First SAR-1, Lots of Questions...

[Guyon]

Ordered an SAR-1 from AIM, and just picked it up today. Everything looks straight, and the finish is even a little better than I expected. It's my first AK, period, so now I have lots of questions.

1. I stripped the rifle down and reassembled it several times for the practice. Easy enough. One question though about reassembly. The final step in the manual states,"Release the hammer from the semiautomatic sear, and turn on the safety, rotating the selector level upward." Does this basically translate to "Pull the trigger and flip the safety on" ?

2. I have looked at several posts that mention stripping and refinishing the stocks. This is something I'd like to do. The butt stock looks easy enough to remove (two screws), but I'm not sure how to get the hand guard and forend off. It looks somewhat complicated, but I think I'd need to remove them in order to refinish them. Removing the wood would also make it possible to soak only the metal parts in kerosene and get all the cosmoline off. Can anyone help here?

3. If I can get everything disassembled, I may go ahead and do a little work on the metal finish. I don't want to bake anything on just yet. So can you recommend a good blue (with a deep black color) for touching up or deepening the metal finish?

4. The gas block and front site turret looks straight, but the actual sight post in the
turret is a little off center. Do I need a tool to adjust this if necessary?

5. As soon as I get it cleaned up, I'll get to the range. Any tips about firing it for the
first time? I'll be using Wolf FMJ.

Help on any of these questions will be appreciated.

 

[Halo]

After removing the bolt carrier and gas piston, take the gas tube off. Wrap a cloth around the rear end and grip the flat sides with channel lock pliers, then rotate the wood handguard (I think it is counter clockwise to remove). Reassembly is the opposite.

With the gas tube removed, you can see the top of the lower handguard. There is a small lever at the forward right side, flip it up and all the way forward. This releases the metal holder and allows it to slide forward. You can then pull the lower handguard off.

There is a sight adjustment tool for the AK and SKS, several places sell it. Here it is:

http://www.tapco.com/store/prodinfo.asp?number=TOOL0302&variation=&aitem=45&mitem=47&back=yes

 

[Noban]

I'll take a poke at a few of your questions. Regarding trigger release, just pull the trigger (empty chamber of course!) and snap the safety upwards. This is how it should be stored, as the safety lever is meant to keep debris from entering the receiver.

For refinishing the metal, Brownell's sells a number of metal refinishing products that should suit your needs.

There is a little doohickey you can buy from most gun supply outfits that is made to adjust the front sites on both the AK and SKS series. I think they run about $5.

You will have no problem removing the buttstock for refinishing. The front upper handguard can be a little tricky. It actually rotates out of the metal lips. It's a matter of getting a good grip and twisting it out. I've made that sound a little easier than it is, but once you do it two or three times, it makes sense.

Noban

 

[Poodleshooter]

4. You can order the tool, or use two small sockets and a 'C' clamp to push the sight windage drum from one side to the other. (small socket on the side that needs to be pushed, and a socket larger than the windage drum on the other side) It takes some force to "break the seal" and get the drum to move for the first time. I used my homemade method as you generally only need the thing once, and many of the cheaper tools break (not sure about TAPCO's).
5. Don't heat up your barrel too much. It cuts down on barrel life. Ammo is cheap, so use big strings to confirm your sight-in process. I sighted mine in with the "point blank" notch at 25 yds. I found that using Wolf ammo I could get hits at 25 using the point blank setting, 50yds using the 200yd setting, 100yds using the 100 setting and hits at 300 yds using the 400 setting. Let us know how your's shoots.