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Canted Front Sight


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Greetings. I own a STG 2000, had it for a year and half now and its a great shooter:

 

 

STG2000.jpg

 

Got about 600 rounds through it with no problems, but since day one I've had to push the front sight almost all the way over to the left to zero it. I assumed this was the loose tolerance deal we all hear about with AK's, and decided I could live with it. However, this cant has caused some problems lately when adding a red dot and trying to get it sighted in, as I have to compensate for the off-center irons with the optic too.

 

So now, I would like to address this issue. A local (Atlanta area) gunsmith has quoted me a $75-$100 fee to fix the cant. If possible I would try to do it myself but I have no access to shop tools and don't own a vise, just hand tools and power tools. Can the cant be corrected without drilling the pins out? Is it just trial and error as far as lining the front sight up correctly? Is it a fair price from the smith to fix this?

 

I would appreciate any ideas you folks might have...

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I had the same issue with my Saiga. Since my sight block was pressed on, I was able to move it slightly but enough to be able to center it. I took some penetrant oil like "Kroil" and liberaly sprayed it on the sight block and let it sit overnight. Kroil is really good in penetrating and we use it alot on the aircraft industry. I then wrapped the barrel and sight block with rags and used 2 large pipe wrenches for leverage using opposing pressure. It actually worked after a couple of tries, but I still wound up marring the paint a bit. Some black BBQ spray paint took care of that though.

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Yep, a good soaking and some blows with a rubber mallet might be enough. The pins holding the FSB on are pretty soft steel, you should be able to get it to move enough to correct some of the cant without removing anything.

 

The right way to do it is punch out the pins, correct the cant, and then use a rat-tail file to adjust the holes if needed and put the pins back in. They will expand slightly to fill the new holes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My sons saiga had a canted gas block and sight. We drove out the factory pins with the correct size punch. They are tight.

 

After that we tapped the gas block with a dead blow hammer till it was straight and the sight was good. Then I redrilled the holes and reinserted the factory pins. Good to go.

 

At the range the gun functioned perfectly and the sights were dead on.

 

Good luck, Castalia

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  • 2 months later...

If you are going to go through the effort to correct cant, at least try driving the pins out first. It's the right way and puts less stress on the barrel, plus gives you as much play as you need.

 

With the pins out the FSB should still be a very tight fit, you can adjust with a rubber mallet, take it to the range, and adjust again if needed. Once it's perfect, drill or file and repin.

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I did re-install the pin's and the front one is about the same. I pretty much pushed it out by hand the first time and the rearward pin is looser now that the sight is strait. I'm sure i need to find something that fit's tighter or there gonna part company with the sight in short order.

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