AR A2 sight is crooked

[BowStreetRunner]

Folks,
The rear sight on my A2 AR cants slightly to the left. If I crank up the elevation knob all the way up it straightens out because the wings of the sight then fit slush against the carry handle. Is there anything I can do to fix the canting of the sight?
Thanks,
BSR

 

[Onmilo]

If the sight is taper pinned the only option is to return the rifle to the manufacturer for repair.

If the front sight is secured with screws you can loosen them and re-center the front sight, then drill new detents on the barrel for the screws to lock into.

 

[Zullo74]

He said REAR sight!

It can be shimmed or pinned. They all do it to a degree if not pinned or shimmed. It's normal, and nothing to worry about.

 

[Onmilo]

Yeah, so he did, duh.

 

[david_the_greek]

mine is twisted off alittle to one side aswell. I took it to a "smith days" event at a local gun range (smith and wesson brings lots of guns and lets you shoot them as long as you buy the ammo, AMAZING FUN!) and they said it was normal. they tightened everything up on the rearsite and it is still alittle off. THEY said it was of no concern. I'll take their word mainly because I'm not willing to do anything about it.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

That is normal because of the way the sight is designed. You can shim it if it bothers you; but it doesn't affect practical use.

 

[nplant]

If it REALLY bugs you, you can fix it. Steve Wagner's site has an instruction on how. Seems like too much to bother with, personally, but then again, if you're an accuracy nut, more power to you.

Here's the site

And here's the tutorial I mentioned

 

[hksw]

Folks,
The rear sight on my A2 AR cants slightly to the left. If I crank up the elevation knob all the way up it straightens out because the wings of the sight then fit slush against the carry handle. Is there anything I can do to fix the canting of the sight?
Thanks,
BSR

If you mean viewing the rear sight fron the top, then this is normal as others have mentioned. The reason for this is that the rear sight has a generous amount of clearance with the carry handle to allow for manufacturing tolerances and allow the entire sight assembly to freely move during adjustments. The problem with this is that if left untensioned, the sight would loosely move around when the rifle is being handled, aimed, carried, etc. To keep the sight immobile, particularly when aiming, a spring loaded ball bearing is incorporated into the left lower front of the rear sight assembly. This ball bearing will apply pressure against the carry handle and keep the sight steady. It is part of the design.

If the rear sight is canted as seen from the rear of the rifle, something is wrong with the sight or its mating hole in the handle.

 

[Blackfork]

Some sight bases.

Some sight bases- commercial CMP/DCM gun bases have a bump on the front to take the twist off.
I don't think it matters much, as long as it stays the same. I haven't had a problem shooting with any one of three CMP AR15s that I have at any distance from 200 to 600.
I wouldn't fool with it. Now the FRONT sight base.....THOSE we adjust.