M1 Carbine front sight help

[Guest jcramin]

OK SO is there a trick to putting on the front sight on a M1 Carbine ?

I have the 3 pieces but Ive worked for an hour and I cant get the pin in.

Thanks,

J

[Garufa]

Is the hole in the sight aligned with the groove in the sight key? Can you see through it without obstruction?

Is this a new front sight, key and pin? How did you get in this predicament?

Edited July 19, 2009 by Garufa

[Guest jcramin]

Yes it is a new sight and pin and key. The problem seems to be the key is too tall and sitting to high so the pin wont go thru, thats if I am putting it all in right. the way I am putting it on is, im putting the key in the groove with the notch open upwards then sliding the sight on but the key sits high so the bottom of the notch covers the lower part of the hole so the pin wont go thru. If that all makes sense.

What started this all is, the M1 was my dads he had a nice custom wood stock hand made for it 50 years ago. He gave it to me many years ago and I now gave it to my son. Well my son wanted a new stock because he wants to shoot and hunt with the gun but does not want to ruin the hand made wood stock. When the stock was made 50 years ago the original front sight was taken off and a nice hand made sight put on. Well we decided to go back with a regular front sight so I bought the new pieces.

[Garufa]

Maybe you could file out the notch in the key a little? Hard to do without a nice round file though.

Maybe you could sand or file down the entire bottom of the key to bring the whole thing down a little.

The sight key is there to line up the front sight and keep it in that position. The pin holds it in place. In other words if you had to shave a little off the bottom it will still do it's job.

[Guest jcramin]

Ive tried shaving the notch and the bottom and now the key and the sight even wiggle. and it still wont go in. I am wondering if I am putting it in right I know the barrel was re-blued. I wonder if the notch in the barrel where the key sets in may be filled a little bit.