Norinco M-14 Rear Sight Mod

scout3006

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Chatham, Ontario
The aperature sight on my Norc M-14 is tiny. I tried to open it up a bit with a drill (I've done this to a few of my aperature sights with great success) but I can't seem to drill through the darn thing. Anyone else try this? Is there a bit I can use that will drill through the metal - it seems harder than the hammer of hades!

Being the cheap bugger that I am, I would rather do this than purchase and install a brand new sight. Any suggestions?:runaway:
 
I have a small cone shaped diamond bit for my dremel tool and i tried it today for this same project..... worked like a charm with the dremel speed on high... so on mine that's 50,000 rpm
 
mostly from the rear/eye side and touched it up from the front side.
i then hit it with a permanent marker to get rid of the shiny metal.
 
It would be good to drill and tap it to the size that fits the Williams peep apertures. That way you can have it ghost ring for hunting and fine for target shooting.
 
If you want to drill hard steel, you are going to need to use a slow speed combined with lots of feed pressure. Make sure you are using a quality bit that is sharp - drill bits are someting to avoid a "deal" on! Lubricate it too. Start with a small bit and work your way up, this reduces the amount that needs to be cut on each pass. It shouldn't be too hard since the pilot hole is already done for you, no forming process is happening, just cutting.

Mind you, if you don't have a drill press, the dremel with an abrasive bit is probably the way to go for such a small finicky thing.

My aperture was also below centreline.

I never liked my rear sight because I thought the aperture was too big, and the sun would glare on the back of the sight and inside of the aperture. I wrapped a piece of painter's tape around the sight to make a mould, and then poured some devcon in, pressing it in with a greased piece of modeling clay. I repeated this on the other side. After it set, I used a needle file to shape it into a cylinder about 1/4" long. I borrowed a 1/32nd drill bit from a machinist friend, and drilled through where the aperture was before (the original hole was about 1/16). If I did it agian I might even try 1/64th. Then I drilled a shallower depth with progressively larger bits, creating a stepped sunshade on both sides. A tapered sheet metal reamer might have worked too, but I couldn't find mine. All that's left to do is paint it with flat black model paint.

I modified the front sight too. Instead of being parallel at ~0.070, I filed it so that it tapers down to 0.030. Then a coat of flat black model paint gets rid of any glare.
 
nice idea.
i guess that does it then, im going to dremel it out to ghost ring proportions. worst case if i need it back to a smaller aperture i can buy a surplus M1 sight or just fabricate some sortof insert for it with a smaller aperture.

IMO the factory size peep (at least on my rifle) is much too small for general use.

i wonder why the holes were drilled too low? looks about 35-40% of the way up, not 50% as i thought it should be. not a really big deal i guess, i just didnt know if they were MEANT to be that way or if its some sortof f**kup.
 
I took the crap sight off and replaced it with m1 gar sight I find the aperture a bit big for target but good for hunting. I did file down the sides of the front sight and shorten it that works much better.
 
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