smartbomb, my '52s stock didnt want to release the barrel, so I just turned it upsidown, held on to the butt end, and gently smacked the barrel on my livingroom carpet (sight into the carpet) figured I wasnt gonna make the sight any worse, since the pin is jammed all the way to the right already.... anyway, it worked
unrelated, but since Im already posting..... I figured out that it looks like the pinning job did something to the follower in the mag, that makes it not pop the bolt holdback up when the mag is empty (the follower ends up sitting about 2mm down in comparison to my '54)