Play in M14 rear sight aperture?

[C.308]

Is it normal to have a slight amount of play in the aperture on a USGI m14 rear sight?

I just received one that looks brand new marked SA. I installed it using a Tony ben video as a guide.

I found that the aperture moves a tiny bit side to side. I compared to a norinco at the range yesterday and it was solid.

I could tighten the windage and elevation knob screws more, and that tightens the aperture, but then the knobs become too tight to turn.

Is this something normal that could be lived with, or should i try another aperture for a better fit?

Edit: I might be mistaken. After reviewing the USGI parts sticky I might have a commercial SA rear sight. Not so sure...

 

[CeeJay]

I have had a few M1A sights that the aperture was loose on, some I was able to replace with a GI aperture and it was fine, others had to replace the sight base. In the grand scheme of things the aperture should have no movement, if it has a slight side to side and it does not effect your accuracy then it shouldn't be an issue. Its up to you if you want to replace it. Now if the aperture is moving up and down on it's own while firing that is something that should be fixed.


If your sight base looks like this it's a commercial M1A sight. you can tell this by the 2 tooling marks on the base.

This is an unmarked GI base as you can see no tooling marks at all.

These will be added to the sticky as it is an ongoing project

 

[C.308]

Thanks ceejay. I might pull it apart and try to reinstall it again. If I do i will post pics of what I have. Thanks for your help.

I'm not overly concerned as long as its somewhat normal and not something I've done wrong. I dont need this to be a super accurate rife. Just a decent example for my collection. It seemed to hold well yesterday after almost 100 rounds so I think it will be fine. We shall see.

 

[mikebaker1129]

You can remove the a operators and turn the aperture on its side and use a center punch and make 3 or 4 marks on each side and it will raise the metal around the punch March and tighten things up . This will remove most if not all of the play.