Remove K98K Rear Sight

I reckon most of us have been "That Guy" before at some point. I'm looking at a rifle TG got. TG probably spent an hour beating on bands with a hammer wrecking them and it would have taken a little oil and about 30 seconds to depress the bandspring and slide the front band off.

Holy shot, you did a number to that poor sight leaf. I have replaced a lot of rear sight leafs and usually the pin comes out easily, that is if you figure out the pin is much smaller than the holes in the sight mounts. I posted the link to the disassembly guide so you would see the big difference between the pin diameter and the trunnion diameter.

I agree with mauserguy and rustybore, there's a lot of work to be done to rescue that leaf and the repair will most likely not be completely invisible. As you have figured out by now, this problem has gotten way over your head and you won't be the one solving it. I'm sad to hear you also bent the ears of the sight mount. Don't try to straighten them out on your own; post close-ups of the ears in this forum and let the experts decide on the correct course of action.

Here's the situation we are dealing with: The hole through the leaf is about 0.079" (2mm) in diameter. The formerly protruding (and now totally butchered) trunnion is about 0.157" (4mm) in diameter. The wall thickness of what you thought to be a sleeve is therefore 0.5*(4mm-2mm)=1mm, or roughly 0.0395". The thickness of the leaf in this area is about 0.195". Drilling a 0.157" hole through the entire leaf to accommodate a sleeve with the same diameter as the trunnion will weaken the leaf significantly because there will only be 0.5*(0.195"-0.157")=0.019" material left above and below the sleeve hole. That's equivalent to the thickness of 4 sheets of printer paper.

Now think about the stress on the leaf: The rear sight spring pushes the leaf upwards with all of its force applied at the tip of the leaf. At the same time, the trunnions keep the leaf from moving up because they are locked into the mounting ears. The spring force is transferred from the tip of leaf to the trunnions through a layer of metal the thickness of 4 sheets of printer paper. This contraption will already fail and break apart during assembly (tip of the sight leaf will break off right at the trunnion).

Rustybore's option 1 sounds much better as it requires two stepped replacement trunnions which allow for more remaining wall thickness in the leaf. The problem is, press fitted bushings with thin wall thickness tend to give and will work themselves loose through recoil. Brazed bushings are better suited if wall thickness is thin. The downside is the visibility of diffused braze material in the surfaces around the trunnion. Since all is hidden by the mounting ears, it's probably the most acceptable method of repair.

Option 2 is expensive due to the TIG welding operation and the subsequent machining process for which a rotating milling table is required. On the other hand, if done professionally, the repair should be barely visible, if at all.

I gave up on mine while I was ahead. A Navy veteran who loves Garands convinced me the rifle was meant to be fired with iron sights only. Now I have a scout mount with a LER scope that needs a new home.

Philip

Same Here.
Still waiting on the Mauser to come back from the shop to fix the sight.
But I opted to move over to my Mosin-Nagant with the scope and mount retrofit.
Much easier on that rifle, since the whole rear sight assembly is pinned to 3/8" dovetails on the receiver. (plus its less nerve-racking, since I care a lot less about the integrity of the $100 Mosin!)
All I needed to do was knock out 2 pins and sweat the solder out of the joint, and the iron sight slid right off.
The rings I purchased were 3/8" dovetail compatible, and the LER sight works great.
Should have done that to start, and preserve the 98k intact.
Live and learn!

BergerBoy said:

Same Here.
Still waiting on the Mauser to come back from the shop to fix the sight.
But I opted to move over to my Mosin-Nagant with the scope and mount retrofit.
Much easier on that rifle, since the whole rear sight assembly is pinned to 3/8" dovetails on the receiver. (plus its less nerve-racking, since I care a lot less about the integrity of the $100 Mosin!)
All I needed to do was knock out 2 pins and sweat the solder out of the joint, and the iron sight slid right off.
The rings I purchased were 3/8" dovetail compatible, and the LER sight works great.
Should have done that to start, and preserve the 98k intact.
Live and learn!

Click to expand...

Can you post pics of this? An LER scope mount for the Mosin should have been virtually the same process as the mauser. Drive a pin out and remove the sight leaf. You shouldnt have had to sweat anything off.

o

The mosin mount was different in that it replaced.the whole base of the sight. Went right down to the 3/8 dovetail for the rings to clamp to. The mauser mount was.one of those cheapies thqt hinged in place of the leaf.
Refer to the carnage i created on some photos earlier on this thread.

BergerBoy said:

The mosin mount was different in that it replaced.the whole base of the sight. Went right down to the 3/8 dovetail for the rings to clamp to. The mauser mount was.one of those cheapies thqt hinged in place of the leaf.
Refer to the carnage i created on some photos earlier on this thread.

Click to expand...

Hope it was a 42 Izzy!!

Its a '38 Izzy. Why?
Wanna see pictures?
Didn't think it was that interesting. I actually bored quite quickly with the Mosin, after I obtained my sweet CE43.
Just wish I would've restricted my tinkering to the Mosin, and preserved the Mauser for its history (its a bolt MM).
Hopefully my local gunsmith can work some miracles with the botched sight leaf hinges.
Otherwise I'll need to swap that original, matching leaf with a non-numbered one I bought recently.

BergerBoy said:

Its a '38 Izzy. Why?
Wanna see pictures?
Didn't think it was that interesting. I actually bored quite quickly with the Mosin, after I obtained my sweet CE43.
Just wish I would've restricted my tinkering to the Mosin, and preserved the Mauser for its history (its a bolt MM).
Hopefully my local gunsmith can work some miracles with the botched sight leaf hinges.
Otherwise I'll need to swap that original, matching leaf with a non-numbered one I bought recently.

Click to expand...

Sure pics would be nice. I'm trying to envision this LER setup.