bended etc. Also clean the barrel (very, VERY) well.

2. After these things are taken off shoot again and see where the groups are. Use proper ammo (Sellier & Bellot 8x57 IS FMJ 12,7 g / 196 gf worked me perfectly)

3. Calculate how tall "korn" you need. I needed about 8,5 mm korn and I also bought "Korntreiber" (it is must-buy for Kar98k shooter). Of course these parts are not original. Modern made quality from Germany.

 

I've a Yugp M48BO and using some Sellier & Bellot 196 grain FMJ's at 100 yds I'm shooting 18" high. In fact I staple two targets one on the lower part of the 100 yd frame and the other on the top of the same 100 yd frame. So I'm thinking that maybe I should be using a lighter bullet 154 grain. although I have some of the PPU 175 grain and some old Remington 185 grain I got when Reminton was still doing bulk runs of cases,bullets and possibly primer. And I think Grafs may still have the 154 grain bullet.Frank

 

you can easily find a tall front site for a 98 and I filed mine to where I wanted it

 

Where did you find your "easily found" tall front sight?

 

K98k rear sight has a low setting of 100 meters. The Yugoslav M48BO has a minimum setting of 200 meters. You might try some other ammo as well to see if it still shoots that high. I have found PPU 8mm Mauser shoots way low in my rifles. Had to set K98k sight at 300 meters to get close to the bullseye at 100 yards. My Gew 98 has a 400 meter minimum setting and it was dead on with PPU at 100. If you plan on shooting S&B exclusively then front sight change may help.

 

I have found PPU 8mm Mauser shoots way low in my rifles. Had to set K98k sight at 300 meters to get close to the bullseye at 100 yards.

Likewise.
On my 243 1940 K98k, with PPU 8mm Match ammo, I have to have the rear sight set to 250m to be on at 100yrds.

 

At the time the S&B 8mm 196 grain fmj was the only 8mm available. And that is supposedly loaded to European specs. Have a few 98 mauser front sights in my junk box,so will drag it out and see if I have a higher front sight. Thanks for the tip. Frank

 

I've got an interesting dilemma that I don't quite understand. So I changed the front sight on my k98 years ago to shoot dead on at 50 yards with the PPU 196gr ammo. I finally got my hands on the "full power" S&B 196gr and it shoots 3" high at 25 yards and 9" high at 50 yards. I don't quite understand how it shoots higher the further I go away from the target. So is the higher front sight I put on causing a maximum point-blank range like Tbird mentioned above? It shoots 2-3" groups on a bench so it's not me or the barrel.

 

A normal trajectory is not flat, but an arc: ala the bullet is still rising until it gets 200-250 yds or so downrange.

....... I changed the front sight on my k98 years ago to shoot dead on at 50 yards with the PPU 196gr ammo. ............. I don't quite understand how it shoots higher the further I go away from the target.

 

I have run into this problem many times. The only real cure is a tall front sight. Find the load you like, file the sight down so you are where you want to be at 100 yards.