Need some Kalishnikov help

[Powderman]

I grew a new toy today...

A folding stock AK, Norinco made w/ milled receiver, complete with spike bayonet, 4 magazines and a case of Wolf HP ammo. All for a VERY low price, from a good friend who said he has "too many AK's".

Now here's my problem.

The front sight assembly is loose on the barrel, and I mean loose. I can move it by hand, lots of side to side play. So, what should I do to fix it?

I noted that the assembly is secured by two pins near the base of the front sight. I was thinking about tapping those holes and installing some socket head screws to tighten the fit. Will this work? If so, what size tap should I use? The holes are around 4mm in size. What fractional tap would work? Better yet, can I use a wire gauge tap, and if so, which one?

What else can I do to tighten this up? I have a good feeling about this rifle; on its first outing today, I was able to keep a full magazine on a sheet of regular paper at 50 yards, with most of the rounds going into about a 4 inch group. This was standing, with the front sight flopping around!

Thanks in advance,

Powderman

 

[dfariswheel]

Using screws or bolts is not the way to go here.
Screws or bolts would be inappropriate, and likely to NOT solve the problem.

The first step is to decide if the sight support is over-sized or otherwise defective, making it too loose a fit around the barrel.

If it looks OK, the best fix, is the original mounting method: Driving in pins to firmly hold the support in place.

In this case, you'll have to use slightly over-sized pins to insure a tight fit.

The best place to find out all the details for a proper "fix" is to look around and ask on the AK-47 forum.

The most knowledgeable AK people are there, and I KNOW they have dealt with this in detail:
http://www.gunsnet.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=77