-=> Quoting Brian Sawyers to All on 06-09-96  20:45 <=-
 Re: SKS gas piston rod tube h
 BS> Just got a synthetic sporter stock for my Russian SKS, and the action
 BS> R&R took about 3 minutes.  Expected a big hassle getting the action out
 BS> and was surprised at how easy it went.  Then I tried to remove the gas
 BS> tube handguard, just a little chunk of wood, and spent about a half
 BS> hour frustrating myself. My SKS now has a nice new synthetic stock, but
 BS> retains the old nasty wooden handguard for the gas tube, 'cause I
 BS> couldn't figure the stupid thing out.
 BS> Anybody ever succesfully remove the wood from the gas tube, and
 BS> replace it with the synthetic piece?   If so, _how_ ?   :^)
 BS> Thanks in advance for any and all information--there's gotta be some
 BS> way to remove this little chunk of wood , short of using a chisel.
Well, yes, but I'm not completely certain. I took the obvious method - I
had a gunsmith do it for me.
The rear metal piece (adjacent to the rear sight) is held in place by a
pin of some sort. It ought to be possible to push that pin out with the
right equipment, but I didn't have that equipment. If you can get that
pin out, you ought to be able to just remove the metal piece and thus
remove the handguard. Presumably returning the pin to its original
position will take some fair amount of effort as well. :-( The stock I
had said that the handguard really had to be installed by a gunsmith
anyway.
A good gunsmith who doesn't have too many other orders ought to be able
to do it in no time. It's been about a year now, so I don't recall
exactly, but it didn't take long and it wasn't too expensive.
Steve
... To go beyond is as dangerous as to fall short!
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