Ground off the plastic picatinny rail on my SKS gas cylinder

[fat tony]

I have had this Tapioca aftermarket gas cylinder for my SKS for a while now. I just got around to sawing off the picatinny rail on the top of it. Here is how it looks. It is such a great improvement with minimal effort required to complete the job. I can see its going to make quite a difference if I ever use it for hunting. I found the rail only served to interfere with my sight picture.

 

[Power Pill]

what exactly did you want the rail off?

 

[jt_trouble]

My friend did the same thing to his Intrafuse set up, when he was shooting he kept using the groove in the rail as his back sight instead of the leaf ... lol

 

[fat tony]

what exactly did you want the rail off?

"rail" lolz, to call that a 'rail' is quite a stretch. Could you rephrase that pill, not to be smart or anything. Best regards, Tony

 

[fat tony]

My friend did the same thing to his Intrafuse set up, when he was shooting he kept using the groove in the rail as his back sight instead of the leaf ... lol

JT my nephew did the same thing when I took him out to the range last fall, but it also obscures much of the target-al area, I find.

 

[pattycr125]

i think the whole point of the rail is to mount optics, but who knows how accurate it would be.

 

[fat tony]

It would be far from accurate/repeatable, in my opinion. The plastic is hollow, and is held on with 2 hollow roll pins. The roll pins engage in grooves turned in the actual gas cylinder. The rail, along with the rest of the 'handguard' WILL wobble left and right (rotationally). I believe this is inherent in the design. It would be possible however, to press on a solid steel block with a hole drilled and reamed to the od, or od -.001" or so, then shrink and setscrew it on, if you had a good solid drill press set up or milling machine set up. Then your 'real steel' m1913 rail, or Weaver bases could be securely affixed to that. The Tapco cylinders are 'file to fit' for obvious reasons, and go on there pretty tight when you file them properly to fit.

To sum up, imo, I don't think the plastic rail is worth futzing around with, unless it's for a flashlight. Does anyone out there know otherwise - because your input would be welcome.

 

[boltonscouter]

I felt the same way about the one on top of the Tapco T6 we have so removed the top hand guard and replaced it with one of those blued ventilated steel ones & am much happier with the sight picture! I agree it would be a horrible place to try mount any optics. Way too much play & movement IMO.
I like the steel hand guard as it starts to give the SKS that SVT40 look

 

[fat tony]

Yes, glad to hear that's working well. I think an experimental base could be made from the Tapco cylinder, but it would be a custom job, with no groundwork done previously to see if it would be viable. Hopefully someone will take it up and report back with their findings. I don't have time for a project like that right now.