damage to M1 Carbine receiver

[Gendaito]

My father recently gave me a M1 Carbine that he's had for a long time. I decided to take it apart and give it a good cleaning. I had some problems with the rear sight (late model, adjustable milled version), it was loose and it looked like there was some damage to the receiver.

I took it shooting this past weekend, and the rifle shot great. The only problem was that darn rear sight.

After cleaning it, I pushed the sight to the right in the dovetail, and moved it almost the whole way out. I decided to use my rubber mallet and gently nudged it out.

Upon inspection, it looks like the rear sight had been pinned/staked in some way, and then someone had tried to remove it, causing damage to the receiver.

Is this damage repairable? At this point, I'm thinking of putting the rear sight back in (or getting a early model version instead) and then, if it's loose, using locktite or something to hold it in place. I don't need it to be rock solid, but I would like it to hold a zero.

here's some pics. Any help would be appreciated, especially suggestions on how to repair or gunsmith recommendations.

 

[jrfoxx]

Well, I can't offer any help about repairing the receiver, or details on how the sight was factory attached, but I would think that a dab of JB weld under the sight would hold it in place once thru a fair bit of wear and tear.Shouldn't be able to tell anything was ever done if your not sloppy about applying it and installing the sight, and I wouldnt think the recoil from shooting, or probably even dropping the gun, would brake it loose. JB weld is some pretty strong stuff.Just my thoughts (and what I would most likely do, unless I was overly concerned about collector or resale value, and even then, I doubt it would be much of an issue).

 

[USSR]

Gendaito,

When the original flip rear sights were replaced with an adjustable sight during an arsenal overhaul, the new sights were staked in place. In all likelyhood, you will have to stake whatever rear sight you install to keep it from moving in the dovetail.

Don

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Concur with what Comrade USSR said.

Irwin Pedersen? Nice catch.

 

[dstorm1911]

a fast fix for a loose dovetailed sight is to use a spring loaded center punch on the bottom of the dovetail to stipple it, this will displace the metal creating a tighter friction fit, if its still a lil loose ya can either stipple the reciever as well or make a shim from a cheap feeler gauge blade. You can also carefully peen down the edges of the dovetail cut to make them grip tighter. If you don't want to do any of the above Silver solder the sight in place this is reversable in the future as well since ya just heat the base to release the solder. I'd suggest getting the windage dead on the money first though either with a laser bore sighter or at the range, take your spring loaded punch and once its on make a witness mark that marks both the base and the reciever so ya can be sure its still right before ya start soldering

 

[Gendaito]

thanks for the replies. I really want to be able to shoot this gun semi-regularly, while keeping it looking as "nice" as possible. I might try the silver solder to hold the rear sight down.

I might end up ending it to a gunsmith to have them do it "right", but I'll have to think about it a little. I actually like the look of the old flip up rear sights, so maybe I'll go with those.

Gendaito

 

[rustymaggot]

i second the center punch trick. put in the sight you want and then tap the edges of the dovetail with the spike. do it gently and you should be ok. it wont ruin the looks any worse than it is already.

 

[dfariswheel]

DO NOT attempt to silver solder the receiver.

Silver "solder" is really silver BRAZE and requires a red heat of at least 1100 degrees to melt.
This much heat will RUIN the receiver.
Soldering or brazing a Carbine rear sight is very definitely a "Billy Bob" method that will either ruin or botch up a good receiver.

DON'T DO IT.

To correct the fit of a Carbine sight, the above methods of staking, shimming, and dimpling the bottom of the sight itself, or if necessary the receiver dovetail are the best "fixes".
The USGI Ordnance method was to stake the sight in place, which is why there's stake marks on the receiver dovetail. It's just that over the years, someone got carried away and over did it.

If you're in a situation where you can't or don't want to attempt these methods, use epoxy glue or Red Loctite to simply bond the sight in place.
If you ever want to move or remove the sight, all that's needed is to warm the sight up to around 300 degrees for the bonding to degrade and loosen.

The rules of gunsmithing hold here: If you have to alter something, alter the part that's cheapest/easiest to replace if things go wrong.
In this case, you work on the sight NOT the receiver as much as possible.
You use epoxy or Loctite, NOT solder or braze.