858 lower handguard slop

Mambo

Mambo

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Any of you guys develop a loose lower handguard? I was just bench shooting with the barrel supported on a block and when I was packing her up I noticed a super annoying slop with the lower handguard. Up and down play about a 1/16". I have a NEA lower but I don't think that matters...looks like the round retainer piece that the front of the lower handguard goes into is the culprit. I can move this metal piece up and down now slightly. This used to be fairly snug. Anybody know how to tighten this up? Did it get stretched down somehow? Was it the paint that "glued" this piece tight? From what I can see in there this piece slips over the barrel somehow. Sorry I can't take a closeup pic at the moment...

Any info greatly appreciated!
 
You want that little metal lip to be as tight as possible. Having that lossy goussey will cause havoc in trying to get constitance group's due to the change in barrel harmonic's. This is ever so present in the non-restricted 858 model because of the "wip" that occur's due to the long pencil barrel. So all B.S. aside the tighter that little handguard furnel is & the least amount of wiggle it has when the handguard is on the better.
Now if you have plastic or wood. Spray the metal piece with pam or white grease. Mix up some JB Weld. Scratch up the lip that is going to be placed in that furnel with some sand paper. Take some tape and tape were on the handguard you don't want to get any of that bonding agent on. Now smuther both sides of that lip and install the hand guard. Be sure to put enouth on so it spew's out all the way around the furnel & try to remove any exccess. Allow to dry for an hour. Take out carefully and clean off the remainder of excess JB carefully both on the metal and the handuard. This is why you used pam or grease ;). Add another squirt of lube "just in case" & re-assembele then allow 24 hours to cure. Now there will be no more wiggle and your groups will noticable shrink.
Your Welcome...
cou:
 
I cut some strips of plastic (less than 1/8" thick) from a 9mm ammo tray, laid them in the grooves of the ferrule, and re-installed the lower. No wiggle and no change in accuracy.

You may need a thinner or thicker shim depending on how much slop your rifle has.
 
Thx Satain for the very informative suggestion! I do have an NEA lower
though and not plastic or wood. How does that metal piece get loose in the first place? If I build it up with JB weld could it not get loose again?
 
Stevo said:
I cut some strips of plastic (less than 1/8" thick) from a 9mm ammo tray, laid them in the grooves of the ferrule, and re-installed the lower. No wiggle and no change in accuracy.

You may need a thinner or thicker shim depending on how much slop your rifle has.
Click to expand...

I made brass shim from a mosin-nagant stripper clip, work perfect!
 
Mambo said:
Thx Satain for the very informative suggestion! I do have an NEA lower
though and not plastic or wood. How does that metal piece get loose in the first place? If I build it up with JB weld could it not get loose again?
Click to expand...
No JB on the rifle. As this is ment to have flex and movent as the rifle was not designed for accuarcy just large volumes of fire.
Does it "wiggle" when the lower handguard is installed?
 
Problem solved!!!

So I went with the shim idea. Everything I stuck in the groove of that ferrule (small flat cable, thin plastic, etc) was too thick to get the rest of the handguard up and in. I finally just said screw it and cut a thin strip off a pizza flyer...at first I didn't think I could slide the handguard up and in but gave it a wack with a rubber mallet and VOILA! She's super tight now with absolutely no play! I'll be a monkey's uncle! I know it's just a thin piece of cardstock now wedged in there but damn it is solid. Hopefully the paper doesn't deteriorate soon but at least it's a cheap fix. Thanks all for the suggestions! And thank's FRESH SLICE! Hehe.
 
Excellent!! Now there's a real RED RIFLE fix. "Here's a pizza flyer comrade! Keep shooting!" If that were an AR, it would have died of mortification........
 
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