M1 Carbine Help Needed

[Enfield47]

PM sent, thanks for the help!

[Enfield47]

I got the muzzle recrowned and refaced today. We were able to get most of the dents and dings off the muzzle and put a little bluing over the bare metal to help it blend in a little better.

I also discovered that the front sight had a slight bend to the right so we straightened that out too. There was a little play in the front sight so we put some green locktite on it to help snug it up. Hopefully this will fix my problems, I'm taking it out to the range tomorrow so I will know soon (fingers crossed).

I took a few pics that I'll try to post up tomorrow. It was a great learning experience for me, I have never done a recrowning before.

[triaged]

Well where are the pics and how did it shoot? That Oxpho-Blue is good stuff. Did the green loc-tite get in there enough to get the wiggle out of the front sight?

[Enfield47]

Sorry for the delay, I took the pics with my cell phone and I have been having problems getting them onto the computer without it downgrading them to a low resolution.

The fixes helped quite a bit and we were able to knock 5-6 inches off of it shooting to the left. I was able to make the adjustments with my rear sight and kept it in the black at 100 yards. I didn't test it at 50 yards on this trip so it might have been fully in the black if the target were closer.

The front sight probably has about 1 degree or less of tilt to the right that I am going to try to fix with a brass rod and hammer. It's almost impossible to see so I'll hit it a few times and see if that does the trick. The green loctite helped to eliminate most of the play but there is still a little play in the sight and that probably isn't helping things. Overall I'm very happy with what was done as it improved it immensely.

One thing that was really nice, in addition to getting a new crown, we also refaced the barrel. The got rid of the big dings the barrel had taken over the years and made it look a lot nicer. As a plus for me, this was a great learning experience since I had never done anything like this before.

Here is my carbine preparing for the recrowning.


We applied bearing grease, and the recrowning is underway. This process took just a few twists of the handle and was surprisingly easy to do.


Recrowning is complete.


To get the grease out of the barrel, we used Brakeclean and a bore snake. There was a small amount of chatter the cutter left on the crown (the barrel must be hardened or something because that isn't normal). To get rid of it we used valve lapping compound and the head of a brass flathead screw chucked in a drill. In no time at all the crown was nice and smooth.

Here is after the first pass of Refacing the barrel. The same type of cutter was used, just with a flat cutting attachment. This was after the grease had been removed so we could see the progress.


Barrel has now been refaced and we smoothed everything out using a rubbing compound and a small block of wood. For this process we plugged the barrel with paper towels to prevent the compound from getting down the barrel. Once complete, we removed the plug and thoroughly flushed the barrel with Brakeclean.


Here is better shot of the crown and barrel. Unfortunately it was taken after the range trip and before I cleaned it up but you can see how nicely it turned out.

[smle-man]

Wow! Great job.

[Enfield47]

Thanks, I was amazed at well it turned out.

[TRAP55]

http://www.northridgeinc.com/store/index.cfm/c128/i103

http://www.fulton-armory.com/frontsight.aspx

http://www.riverbankarmory.com/parts1.html

[Enfield47]

Is there away to tell if the front sight is loose because of a poor fit or if the base that holds it is worn?

[Sugarfoot47]

It might be the sight index key which you will see after you drift out the retaining pin and knock the front sight out towards the front. If you replace the sight, it might be a good idea to replace the key also.

[NorcalGSG]

I would just remove the sight, and center punch the sides of the front sight key to swell the width enough to tighten up the fit when you re-assemble. they are pretty soft steel.