AK canted front sight post

Sunny

Sunny

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Just acquired a Romanian SAR1 and I read about the canted sight online beforehand (hoping before the sale that the sights would be fine). Nope, misaligned, but not bad at all. The post is less than 1 degree off to the right, but it's there and it's driving me crazy. The front sight itself is fine but it's adjusted to compensate for the off-center post.

What are the steps needed to fix this? Better to do it myself or professionally?

This is the best pic I could take that demonstrates the offset
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nOnOC0vj40yqMmPy2
 
My WASR is like that.

Once I realized it had nothing but aesthetic significance, I stopped caring. It’s an AK, not a Purdey. If I’d paid post-Maura prices for mine I might feel worse, but it’s still just an AK. It’ll go bang.

You can bring it on target, right?
 
My WASR is like that too. The sight post is pushed all the way to one side to compensate. I pushed it over to the side by beating it on a bench at the range. Rifle is fine.
 
Suneil, That's not bad at all and well within battle tolerances. If you are anal, it can be fixed. You will find a dizzying amount of info on this at YouTube if it is still up.
If not, that's a shame...

Hey. Whatdoyouknow. There are still some vids. fixing a canted wasr barrel - YouTube

AmzVFOmhm5IxkHc3eI2T5MN-0q-1CxrcHp9UVlJVCEElysJ8MH8SNuQRc1mPZLEwYdw9NZ8GxP7VJUBxwFAefRJ0P_J71og8ltTkzNE7wt8u0fvn_-ucYJmJufisYWOCthMD1LZ7hA=w436-h581-no


God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference...
 
Last edited:
mikelawtown said:
[smile]That's why you have an adjustable front sight.
Click to expand...

Most of the canted guns are f***ed up so badly though that adjusting the front is not going to work. Plus it looks like shit with the sight smashed all the way over to
one side...

-Mike
 
rocket500 said:
My WASR is like that too. The sight post is pushed all the way to one side to compensate. I pushed it over to the side by beating it on a bench at the range. Rifle is fine.
Click to expand...
I bought a norinco sks that had a tweaked front sight. Rubber mallet on a wooden bench fixed that with about 5 whacks. I can get a paper plate sized group centered at 100 yards standing off hand. Good nuf for a $385 rifle. The gun is fine it's 7.62 x 39 for Christs sake.......it ain't designed to thread a needle at 400 yards and I got what I paid for.
 
whacko said:
I bought a norinco sks that had a tweaked front sight. Rubber mallet on a wooden bench fixed that with about 5 whacks. I can get a paper plate sized group centered at 100 yards standing off hand. Good nuf for a $385 rifle. The gun is fine it's 7.62 x 39 for Christs sake.......it ain't designed to thread a needle at 400 yards and I got what I paid for.
Click to expand...

No it's not, but if you have a rifle that is grouping like 6 in off to one side at 100 yards, the sight is probably f***ed up just a tad... [laugh]

The MISR-90 I had, my gunsmith couldn't just bang it back, so he actually had tapped out some holes for a set of hex key adjustment screws on both sides... so you could loosen it up, set it, lock it back down... that's how far that one was off. I think he tried to redo the drift pins or whatever they are but he either didnt have the
parts or something. At least the rifle was usable when I got it back... instead of going like 6+ inches off.

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
No it's not, but if you have a rifle that is grouping like 6 in off to one side at 100 yards, the sight is probably f***ed up just a tad... [laugh]

The MISR-90 I had, my gunsmith couldn't just bang it back, so he actually had tapped out some holes for a set of hex key adjustment screws on both sides... so you could loosen it up, set it, lock it back down... that's how far that one was off. I think he tried to redo the drift pins or whatever they are but he either didnt have the
parts or something. At least the rifle was usable when I got it back... instead of going like 6+ inches off.

-Mike
Click to expand...
If you read my post it says paper plate sized group CENTERED at 100 yards. When I first got the rifle it grouped way to the left. A few minutes with a hammer and it was centered. One whack......test it.....not enough whack.....hit it again......test it......about 5 whacks and it was centered. That was standing off hand....if i benchedit im sure it woukd be much better. That IS good nuf for a 7.62x39 that cost me $385.
 
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4751081.jpg


main-qimg-81ba13d39072b0616097974c9216f796


honestly, it doesn't look too bad, I've seen worse and generally fixing them is more trouble than it's worth if the rest of the rifle isn't that great. I can see how it could be annoying though, but not all guns will need to be perfect.
 
