Monthly Archives: September 2012

M15 Grenade Launcher Sight

Posted on by

In an ongoing effort to restore my rack grade Winchester that I’ve nicknamed my “Winchester Grenadier” I picked up a M15 Grenade Launcher sight and disk.

I installed the sight disk after repairing the holes one of which was a ripped up a bit.

20120928-211310.jpg

The “Sight, Grenade Launcher, M15” is a simple stamped contraption used to aim grenades fired from a M7 Gernade Laucher suck on the end of a Garand.

Seen here with an M7 launcher and an M31 inert practice grenade (not explosive no one panic)

20120928-212036.jpg

The top of the M15 sight. Note the level and the front sight post on the left and the rear peep sight on the right.

20120928-212651.jpg

The bottom of the M15 is marked PRL which per Bill Ricca’s site means it was made by Pressure Lube Inc in NYC between March 44 and March 45.

20120928-220422.jpg

Since the holes in my Winchesters stock have seen better days I modified the tabs on the M15 sight by filing down the tabs a bit so that it doesn’t require as much torque to rotate the sight on the disk. The file on my Leatherman Wave fit nicely between the tab and the body.

20120928-215216.jpg

September Garand Match

Posted on by

Had good match today at KFGA dropped a miss on off hand I shouldn’t have while fighting with my position. I’ll continue to work on cheek wield and position which seems to be my biggest challenge.

Rapid again was my best stage. I must be doing something right here that I’m not doing in slow prone, likely position related.

Offhand is… Well off hand. My hardback jacket does help. I was able to call my misses, all from breaking the trigger at the wrong time.

Model of 1917 Extraction Problems Resolved!

Posted on by

I was able to successfully fix the ejection problems my M1917 was having with a flex hone, I posted about it here

While my initial “less than a minute” wasn’t enough, I honed it again for longer maybe 3 minutes in and out slowly (that’s what she said?) After I was done the shoulders were “white” so there was probably a lot of build up from years of shooting blanks.

HXP ejected like butter, some of my reloads still needed some extra force but that could be related to me poorly sizing the brass, mentioned back in may

I may touch it up just a bit more but I am excited that I finally found a solution!

I forgot to take a picture of my 1917 so instead here is one of my Winchester Grenadier while being test fired for the first time. (worked pretty well, 4 MOE, for an ME=3 rifle)

20120921-205218.jpg

Repair Stripped Wood Screw Holes

Posted on by

The Winchester rack grade I picked up at the North Store has holes in it for a M15 grenade sight. In my effort to attach the sight disk I discovered the top hole is stripped out.

20130121-193532.jpg

First I unsuccessfully tried Teflon tape. So I moved on to the toothpick method.

You will need. Toothpicks, wood glue, sandpaper, and either a box cutter or a heavy scissors.

First shove some toothpicks In the hole so they are nice and tight.

20120914-212152.jpg

Break off the toothpicks on just one side. Put some glue on the “broken side” I used another toothpick to help get more glue between the toothpicks. Then let it dry for awhile. Position the stock so that gravity will help the glue work down into the hole.

Carefully tape the stock up with painters tape and filed/sanded the toothpicks to be even with the sock.

20120914-213352.jpg

Use either a scissors or a box cutter to cut the toothpicks off on the other side and repeat the above process.

The tricky part is re-drilling the hole. This is probably a better job for a drill press as it is very tricky to keep the drill centered on the toothpicks. The idea is to drill a pilot hole only in the toothpicks so what is left just tightens up the hole. I hit a little stock which cause much cussing but it still worked out.

20120914-214917.jpg
My “Winchester Grenadier” with the sight disk for a M15 grenade sight installed.

UPDATE:

So I was not happy with the results of the above process. It became lose pretty quickly. I picked up some JB-weld. Put some painters tape inside the stock so it didn’t leak out.

20120928-105137.jpg

Put a bit of JB-Weld in the holes. A little more in the hole that was stripped. I used a razor to scrape off any excess.

20120928-105337.jpg

Then I screwed the disk on then clamped it all together with a shim and some scrap wood while it dried.

20120928-105554.jpg

After an hour I took the tape and shims off so they wouldn’t get glued to the stock and let it sit overnight.

The disk is now much more solid. And is able to accept the M15 sight without twisting the disk.

20120928-105835.jpg

Repairing a Garand Trigger Guard for Stock Fit

Posted on by

The trigger guard pins on an M1 Garand need to be “round” for proper stock fit, much like the late production SA stamped trigger guard that came with my Winchester rack grade.

20120913-205133.jpg

However, this part was designed to be softer than the receiver legs for good reason so often the pegs become flat on one side which can cause the trigger assembly to fall out of the stock.

This picture of some old manual seems to be floating around the Internet indicating that worn out pegs can be peened to improve lock up.

20120913-211527.jpg

A friend of mine gratuitously sent me a proper WRA milled trigger guard. Here is the “before” picture.

20120913-211651.jpg

As you can see it’s not that bad but I can’t stop myself from fiddling with it.

You will need a 1/2″ piece of wood to support the ears, American made ball peen hammer, and a shim.

20120913-212147.jpg

I used my big vice and supported a 1/2″ piece of plywood with some scrap wood so I didn’t hammer the wood out of the vice.

20120913-212429.jpg

There isn’t much to it after that. I carefully whacked ball peen hammer in the middle of the peg until the peg seemed a bit “rounder” You may consider using a wooded or rubber mallet and tapping the ball peen hammer.

20120913-212833.jpg

This seems to really just roll the edge back down and doesn’t reshape the entire pin however it should help with fit.