My Grandma Knows How To Suck Eggs

Please notice the quotation marks around, "the carbine couldn't penetrate a Chinese winter coat."

Why would I put those little bits of punctuation on that?

I'm fully aware that most of those "failures to penetrate" were almost certainly from missing.

It's not an obscure theory.

I'm speculating about the whiz-bang fancy new sights they added after WW2 are to blame because they can be fiddled with.

I've seen people pull the peep all the way to the longest range setting because it sets higher and that makes them easier to see without squishing your cheek down on the stock.

But that also means your shot is going to go high at close ranges.

This adjustment isn't present on the original rear sight.  You get two settings, just like the M16A1.

Then there's the windage adjustment knob.  Get a bored soldier playing with that and forgetting where it was when zeroed and you're missing to one side or the other.

I figured this out on my own because the German winter gear isn't significantly thinner than the Chinese stuff and the Carbine was well regarded enough to retain in service and keep developing after WW2...