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Can anyone ID this gun sight?

stevewatr

Stainless
Joined
Aug 9, 2013
Location
Worcester County, Massachusetts
I found this rusted sight while digging through a box of junk at the flea market.

It is marked in yards out to 32.
Windage is adjustable to 10 degrees.

Marked at the top "CAL .50 M1"

On the side of the body are a couple spots marked with a "C" in a square.
 

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Browning M2 machine gun rear sight. The M1 refers to the 50 cal ammo. I’d say the sight is Bullet Drop Compensated. So, you dial in a range instead of dialing in an elevation. 32 is for 3,200 yards with standard M1 Ball ammo. The M2 can be set for single shot, rather than full auto all the time, so you can settle in on a target at a known (or at least estimated) distance.
 
Browning M2 machine gun rear sight. The M1 refers to the 50 cal ammo. I’d say the sight is Bullet Drop Compensated. So, you dial in a range instead of dialing in an elevation. 32 is for 3,200 yards with standard M1 Ball ammo. The M2 can be set for single shot, rather than full auto all the time, so you can settle in on a target at a known (or at least estimated) distance.
Yeah, an old time Marine I knew who served in Korea said they used to try and snipe at the Korean positions on the other side of a valley using an M2 Browning. As I recall the range was a mile or so.

Hits were infrequent but it did keep them from relaxing.
 
Browning M2 machine gun rear sight. The M1 refers to the 50 cal ammo. I’d say the sight is Bullet Drop Compensated. So, you dial in a range instead of dialing in an elevation. 32 is for 3,200 yards with standard M1 Ball ammo. The M2 can be set for single shot, rather than full auto all the time, so you can settle in on a target at a known (or at least estimated) distance.
Thanks. I was wondering why a max of 32. This makes sense. Last time I fired a .50 call was in basic training in the 1980's. Qualified on one, then never touched one again since I was assigned to an M901 and we didnt have room on it for the M2.

Regards,
Steve.
 
Browning M2 machine gun rear sight. The M1 refers to the 50 cal ammo. I’d say the sight is Bullet Drop Compensated. So, you dial in a range instead of dialing in an elevation. 32 is for 3,200 yards with standard M1 Ball ammo. The M2 can be set for single shot, rather than full auto all the time, so you can settle in on a target at a known (or at least estimated) distance.
Thanks. I was wondering why a max of 32. This makes sense. Last time I fired a .50 call was in basic training in the 1980's. Qualified on one, then never touched one again since I was assigned to an M901 and we didnt have room on it for the M2.

Regards,
Steve
Yeah, an old time Marine I knew who served in Korea said they used to try and snipe at the Korean positions on the other side of a valley using an M2 Browning. As I recall the range was a mile or so.

Hits were infrequent but it did keep them from relaxing.
"Kept them from relaxing" lol, I'll bet! I can imagine what one of those rounds sounded like coming in before you ever heard the report.

Steve.
 
I quickly scanned the BMG parts site and did not immediatly see that or similar sights, the AA sight I did see were quite expensive. Guessing that sight is not common.
Hi Rob,
I also looked there and noticed all the M2 sights looked the same as the ones I found online, yet very different thank mine. However, after combing through every picture on that page, I found it!!

It is described as an "M2WC" sight. I'm guessing the WC means water cooled.

No price given , says call for price. 🙂

 

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Very nice, you have more patience than I to look through aalll those pictures.
Curious to know how much they want for one, must be a lot since they say call, when most everything else has price shown....
 
Thanks. Since I seemed to have misplaced by Browing water cooled .50 machine gun, I most likely will not be needing this part. I will carefully clean it up so the parts move freely. It appears to be missing the knob and screw section to adjust windage. I'm sure that will hurt the overall value.
 
It is Defiantly a older model M2Water Cooled rear sight maybe WW1
theHB variant were /are stamped bases.
worth a few bucks!!
Best I can do is ten bucks.
pawn-stars_39068.jpg
 
Reputedly, it is the length of a .50 cal belt of ammo used in WWII aircraft. So to use the whole 9 yards would be expending the whole load of the plane's ammo, presumably of all guns. since I don't know of any way to fire the guns independently.
 
Reputedly, it is the length of a .50 cal belt of ammo used in WWII aircraft. So to use the whole 9 yards would be expending the whole load of the plane's ammo, presumably of all guns. since I don't know of any way to fire the guns independently.
I learned it as the length of belts used in a spitfire, mostly they used .303's but later were able to swap in a few .50's. Belt length was for each gun.
The term was clearly made mainstream due to the belt length but it seems to predate WWII.
Here is a site that mentions the term first appeared in 1907 used to describe an upcoming baseball game?

More interesting 9 yards talk here:
Down a ways it is mentioned a WWI vickers had a 9 yard belt...
 
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Reputedly, it is the length of a .50 cal belt of ammo used in WWII aircraft. So to use the whole 9 yards would be expending the whole load of the plane's ammo, presumably of all guns. since I don't know of any way to fire the guns independently.
Sorry to bore you. I have come across few that knew.
 








 
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