AK front sight problem

**sobeygun** · October 16th, 2011, 10:42 AM

I bought a Century Arms AK earlier this year. Had it to the range several times. It fires well but the problem I'm having is when the barrel starts to heat up. The horizontal post on the front for the left/right adjust slides to the right throwing off the sight. Any suggestions on how to keep it from moving?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

**PA Rifleman** · October 16th, 2011, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by sobeygun

...The horizontal post on the front for the left/right adjust slides to the right throwing off the sight. ...

Easy fix. The front sight drum is undersize, when the front sight base (FSB) heats up the drum bore enlarges, causing the drum to loosen. This causes the windage adjustment to drift.

Replace the front sight drum to fix this. Google AK front sight drum, and also front sight adjustment tool.

Front sight drum:

$8 here - http://aa-ok.com/ak-ak47-akm-ak74-pa...nt-sights.html

Adjustment tool:

$7 on Amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/AIM-Sports-Fro.../dp/B002ZVMQ7W

If this doesn't fix the symptom:
The front sight base will need to be replaced. This is a little more involved, but not much. Rather than reinvent the wheel, read an earlier post that covers FSB alignment (link). The only step missing is pulling off the old FSB after the lock pins are drilled out, heat & pull off the old FSB...heat and install the new FSB. The only detail you need to carefully monitor is make certain the replacement FSB has the same barrel diameter as your existing example.

**XACEX** · October 16th, 2011, 03:35 PM

... or glue

**39flathead** · October 16th, 2011, 11:15 PM

You can probably send it back to Century and they will have one of their mininum wage monkeys fix it for you, give them a call.

Or replace the parts as posted above.

Or get it set in the correct position and drill a small hole through the post and drum off to the side so the front post can still be moved and just use a roll pin to hold it in place.
It is an AK after all and you can't do any worse than Century did.

**Asmodeus6** · October 17th, 2011, 01:29 AM

I vote this instead.

http://riflestocks.com/store/product64.html

And then a nice fsp of your choosing. Maybe something from XS, hiviz, etc. You could also order a more "normal" AR fsp in the thickness of your choosing from kns.

Nothing like solving a problem with an upgrade, for about the same $.

**sobeygun** · October 17th, 2011, 05:32 PM

Sounds like a good place to start. Thanks.

**vicious** · October 17th, 2011, 05:38 PM

If you are going to go the aftermarket route, be aware the XS Big Dots are available for the AK platform as a direct replacement. In my opinion, these are the best sights available for this rifle and can be found for less than $100.