Front sight advice needed...

Recently picked up a Ruger ar556. I know it’s a lower quality rifle, but the price was right and I liked that it said made in NC on the lower.

Shot 60 rounds and it shoots great, on par with my other ar rifles. However, the front sight is canted which almost maxes out the rear windage adjustment. Front sight base is also loose where it is pinned to barrel.

I’m not opposed to cutting down the front sight base, loctite the pins, and putting a free float rail on it, but don’t really know if that’s necessary.

I’m sure Ruger will send me a call tag for it, but it might not come back any better.

What say the ar15 guys here?


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Wouldn't hurt to tell Ruger about it.

If you want to fix it yourself then, is the front sight base integrated with the gas block? If so, I'd buy a new low pro gas block/tube and whatever rail you like, slap them on and call it a day.

Climberman said:

Wouldn't hurt to tell Ruger about it.

If you want to fix it yourself then, is the front sight base integrated with the gas block? If so, I'd buy a new low pro gas block/tube and whatever rail you like, slap them on and call it a day.

Click to expand...

Yes, it’s a solid FSB pinned to the barrel.

I’m totally ignorant when it comes to ar modifications. Is there a “go to” rail that is better than most? I’d imagine the mounting method is more important than the rail itself.

How are they about holding zero with the front sight way out there unsupported?


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Everyone has an opinion when it comes to rails and a lot depends on how much you want to spend. The short answer is most rails use a proprietary barrel nut and are very rigid. I wouldn't worry about the front sight holding zero, it is well supported with a quality rail.

I will refer you to this thread about AR rails for some options.

https://carolinafirearmsforum.com/index.php?threads/ar-rail.22271/

Cool, thanks.


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Here is my 50 yard target, first 25 rounds.

Groups 1&2 aimed at left target. Adjusted elevation to get group 2. Adjust windage and elevation for 3 & 4, left target.

Got closer on group 4.

Group 5, right target, got it dialed for poa/poi at 50yards.

Using federal/lake city xm193.




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HannibalMontana said:

Recently picked up a Ruger ar556. I know it’s a lower quality rifle, but the price was right and I liked that it said made in NC on the lower.

Shot 60 rounds and it shoots great, on par with my other ar rifles. However, the front sight is canted which almost maxes out the rear windage adjustment. Front sight base is also loose where it is pinned to barrel.

I’m not opposed to cutting down the front sight base, loctite the pins, and putting a free float rail on it, but don’t really know if that’s necessary.

I’m sure Ruger will send me a call tag for it, but it might not come back any better.

What say the ar15 guys here?

Click to expand...

This should go back to Ruger immediately. It's broken/incorrectly installed/wrong. Could be a poor pin job, misaligned gas port, etc. Whatever the reason, it needs to be fixed.

If the gas port is not aligned, even a new rail is not going to make it right. The gas block will be misaligned and the gas tube will not be square. This will lead to other issues with your gas key and whatnot. The front sight post needs to be vertical and square to the bore and receiver rail. Also, it should have zero movement. Send it back. When they fix it or replace it, then do your mods and get a new rail if you wish.

As far as sights on rails, a nice rigid rail will work fine, but the nice thing is that it can lengthen your relatively short sight radius. Just my opinions!

I'd give Ruger a shot at making it right.

Are the pins on the FSB driven all the way in?

Everything you said is what I was concerned with.

What if the barrel keyway in the receiver is off? That’s on Ruger.

What if gas port isn’t centered? Can’t put a low pro on cause it might interfere with whatever rail even if I keep the barrel.

I’ve talked to Ruger since I got home. They issued a return label.


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rantingredneck said:

I'd give Ruger a shot at making it right.

Are the pins on the FSB driven all the way in?

Click to expand...

Sending it back. Pins don’t look to be driven in all the way. Possible that it wasn’t set up in a jig properly when they drilled it, or however they build these things.

I wouldn’t have noticed it was loose if I didn’t remove the hand guards. They pinch it into place when installed.

I’ll let Ruger work on it. Hopefully they can get it right, I had lost faith in them when I had one of their 1911s that wouldn’t pass a function test.

Thumb safety allowed the sear to move when engaged. It’s a cast part and not fitted. They just put another one in, it’s cast to be “good enough”.

That’s fine, Ruger stuff is built to a certain price point, but they really need a fitted part there. Allowing sear movement when 1911 hammer hooks are only like .024” or less is a huge no no. They claimed it didn’t drop the hammer so it was good to go.


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Got rifle back from Ruger. They replaced the whole upper and now the front sight block is centered perfectly.

But.....

Barrel nut is completely loose, can move it back and forth by hand, allowing barrel to flop around like a noodle. Dust cover hinge pin is touching back of barrel nut. Charging handle will not latch in forward position.

The young lady at Ruger was very nice and is sending me another upper.

If the next one is in similar shape I will decide to either ask for a refund or break the upper down and free float it.

Dang what a drag!

NKD said:

Dang what a drag!

Click to expand...

I’m not even mad. I’ve come to expect that just about anything I buy anymore will either need to go back to the factory or I’ll have to fix it myself.


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Are they letting you keep the one with the issues too?

Derek8404 said:

Are they letting you keep the one with the issues too?

Click to expand...

Nah, they want me to return it in the box they ship the new one in.

I could keep it, they can’t do anything about it, but that’s bad juju.

I was pretty adamant that they have someone who knows what they are looking at inspect the next one. Unfortunately, that person may not exist at that factory.


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I'd part ways with that gun and chalk it up to "lesson learned".

I know a lot of us get shit on here when people talk about this and that $500 rifle works just fine and we recommend spending a couple hundred more for a nicer piece, but this is an example of the risk you take.

JRHorne said:

I'd part ways with that gun and chalk it up to "lesson learned".

I know a lot of us get shit on here when people talk about this and that $500 rifle works just fine and we recommend spending a couple hundred more for a nicer piece, but this is an example of the risk you take.

Click to expand...

Yeah for what I paid I might just keep it. I knew going into it that it might be crap. I have a Colt and a m&p 15 that have both been awesome, but they cost 2-3 times as much.

The lower is fine, it has a good trigger, if they get it right it can be a good beater/experiment gun. If not, ill just rebuild the upper or buy a new one.


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If the lower is G2G, I totally agree on rebuilding the upper. Heck, the barrel and everything is probably fine. If you were closer, I'd say drop it off to me and I'd tighten everything up and even chop the FSB if you wanted a rail conversion.

Well the first upper got me about a 3moa group at 50 with iron sights, and was popping 6 inch plates between 100 and 130 no problem. That kind of accuracy is pretty good I think.

Already did some research on rails, as far as I can tell the geissele rails have the beefiest barrel nut/mounting system, but I can’t see spending over half what I paid for the gun on a rail.

Probably will just put Mil spec barrel nut/delta ring assembly on it and tighten it all up if it need to. Would rather spend the money on a kac ras or free float for my 20” Colt.

But, I could get a perfectly assembled upper from Ruger and not have to do anything.


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HannibalMontana,

I hope Ruger fixes the issues. There has always been some things about that gun from Ruger as it is not MILSPEC. FSB pins are above and not below the barrel. Barrel nut is different also. Not a issue if your gun works but if you have a chest of AR parts and build different rifles for the family then the interchangeability is out the window.


CD

Got the replacement upper today. According to my limited ar15 knowledge it looks perfect. None of the flaws that the last two had.

I think they spent some extra time on it or had someone experienced build it due to the gas key staking it has. Every Ruger I’ve seen online has had machine staked gas key bolts or non existent staking.


Won’t be able to shoot for another week or so, but if it performs like the first one did I’ll be happy.


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