If your seeing 1' canted sight your most likely not going to notice or accept a fix?

The easy fix. I did was to remove the sight base pin/s
Remove front sight drill and tap for set screws on the bottom.
Center front sight post, reinstall sight and bring to range and get a rough windage zero by moving sight base. Tighten set screw and then drill out base pins to slightly larger size.
Another way is to remove pins bring to range get a rough zero then apply loctite 603 which will wick and hold the front sight base well. Did this to 2 10/63 one we left alone with out installing the base pins and it's still holding strong. The other one hole was refitted with a larger pin.

Note: the sights we fixed where cante d had enough that the sight post was maxed out and still needed about 6+ moa to center the groups
 
whacko said:
I bought a norinco sks that had a tweaked front sight. Rubber mallet on a wooden bench fixed that with about 5 whacks. I can get a paper plate sized group centered at 100 yards standing off hand. Good nuf for a $385 rifle. The gun is fine it's 7.62 x 39 for Christs sake.......it ain't designed to thread a needle at 400 yards and I got what I paid for.
Click to expand...
did you force the front sight base to move or drift the front post adjusting block.
 
mac1911 said:
did you force the front sight base to move or drift the front post adjusting block.
Click to expand...
Sight base was actually twisted on the barrel. Made the front post canted a tad and off to the side. Lookes to have been dropped HARD by the previous owner. Works the balls now though. I actually like that rifle.
 
Last edited:
whacko said:
If you read my post it says paper plate sized group CENTERED at 100 yards. When I first got the rifle it grouped way to the left. A few minutes with a hammer and it was centered. One whack......test it.....not enough whack.....hit it again......test it......about 5 whacks and it was centered. That was standing off hand....if i benchedit im sure it woukd be much better. That IS good nuf for a 7.62x39 that cost me $385.
Click to expand...

I read your post and in your case it was fine.... sorry for my shitty reply, but what I was trying to say is most people aren't that lucky.

A lot of them can be fixed by ramming them all the way over (or nearly all the way) to one side or the other, but the point I'm trying to make,
is on a lot of the really bad ones... (and there were tons of $259 monkey f***er special WASR-10s from 04 etc that were like this, eg, like 75% of them, lmao) that won't be nearly enough to fix it.

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
I read your post and in your case it was fine.... sorry for my shitty reply, but what I was trying to say is most people aren't that lucky.

A lot of them can be fixed by ramming them all the way over (or nearly all the way) to one side or the other, but the point I'm trying to make,
is on a lot of the really bad ones... (and there were tons of $259 monkey f***er special WASR-10s from 04 etc that were like this, eg, like 75% of them, lmao) that won't be nearly enough to fix it.

-Mike
Click to expand...
That's about the time frame I had to fix the few I did. No adjustment left and still 6-8" off even at 25 yards.
Also consider the front sight base itself could be off.
I replaced a front sight base because the sight "tower" was not square with the barrel hole and pins.
Sometimes though when you just have a,little "f***s with your eyes" cant you can vise up the barrel place a prybar into the "hole" on the sight base and give it a little push.
There's a good amount of correction on the AK about 20moa windage and a mile of elevation.
 
Ok so the sight block is now exactly where I want it to be. Unfortunately, the block fitting over the barrel is a little too loose for my liking. It still needs a moderate wack to move it, but just worried if it were to move by dropping or transporting or something. Is there any way to weld the block to the barrel so it's a permanent fixture? Would Locktite do the trick? Or how about sodering?
 
SKumar said:
Ok so the sight block is now exactly where I want it to be. Unfortunately, the block fitting over the barrel is a little too loose for my liking. It still needs a moderate wack to move it, but just worried if it were to move by dropping or transporting or something. Is there any way to weld the block to the barrel so it's a permanent fixture? Would Locktite do the trick? Or how about sodering?
Click to expand...
Epoxy
 
SKumar said:
Ok so the sight block is now exactly where I want it to be. Unfortunately, the block fitting over the barrel is a little too loose for my liking. It still needs a moderate wack to move it, but just worried if it were to move by dropping or transporting or something. Is there any way to weld the block to the barrel so it's a permanent fixture? Would Locktite do the trick? Or how about sodering?
Click to expand...

Yes both are possible, but If you think a 1 degree canted post drove you crazy, you'll lose your mind looking at a couple of welds or silver solder.

Take the gun to a smith and have him mill new pin holes and insert new pins. Go oversized if necessary.
 
stainless steel cone-tipped set screw with red loctite?
 

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