Ok, usually I encounter the dreaded canted front sight. But I recently got an Egyptian ARM and it is the rear sight that is canted. Did my best to photograph the problem, the front sight seems to be straight and in the 12 o’clock position.
When I hold the rifle correctly, the rear sight seems to be at 11 o’clock. I was told that I could simply move it over with a hammer, but before I screw up an otherwise nice rifle I wanted to run that past some people who are more knowledgeable than I am when it comes to AKs.
If it’s the sight itself, you might just pop it out, have a look at the spring, straighten/replace, and re-install.
If your whole rear sight block is canted… well you can take it apart and re-install, or just cant the front sight to match and go gangsta. You’re not going to hammer that one straight.
Hmmm. When I’ve run into this, it was because the rsb was canted by the “ears” of the front trunnion in a milled receiver build. This was because I had improperly given clearance on the ears to open them up for the larger milled gun rsb, but that’s something that’s too long to explain here.
Anyway, the fix for this (if it’s what I think it is) is not simple. It could be that the trunnion itself is misaligned with the receiver, or that the barrel channel in the trunnion is not concentric. Either of these could cause what you’re seeing. As could a barrel that’s bent closer to the chamber end.
Use a flashlight to shine into the chamber, and look down the bore. Is the barrel straight as far as you can tell? If so, it could be that the front trunnion barrel hole is not concentric or is riveted into the receiver misaligned, which would be darn near impossible to fix without a new trunnion and / or rebuild. The gun may still shoot just fine, but this is one of those things that can bother folks that like their weapons to look “right”. More pics would help, of course. I’m not certain that my hypothesis is correct, so any additional info would be good.
Just press a regular screw driver ahead to the sight to relieve the tension on it and then wiggle it loose. You can see where the hole is larger towards the front of the rifle.
There are a bunch of youtube vids that show it.
Determining if it’s the RSB or the sight leaf is easy. Without a mag just place it sitting up on a table and see if the sides of the RSB are straight.
I had this happen during a build that I didn’t properly support the rsb block when I was either riveting the trunion to the receiver or pressing out the barrel pin when I was demilling the kit (I can’t remember which event). The crappy jig work let the block press up against my press’ base and it canted the sight/block.
I corrected it with blows from a rubber mallet after I secured the riveted receiver in a vice. Make sure to take the sight leaf off.
I’m guessing this is what happened with this gun. Is it a kit build?
upon looking at the pics and actually comprehending the OP (it’s not a kit build), I’m conflicted as to how you would correct this. Maadi ARMs with the orginal receiver are as close to getting a soviet akm as any of us will ever be. Whatever you do, do not grind off a rivet to correct it. If you fix it with a hammer, be careful. If it were me, I would leave it alone and put that baby in a locked display cabinet visible to everyone that would come to my house, not caring if it would prevent me from getting laid the rest of my life.
He’s the one who suggested I correct with a mallet. I wanted to make sure that was the best course of action before I attempted it. I’m also trying to fix it locally if I can, Troy didn’t offer to correct it and even if he did I’d like to avoid two way shipping if possible.
To my eye, it appears as though the barrel hole in the trunnion is not concentric or the trunnion is riveted in out of alignment. If you notice, the entire front end appears to cant to the right. Rsb and all. It should shoot fine, but will look a little wonky. Don’t think mallet therapy will help here, but that’s just one guy’s opinion on the Interwebs.
I see it, too. The two rivet heads don’t appear to line up. Good catch. The shadow on the right side of the rifle makes it difficult to make out the rivet alignment, but you’re right.
Ok, so I’m thinking about putting the rifle in a vice with wood blocks to protect it from the vice jaws and putting a wooden dowel against the left side of the rear sight block and giving it a few whacks with a rubber mallet to try and rotate it up to a more correct 12 o’clock position.
Is everyone in agreement that this is the best course of action? I don’t want to fubar this rifle.
