Help needed; problem with friend's Spanish FR-8

[Finn45]

Friend of mine needs some advice and I'm not able to help. He has Mauser FR-8 (pics) in pretty good shape except that front sight assembly is clearly tilted to the right. He's having goofy results when adjusting the sights and it varies also if gun is straight or if front sight is straight After looking through various sites, surplusrifles and other, I was not able to find info about the front sight assembly (except front sight post modifications and such), so I was wondering if someone has experience on these... He already tried to turn the sight on the barrel but it won't move too easily. Should he just find more solid torque and bigger hammer or...?

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/5417/fr8003mediumfw9.jpg

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4512/fr8005mediumsx2.jpg

He's shooting cast in it btw, so this is strictly on topic :-D .

[StarMetal]

Finn,

he front sight is a pointed post, much like the original AR-15 sights. The interesting thing about the front sight is that it is eccentric in nature, that is, as you screw it up or down it also moves left or right. The post is off set to one side of the thread of the screw. A special tool is needed to adjust it.

With that said I can tell you the front sight is from Cetme. Cetme and the Germans joined to help built their Cetme semi-auto rifle and that program was in full production whent they came up with the idea to built that FR-8 rifle, thus some parts for the assault rifle.

I'm not sure how the sight is attached, but I wouldn't go pounding on it until your friend figures out how it is attached.

The first paragraph here probably explained the goofy result of trying to adjust the front sight since the little bar, blade, pointer, whatever you call it, isn't centered on the screw, so unless you turn it one completer turn up or down, you adjustment will not only change the height, but also the windage.

Hope that helps some.

Joe

[Finn45]

Thanks Joe. By goofy results I meant that tilted front sight puts the sight line on the side, not directly above the bore; it needs to be adjusted not only for elevation, but also side ways so that sight line and bore line are crossing from sighting distance, this way it has only one windage zero distance. Now when he shoots a group holding the rifle straight (front sight tilted) he gets one POI and when he turns the rifle to the left (front sight turning to the left standing straight now) the POI actually moves to the left, so for me it's a bit goofy although understandable due to the sight geometry. So if anybody knows the front sight fitting system... I was thinking that it's normal heat fitting but don't know for sure. Have to check the barrel to action joint also.

[junkbug]

Finn45;

I had an Enfield No5Mk1 (Jungle Carbine) with the same problem. Took it to a gunsmith, he measured the headspace and determined that while it was safe, it was also loose enough to allow for a slight amount of clockwise rotation of the entire barrel, lining the front sight up perfectly.

On that rifle, the front sight is held on with two pins; rotating the sight assembly alone was impractical. Evidently that entire barrel turning operation is a regular gunsmith's trick.

Take care.

Sean

[Larry Gibson]

Thanks Joe. By goofy results I meant that tilted front sight puts the sight line on the side, not directly above the bore; it needs to be adjusted not only for elevation, but also side ways so that sight line and bore line are crossing from sighting distance, this way it has only one windage zero distance. Now when he shoots a group holding the rifle straight (front sight tilted) he gets one POI and when he turns the rifle to the left (front sight turning to the left standing straight now) the POI actually moves to the left, so for me it's a bit goofy although understandable due to the sight geometry. So if anybody knows the front sight fitting system... I was thinking that it's normal heat fitting but don't know for sure. Have to check the barrel to action joint also.

I had the same problem with my FR8. The front sight housing is pinned and soldered to the barrel. I removed the pin and heated the housing around the barrel with a propane torch just enough to break the solder loose. The housing was then quickly turned to a true vertical position and the solder was allowed to reset. A small taper pin reamer was used to ream the pin hole and a new roll pin was put in. That essentially fixed the problem.

However I have never been fond of the Cetme/G1 sight picture or rear sight so I ended up removeing the entire rear sight and mounting a Lyman SME 57. The Cetme front sight assembly was removed along with the flash suppressor. I replaced that with an M14 flash suppressor. I have also turned the barrel down so the SA scout mount fits the barrel. The handguard is inletted and a Burris (EOTech also works extremely well) 1 1/2X scout scope is mounted. This set up comes as close to Cooper's "scout" rifle as possible except for the weight. My intention was to shoot out the 7.62 barrel and make a sporter .358 Winchester out of it. But alas it works so well as is I will probably rebarrel to 7.62 again and leave it in military trim. It is a compact, accurate rifle that is hell for stout.

Larry Gibson

[Finn45]

Excellent. He's planning to take the rifle to a gunsmith (good decision), but hints about head spacing, soldering and pinning might come handy because not too many smiths around here are familiar with these things. Could be nasty surprise to find possible pinning after turning the assembly. Thank you.