Canted AK sights... in general

M

MagnumWill

New member
After picking up my new Romanian RPK, I have been looking into canted front sights/trunnions/what have you, and what does one consider "canted"? Maybe 1/32 of an inch out, or totally bent to s***? Did I just happen to be one of the lucky few with a nice straight sight picture (the "dental floss" trick checks out).

Also, what are all these posts I've read about welded barrel nuts? Mine has nothing of the sort, the muzzlebrake can come right on and off in a snap- did they change the design recently?

Does anyone have any pictures of either of the two?
 
Sights can be canted only slightly, or bad enough you wonder how they got out of the factory.
Not all or even that many Romanian WASR rifles have canted sights or gas blocks but enough do to make inspection necessary.

Over the years, many imported AK's had to have either an un-threaded barrel or to have the nut welded on depending on the laws at that time..
Depending on when they were made the laws may have allowed the nut not to be welded and will just screw off.
 
My friend bought a new Arsenal AK for ~$900 a while back. We took it to the range and spent the next two hours trying to get it on paper. I finally told him to get it over to the 10 yard range and see where the heck it was hitting.

Turns out the front sight was so far off, it was almost hitting the target next to it. I think there was a recall on that particular model.
 
Wow! There had better been, for the price of an Arsenal. Just took mine to the range today...I'm actually more comfortable with it's accuracy over my old M44 :rolleyes:

Thanks guys! looks like I got lucky with my flash hiders too ;)
 
If it's visible, I fix them. Knock the pin out, heat the sight tube as needed aand move it forward or back far enough to get another bite of the barrel. Square up the sight, re-drill and re-pin.

Crooked sights or non-zeroable guns drive me nuts... can't tolerate them.
 
I never saw a WASR with canted sights, but Ive seen some pretty bad examples on the early SAR's. I have a SAR that has a front sght thats "slightly" out of kilter and if you look for it, you can see it. If you just shoot the gun, its not a problem, and the gun shoots fine.


I have an early WASR (looks like a SAR, not the newer WASR's). Its actually pretty nicely finished and the wood is decent. It does have a welded muzzle cap in place. I dont know if there are even any threads under it, and one reason I havent messed with it. My SAR has no cap, nor is the barrel threaded, so Im suspecting the WASR's barrel isnt either.

I also had an early Arsenal/Global Trades SSR-85C that had its slant brake welded in place. It was done poorly, and I was able to turn it off with a pipe wrench. Touched up the threads with a thread file and replaced the slant with an AK74 type.

The welded brakes and caps are from a time of the 94 ban, when you werent allowed to have flash hiders on the guns. Gins of that time either had no threads, or had something welded to them to keep the flash hider from being installed.

I have a couple of Armalite AR's from that time that came with brakes pinned and welded on (in the proper way) and they were a pain in the butt to get off. You had to find the weld, then figure out which way the pin was going, then you had to file it out. Glad all that foolishness is over with. :)
 
Had an EAA .223 AK clone (early Saiga type). Front sight so canted, full windage adjutment couldn't couldn't get me within 4inches of POA at 50yds. Cut off FSG with dremel and replaced with threaded Bulg FSG. Canted front sights shouldn't necessarily kill a good deal.
 
On my Saiga 223 (basically an AK47) the front sight is canted to the right a bit. I had to drift the sight to the left .060 from center. Not too bad. I’ve seen some that were so bad I’m sure it would be beyond any windage adjustments you could make. From what I read on the internet, mine is very typical.
 
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