Quote Originally Posted by PA Rifleman View Post
Easy fix, and wouldn't have been a dealbreaker had I been in your shoes. On a 91/30, the front sight dovetails out of the mount, and the front sight pin slides in from underneath. It has a tapered base that prevents it from falling out, but despite being captured in place when assembled some posts were welded in place. On M38s & M44s I recall the posts may require drilling out. Note that 91/30 sights are not interchangeable with M44 sight parts.

Try it at the range. If the elevation's right, carefully bend the front sight post straight. Since this will affect the windage, you may need to drift the sight base to correct for this. If the post breaks, read on...

What I've done is buy a spare front sight base and drilled or driven the post out, depending on how it was installed. I turned down a replacement post from a common housenail and made it overlength. At the range, I trimmed it down until the sight alignment agreed with the range. Later, I removed the pin, blued it and reinstalled it. Since it's soft steel, it will bend quite a bit before breaking.

Other folks have come up with creative solutions like slipping tubing over the post, installing set screws, threading the post, etc.
My first impulse is to try to get "bang" it back into shape as it looks like the elevation may be ok. The center post also seems ok so the damage may just be cosmetic.

The more I think of it, a ammo box must have fell on it during the drive home. No way I would missed this at the show.