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I posted a question in another section of the forum about fibre optic sights and fonud what I was looking for...sorta.
My AR-7 is a pretty straight shooting rifle and reliable to a point. I want to make this my permanent small game/emergency rifle so I've been researching ways to make it better than when I got it.
History;
I'm the third owner of the rifle but from the story I was told I am the second to actually fire it. It is the Charter Arms variety and uses the standard post+peep sights, has no mounting rail, and has the old style mag release. The previous owner had no mags for it and didn't have much interest in tracking any down. I found a number of mags of both repro and original make and after a good cleaning went out to shoot.
Temperment;
Like all models of this rifle the thing is just finicky about what mags it wants, and what ammo as well. It likes to unseat the bullet from Rem Super X, feeds 500-900 Thunderbolts before it's too dirty to strip them off the mags properly, and really dislikes anything with a ridged bullet causing mis-feeds galore. After polishing the trigger assembly and replacing a couple springs I had a great rifle on my hands. Beyond the feeding problems I was able to get good accuracy at 50m and can reliably hit Minute-of-Squirrel every time.
Upgrades;
So far I've polished the throat of the barrel from 600-2500 grit paper and (cleaned) fired cases will drop out with no snagging. I've cut an abbreviated feed ramp and polished it up. I did this because I noticed that a couple of my mags would feed the rounds slightly low and cause a FTF. Now the ramp is cut they slide up and in. I've lapped the muzzle with polishing compound and a tool from Brownell's so even though it doesn't have a target cut there are clean rifling channels for the bullet to grip all the way to the crown. I've also taken to using Ram-Line mags exclusively. Yes they do break apart due to the poorly glued and pinned halves...but I found a solution for that.
Upgrades not completed;
As I stated at the start of this thread I want better sights. I don't prefer peep sights and never have. It just doesn't work for me. Couple that with the non-contrasting blade front sight and I had to work much too hard to make accurate hits. Yesterday I went out and purchased a fibre optic sight set designed for the 10/22. What's great about this is that the dovetail for the front sight is very nearly the same dimensions as the AR-7 so only some minor fitting is required. The real gem is the rear sight leaf.
The rear section is comprised of a long sight block that has one set screw, one height adjusting screw, and one windage screw on the rear leaf. The best part is the dovetail on this block; it's an incredibly low profile and only 1mm wider than the spine(ridge, thing on top) of the receiver. I'll be able to cut a nice dovetail into that spine and have enough material around it so that I'll not worry about it peeling off due to heavy use. With this mounted I'll have a contrasting orange front and green rear 3 dot sight system that I can see in nearly every light condition.
Conclusion;
I'll be adding pics on the project shortly.
My AR-7 is a pretty straight shooting rifle and reliable to a point. I want to make this my permanent small game/emergency rifle so I've been researching ways to make it better than when I got it.
History;
I'm the third owner of the rifle but from the story I was told I am the second to actually fire it. It is the Charter Arms variety and uses the standard post+peep sights, has no mounting rail, and has the old style mag release. The previous owner had no mags for it and didn't have much interest in tracking any down. I found a number of mags of both repro and original make and after a good cleaning went out to shoot.
Temperment;
Like all models of this rifle the thing is just finicky about what mags it wants, and what ammo as well. It likes to unseat the bullet from Rem Super X, feeds 500-900 Thunderbolts before it's too dirty to strip them off the mags properly, and really dislikes anything with a ridged bullet causing mis-feeds galore. After polishing the trigger assembly and replacing a couple springs I had a great rifle on my hands. Beyond the feeding problems I was able to get good accuracy at 50m and can reliably hit Minute-of-Squirrel every time.
Upgrades;
So far I've polished the throat of the barrel from 600-2500 grit paper and (cleaned) fired cases will drop out with no snagging. I've cut an abbreviated feed ramp and polished it up. I did this because I noticed that a couple of my mags would feed the rounds slightly low and cause a FTF. Now the ramp is cut they slide up and in. I've lapped the muzzle with polishing compound and a tool from Brownell's so even though it doesn't have a target cut there are clean rifling channels for the bullet to grip all the way to the crown. I've also taken to using Ram-Line mags exclusively. Yes they do break apart due to the poorly glued and pinned halves...but I found a solution for that.
Upgrades not completed;
As I stated at the start of this thread I want better sights. I don't prefer peep sights and never have. It just doesn't work for me. Couple that with the non-contrasting blade front sight and I had to work much too hard to make accurate hits. Yesterday I went out and purchased a fibre optic sight set designed for the 10/22. What's great about this is that the dovetail for the front sight is very nearly the same dimensions as the AR-7 so only some minor fitting is required. The real gem is the rear sight leaf.
The rear section is comprised of a long sight block that has one set screw, one height adjusting screw, and one windage screw on the rear leaf. The best part is the dovetail on this block; it's an incredibly low profile and only 1mm wider than the spine(ridge, thing on top) of the receiver. I'll be able to cut a nice dovetail into that spine and have enough material around it so that I'll not worry about it peeling off due to heavy use. With this mounted I'll have a contrasting orange front and green rear 3 dot sight system that I can see in nearly every light condition.
Conclusion;
I'll be adding pics on the project shortly.
I'm looking to perform similar surgery on mine - but my goal is to mount a rear iron on the barrel so as not to have the alignment change between takedowns. Was hoping the photos would educate me somewhat. Can you repost them, on imgur.com maybe?
