Rear sight removal, How to?

H

herbeapuce

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Hi.
I just want to be sure I do the right thing....
In order to test for accuracy my Zastava bolt rifle ( Zavodi Crvena Zastava), I need to remove a section of the rear sight, so my 50mm 24x scope will fit. (Even with the extra high rings on , it is hitting the sight....)

I suppose I have to bang the sight sideways with a soft punch, so it will slide off the dovetail ? Can it come off from both ways ? anything I should know before attempting ?

Thanks for your help
stef





 
I know on some rifles it goes out a certain way. Cant really tell from the picture. If it isnt going one way try the other before you really whack it
 
As smokeeter suggests, out towards the right side when looking down on the sight with the muzzle facing away from you.

The main thing is to support the barrel and even better the block the sight is on if possible so that the force of the impact is concentrated on the sight. This is even more important if it's a tight fit. Might be easier to remove the stock and use a vice or some creative blocks and an extra set of hands to hold things while you hammer it with a punch. A small square punch of hardwood will usually work if you can't find or don't have a brass faced punch.
 
X2 what Can-down wrote!! Without proper support of the front sight ramp, it simply popped off when I tapped with brass punch on the front sight insert - was on my Zastava M70. Thought it would be soldered in place - not so - a shallow dovetail with a "top-hat" shaped insert and some stuff like loctite. Don't be assuming what is holding your rear sight block in place!
 
Well, a couple of screw heads are visible.
A sight pusher is best. If a drift must be used, remove the barreled action, and hold the barrel in a padded vise with the sight base supported. Knocking the base off the barrel is not impossible.
A brass drift may leave brass on the sight. Use bore cleaner to get rid of it.
 
Yes - pulled mine out of storage - I eventually did remove the rear sight base - two screws - small 3.0 or 3.5 mm - could only find allen head grub screws to fill the holes. And some more of that "loctite" type stuff was also under there. But, I agree - a sight pusher is the correct tool to use!
 
PLEASE......

I just want to double confirm the side it should be banged out.... so let pretend I'm shooting the gun. the stock in on my shoulder... so I have to hit the sight from my left to my right ? is that it ?

I hit it a few times like that but it didn't move at all. I'm on hold now waiting for the newly applied Kroil oil to do its work.... but it's not obvious..... seems it will never move...
 
Maybe. That is sometimes a convention. Do the Serbs observe it? Sometimes it takes a sharp hit to move a dovetailed sight. This is why supporting the base is important - you don't want it knocked off the barrel.
Even using a sight pusher, sometimes when the sight breaks free, there is an audible snap. You simply don't know how much of an interference fit there was when the sight was installed.
 
When you have the rifle in the shooting position - muzzle pointed away from you, sights on top, the muzzle is front, butt is rear, and left side of rifle is to your left and right side of the rifle is to your right. Pretty normal North American convention to install a dovetail sight by inserting from the rifle's right side, pushing it towards the rifle's left side. Remove it by pushing from rifle's left side going towards the right side. No clue what standard is at Zastava factory - sometimes can see burrs or push marks with magnifying glass - and, as I mentioned, they seemed to be pretty "liberal" with the loctite kind of stuff on mine - may be what you are dealing with? I have seen some dovetails with a deliberate taper - again, should be able to see that with magnifying glass?
 
tiriaq said:
Problem with sight pushers is that they don't grow on trees. I've had my Williams since the '80s.
Click to expand...

I have a williams as well but I spaced the obvious as I normally only use it for the front sights..... :)

OP, see if you can measure a noticeable variation in the width of the dovetail on one side compared to the other.... if so you want to drift it towards the larger side.

Not only can it be a tight fit, but time itself seems to act like a glue for many things..... :) If you've got a vice you might be able to rig up some blocks in a fashion to use the vice to push on the sight instead of hammering it to break it free.

I assume there is no rush to get it done given are current situation and your location, maybe you can wait and borrow a pusher or take it to a shop in a couple weeks?
 
honestly I'm using a 3.5 " common nail. I filed down the head so it is smaller than the dovetail and put a few pieces of paper in between the 2..... so far no markings , but no move either...
the barrel is in a vice and the bottom sight is against a wood wedge
 
Nails are soft and so is wood, you will get some flex in both.... the nail flex will rob you of power and the wood flex will allow stress on the mounting bolts.

Did you remove the stock?

I'd wait for better tools..... what's the rush?

I bet there's a gunnut with a williams pusher somewhere in Montreal.......
 
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