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How to remove front sight?

4K views 23 replies 11 participants last post by  Poor_Dog 
#1 ·
I wacked it pretty good several times with my nylon hammer and it won't budge. Am I going to have to heat it to get it off? Mini 30 straight barrel, 581 series, tri-lobe front sight, .651 or so barrel.
 
#2 ·
Heres how I have got a few off with no more then 6 whacks and as little as 3 whacks with a hammer and hard wood block. Those sights are pressed on, some pressed pretty good.

I got small cheap styrofoam ice chest and poked a hole in the side a few inches off the bottom just big enough to get the barrel and front sight through. Put the barrel into the ice chest along with some dry ice, get the dry ice under, around and on top of the barrel/front sight. Leave it overnight. when you are ready pull the barrel/front sight out of the dry ice. I chucked mine in a vice with some wood blocks. Heat only the front sight with a small propane torch around ten seconds all around the sight. Take a block of hard wood and a hammer and knock it right off.

Reversing this will let you put a front sight back on pretty easy. Freeze the barrel and heat the sight. I have used the hot cold method for all kind of press fit applications.
 
#3 ·
I have posted this at least twice in the past but will do again. Disassemble rifle completely. Tape up the front sight and barrel with blue 3M tape to prevent marrs and using appropriate size punch, hammer, and hardwood block drive roll pin out a few taps at a time. Remove tape. Saturate front sight/barrel overnight with PB Blast penetrating solvent. Use thick nylon vice pads and secure barrel in vice grip as close to sight as possible (barrel vertical with sight down if your vice allows). Heat sight with heat gun on high for 10-15 minutes. Take dry ice and wrap in towel and place on barrel right behind sight for 5 minutes. Take hardwood block place on top of sight and begin to drive off with hammer. Rinse and repeat. Remember the sight is a press fit and will require substantial force to remove in some cases.
 
#6 ·
Dry ice: Try Baskin & Robbins ice cream shops. I remember they were selling it for Halloween parties. Maybe it is seasonal.
 
#7 ·
Are you sure you hit it hard enough?



Assuming you had the barrel clamped solidly and smacked it like you were driving a big nail. Get a fresh hacksaw blade in the saw and start cutting parallel to the barrel even with the bore center line. Be careful and slow and before you finish your cut through to the barrel it will free up and tap it off. But the home cryo barrel conditioning does sound like it would work but the whole metallurgy thing , heating or freezing had me a little uneasy so I cut mine.
Let us know how it goes, are you going to shorten the barrel and crown it as well?
 
#14 ·
So glad I got one of these at Lowes. I used my old one completely up but it was a manual strike type.



If you don't have one of these little torches you should. I mostly use it on my old vehicle restore work and it really comes in handy for un-seizing things that have seized.

A couple minutes with the little torch, put an old tshirt under it, 4 or 5 wacks with the nylon hammer and it popped right off. There was a brownish looking residue under it. I don't know whether that was just rust or some form of loctite.

Should I consider cutting down my barrel and if so why? This is a straight barrel 581 series gun. I was just going to have a brake fitted for a slip on fit over my front sight although I have no need for the front sight. If the Mo company would make a no sight brake for the mini-30 in my size I would buy one.
 
#15 ·
So glad I got one of these at Lowes. I used my old one completely up but it was a manual strike type.



If you don't have one of these little torches you should. I mostly use it on my old vehicle restore work and it really comes in handy for un-seizing things that have seized.

A couple minutes with the little torch, put an old tshirt under it, 4 or 5 wacks with the nylon hammer and it popped right off. There was a brownish looking residue under it. I don't know whether that was just rust or some form of loctite.

Should I consider cutting down my barrel and if so why? This is a straight barrel 581 series gun. I was just going to have a brake fitted for a slip on fit over my front sight although I have no need for the front sight.
Hottarod, if you have no need for the front sight I'll take it off your hands and pay shipping.
 
#16 ·
Heat from a hair Dyer was enough for mine. I soaked it with PB Blaster for a couple hours, Then tried without heat - no joy. Then Just kept the blow dryer on high and moved it around the sight for 5-10 minutes. A few more good whacks and it started to move. Still took a while to get it off. It was really tight the whole way, but once it started to move the progress was steady. I was using a heavy hammer (probably 24 oz, but I'm not sure). The gun was in a vise, and I was striking the wood with sharp, solid blows. Not all out swings, but not too far from it.

The dry ice routine would probably make it a lot easier, but at least for me it was possible without it.

If you use a torch, be careful - too much heat here can be a bad thing.
 
#18 ·
I had a hell of a time getting mine off. I finally just filled a jar with PB Blaster and put the whole tip of the barrel in the jar, submerging the front sight for 36 hrs. After that the thing popped right off with just three firm hits with a wood block. It's not even worth trying to get the thing off until you have soaked it in my opinion.
 
#19 ·
I presume all the guns have the blued steel front sight including the stainless which mine is. I noticed a brownish residue under the front sight all the way around the barrel. This could very well be a small coating of rust so the peanut butter, lol(what I call PBlaster) probably does help free it up.
 
#21 ·
I may be a little late but I wanted to share my experience. Last night I went to remove my front sight on my 195. With the rifle completely broken down, I easily removed the roll pin. I then put the receiver in a wood clamp and secured the wood clamp into my bench vise. I heated the front sight with a torch for about 30-45 seconds all around. I then used a 1/2" brass punch right at the base of the ramp. 4-5 hits with a mid-size brass hammer on the punch is all it took to get the sight off.

I cleaned up the barrel under the sight and it is now waiting for a mo-reaper to get here hopefully Monday.
 
#22 ·
heat it up and spray penetrator on it. make sure you've drifted the roll pin out first.
my M30 took some tapping, heat and lube but it came off. must be heat-shrinked on.
be sure to use emery cloth to clean up the o.d. before you attempt to place the new sight on.
 
#23 ·
I put my poor little sight through the ringer during removal.

I rapped on it repeatedly with a mallet and dowel, clamped and twisted, heated, cut a relief groove, and FINALLY shot it with PB Blaster for a couple days before it decided to give up the grip.

What I thought would be an easy job, became a quite the challenge. But hey - I got it.

This is what 'used & abused' looks like:

EDIT: I whapped the relief groove with a cold chisel as well.

 
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