M1 carbine sight problem......

[3006guns]

I just purchased a very nice M1 carbine clone made by IAI in Houston Texas. This is the same quality as Auto Ordnance as far as parkerizing, fit and finish. You couldn't ask for a more "G.I." gun. After I got it home though I discovered a problem.....

I noticed the front sight seemed to be leaning when I looked through the peep. I turned it around and sure enough, it looks like the barrel was clocked in a little past center. As a result, the pin on the barrel that determines the front sight position is leaning.......and consequently so is the sight. I haven't fired the gun yet.......who knows, it might be just fine. Just slipshod quality control.

Now I bought this gun from a friend and I like it, but I'd have to pull it apart, remove the barrel and perhaps knurl the shoulder then reinstall it. Then I'd have to HOPE I didn't screw up the headspace since I don't have any guages.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[williamwaco]

Can you take it back and complain?

[bruce drake]

http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_iai.html

IAI is no longer in business for any warranty repair but the weblink above give a lot of detail on the various versions of IAI Carbines.

Bruce

[3006guns]

Bruce, thank you for the link...very interesting. Looks like I have one in the "good" serial number range as far as receiver quality.

williamwaco, I suppose I could but I like the gun and got a deal on it. My friend is moving to Costa Rica in a couple of years and found out he can't take "military grade" firearms down there, so he's slowly downsizing. He told me he put about 50-100 rounds through it and didn't say anything about accuracy problems, so it might be o.k. the way it is. I'll find out next time I visit the range.

[RG1911]

I just purchased a very nice M1 carbine clone made by IAI in Houston Texas. This is the same quality as Auto Ordnance as far as parkerizing, fit and finish. You couldn't ask for a more "G.I." gun. After I got it home though I discovered a problem.....

I noticed the front sight seemed to be leaning when I looked through the peep...

Does anyone have any other ideas?
I do quite a bit of work on my various carbines and ran into that problem with one of them. My solution was to cut a donut-shaped shim from very thin stainless steel stock. I stongly suspect that brass stock would work as well, but I had the steel on hand.

I'll go into further detail if you'd like to try this. It's really quite simple. Although it would make life easier if you have a barrel and action wrench.

Or, I'll be glad to buy it since it's an excellent clone and I don't have one in my collection.

Cheers,
Richard

[Mooseman]

I suggest you either look very closely at the alignment or have a qualified gunsmith look at it. If the Barrel is overclocked, The gas piston block and the slide grooves wouldnt be in line for proper function. If they are in line , then the front sight key machining was off when the barrel was made. If that is the case, you dont want to rotate the barrel, the front sight groove would need to be recut /repaired.
If it truly is the barrel over clocked, sometimes it can be just brought back in line and it will be fine, with just slightly less torque, and headspace wont be affected enough to matter(.001 or less). Most barrels have an Index mark on the bottom that should line up with the index mark on the receiver, but IDK about This particular brand since I mainly rebuild or repair USGI guns from WW2. Because of the thin receiver on the carbine, excessive barrel torque is not recommended.10 to 30 ft pounds is sufficient.
Rich