Romanian M69 Front Sight Removal

[delsestr]

Hi Folks
I have a Romanian 1969 .22 Training Rifle that someone used a rough hand to remove the front sight hood.
Chisel marks and partially drilled out hood rivets.
I want to remove the entire front sight sleeve from the muzzle First impression says it's soldered like the Mauser sights. Some info on some forums speculate they are heat-shrunk onto the muzzle like heat shrink wire wraps.
I removed the cross pin and did some preliminary torch heating to test both theories, but no luck so far.
Before I get a heavier hand, does Anyone have any real knowledge of how these sights were fitted?
Any help appreciated! - Ron

[Artful]

When I had mine removed and put back I was told it was indeed heated and put on.
I had mine moved back to have the barrel threaded. On of my favorite 22's -
Feed it CCI quiet and it sounds like you have a suppressor on - put the suppressor on and
it's quieter than my air gun.

[delsestr]

Thanks Artful. That supports the idea of "heat shrink" without some form of adhesive or solder.
I'm looking forward to putting this rifle together - some bedding, stock refinishing (looked like the abandoned orphan when I got it.)
Ron

[delsestr]

Good Morning folks -
Am new here, so if the following is too much drivel, please let me know. Hope this is a good, active forum to share ideas, successes, and failures.

Got the front sight assembly removed from the barrel.
Heated it w/ propane torch and used a large brass rod to pound from the rear of the sight ramp. Not exactly the results I want as it did round the rear corners of the ramp. Had to reheat about 4 times during the drifting process.
Posted a picture so you can see the milled section of the muzzle and the removed sight. You can see where the hood had been removed by drilling/chiseling the hood rivets. You can also see there is no solder used in the original mounting.
I removed the sight post and cross pin prior to starting.
Interesting - seems to be a slight brass color on the barrel toward the rear of the sight mount area, and also a groove milled right at the back edge. A compression groove?

Given the beating this took, I need to find a better removal method. I want to pull a good, fully assembled sight from another barrel to put on this barrel (this matched the Receiver serial #). Don't want to damage it's rear corners in the removal process. Not sure how the hood would hold up to the heat either. For now, will replace the original barrel w/ the one w/ good sight.

Archer - did the person who removed your sight say how he removed it? Was it done w/o damage?
If I do again, I think I'd try making some form of molded clamp to grab the sight - immediately after heating - to twist the sight off rather than pound from the rear.

All comments, ideas appreciated. Ron131554

[Artful]

I didn't ask Joey the how or to watch
- once I found out he'd done it before I just left it in his hands.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/rowdyfisk/FAL/th_Romanian196922LR.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/rowdyfisk/media/FAL/Romanian196922LR.jpg.html)

I did watch this kind of thing done once and the smith put dry ice in the barrel and then heated the barrel sleeve with map gas and once it turned by hand (with a rag for insulation) he just slide it forward to lesser diameter of the barrel to cool for removal.

[delsestr]

Makes perfect sense - contract the size of the barrel while expanding the size of the sight sleeve.
My heating both just expanded both.
Thank you!

[delsestr]

Since this is a pet project - not a restoration project - I decided to maintain the original barrel and refurbish/reinstall the front sight that I hacked a couple days ago. Since it started with no M69 Hood -- which is very scarce - I chose to rework it w/ a regular Mauser 98 style hood.
Cleaned up all the prior chisel marks, the remaining hood pin, some buffing, cold blued, etc.
For reinstallation of the sleeve, the cold barrel and flash heated sight sleeve approach worked well to slip it on.
Cut a shallow dished groove on each side for the hood, then installed the hood.
Attaching a pic --
I hope it's a little less offensive to your senses now!
131862

[Geezer in NH]

I would use a rose bud ox/ac tip and a heavy hammer heat and one blow it will be off. Don't heat enough to form scale in the bore.