How to get this front sight seal off?

[kkd]

Found this at a local Funshow a few months ago. It's been kicking around on my desk with me thinking and plotting how to get the front sight screw off so that I can salvage the seal.



Saw cut! So the seal cannot be original.


Also found this flush nut assy:

[kkd]

Most of the time the local Gunshow is a complete waste of Nine bucks
For the most part, there are more Chinese tools, beef jerky, beenie babies, stupid Indian jewelry and toy helicopters than guns

Every now and then you find something like a flush nut sight assy

[RCS]

The cylinder would be nice for a rebuild restoration (I have one just like yours) Also have a friend in NJ who just use to drill the gas
cylinder sight screw (which is very hard) and then punch off the sight seal from damaged cylinders.

You can still buy original front sight screw seals in the bag for around $25 to $35 each, most bags are date 1941. repros are a lot
less.

The slots on your flush nut appear somewhat larger, you should compare with known original front and back sides as there are
quite a few fakes around

[Col. Colt]

The gas cylinder is an interesting piece of WWII Ordnance history to M1 Collectors, as found - and I'd find a use for it, as is or sell it as an interesting curiosity to a serious Garand collector. Seals are still cheap enough, at $25, to not be worth a huge effort to recover off of an existing cylinder.

Saw cutting was discontinued on May 8, 1945. The gas seal itself was dropped from production by mid-1943. It comes from a specific time frame, pretty narrowly defined by the two modifications together. It's still a WWII gas cylinder in a correct, original US Army Ordnance format - some arsenal likely did that, before they quit using seals. And it would be correct and expected on a mid-WWII rebuild. CC

[RCS]

Col Colt, these were two types of saw cuts, angle and straight cut. Around 1953 or so, some saw cut cylinders were welded with a
small bead on each side and reissued.

photo shows Rock island Shop manual tool for installation of the front sight seal (1943)P1010047_0040.jpg

[kkd]

Ok.... Looks like the thing to do is to drill the sight screw

Won't be easy.
But since the screw is the cheapest part, that's the part to work on first.

[Bodyman]

Do you have a pic of the front of the gas cylinder from the muzzle end? I ask only from an amateurish standpoint, ...

That is amazing. I don't want to rant but I have never seen a saw cut cylinder with a seal reinstalled. It just didn't happen! I can only guess it was done VERY early (but what do I know, ...) - that is a totally cool find. No, I am not kidding that seriously neat and is an amazing piece, but if you are heaven bent on taking it apart, there is a way.

You can take a brass drift pin (punch) and drive it off the cylinder from the side. If you are trying to preserve the finishes on the sight, brass will work well. The sights are really not on there all that well so you should be able to drive it off with a few good hits. So if you are really done with it as an assembly, and as far as you are concerned the cylinder is already ruined by the saw cut, then go ahead and chock the cylinder up in a vice real good so you can give it a good whack with a hammer on the side of the sight. Once you have the sight off, you can flip it over and get to the font sight screw through the slot and cut (with a hack saw, even) the front sight screw Yes, you are losing a front sight screw but you are saving the seal. Once you release the pressure by cutting thru the screw, the screw head will be able to be pushed out and the sight seal will be in your hands.

Cool, huh!

Honestly, I think the assembly is worth studying all by itself. If you really need a sight seal, originals are out there for sale. I might even have one that I could trade you plus a few just to not destroy this little chunk of garand history. Send me a PM if you think you would be interested.

Otherwise, no skin off my nose, take please pics when you disassemble it for us to see, if you can.

PS; I can't tell you where I learned this trick from but, ...

Ouch, ...

standard.jpg

[RCS]

Here is another saw cut cylinder with the front sight screw seal (a little flat from banging the cylinder off the barrel)P1010021_0017_017.jpgP1010022_0018_018.jpg

[kkd]

Original?
I did not think that a Saw Cut Gas Cylinder would be original with a front sight seal.

That was the whole point of me wanting to take off the front sight so that I can salvage the seal.
But, if it COULD be original.

And you supplied evidence, I see it in the pics. Then I had better leave things alone....

[Ted Brown]

The manual says to file the seal off and the rest will come out when the screw is unscrewed... I don't think you can remove it without destroying it unless you destroy the sight in the process.