The current iron sight setup for the M1A1 is far too cluttered; it makes using this iconic weapon tedious and annoying with the sights taking up way too much of the player’s screen. These sights become especially hard to handle when firing, throwing the sights back and forth preventing the player from hardly seeing what they are shooting at.
What can be done about this problem?
The easiest way to fix this problem would be to reduce the “felt recoil” of the weapon, this change would help fix the problem \the sights have when firing. However, this would have no effect on the weapons massive screen cluttering issue. Another solution would be to instead of using the rear aperture sight use the “v-notch” sight on top of the M1A1 “Thompson” and shrink the rear aperture sight back down to a realistic size. This would open the sight picture way up, and would also reduce the recoil felt by the player due to the screen not being so congested.
The problem with this change is that the “v-notch” sight is made for firing at a range of 150 yards (137 meters) meaning shots at close range would likely overshoot. The overshooting issue could be dealt with by just ignoring this fact and having these sights act like the close range ones, firing at the same angle as the close range sights with the only difference being visually the player would be using the v-notch sight. while not being realistic this solution would more than likely benefit the player the most allowing for the least complicated sight arrangement while providing a clear sight picture. The gun sights could also be configured so that the player would be able to switch which sight they want to use depending on the range of a given engagement like the system we have now for some rocket launchers. Switching to the rear aperture for close range engagements and the “v-notch” sight for longer range engagements. this would be more realistic while allowing players a more comfortable less cluttered sight picture when firing at ranges.
Should this be done to other Thompsons as well?
all Thompsons would currently benefit greatly from a reduction in felt recoil and most Thompsons have both a rear aperture sight with a “v-notch” on top. But, seeing as the M1A1 is the only current Thompson that has the sight guards (the pieces of metal around the sights taking up the majority of the screen space) it is the most in-need of a change. It would be nice to see these changes come to other Thompsons in the future.
Conclusion:
Opening up the M1A1’s sights would benefit its users greatly and would bring it more in line with the submachine guns of other nations. If the only change is to the guns felt recoil it still would be a massive improvement to the weapons usability and player enjoyment but, the other changes to the actual sights of the weapon would really put it over the edge and make it a lot more enjoyable to use
