Once Again I Have Snatched Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory!!!!!

[Punch The Clown]

OK, I have a super clean, all correct 5.8 Springfield. Anyway, it does and always has shot lousy. It functions flawlessly but it's accuracy has always been miserable. Anyway. the gas cylinder has always been loose every since I've owned it. Tim's first suggestion was to tighten the gas cylinder but I dismissed that. No way that can make this thing shoot 6" groups at 50 yds. Well, I finally caved in and went through my stash of SA gas cylinders and I found one that needed to be tapped on with a block of wood. Went to the range this AM and my first 5 shots at 50 could be covered with a quarter! It was shooting about 1" left, so I decided to move the front sight. It was tight but I got it loose, and tapped it over a skosh. 5 more shots and it opened up like a shotgun! WTF? Anyway, the gas cylinder was loose again! I took it home, peened the splines a little, and re-installed the gas cylinder USING HAULIES TOOL AND A GAS LOCK WRENCH. Bottom line is I will never take it off again and I will always use a gas lock wrench. End of story.

[timshufflin]

So sad, so very very sad.

[Dave]

Sometime's it's the simple things in life that can be most frustrating. Eh? :)

You think yours is bad? I built one with what appears to be a brand new 7/45 barrel. This thing shoots so far right it was'nt even hitting the pallet I had my targets on. Had to shoot into a large sand berm to see WTF was going on. Even with the front sight hanging half off the cylinder it still sucks. I rechecked barrel index, dead on, passes tilt test fine (was thinking bent barrel might show up on that). I gave up on that one and set it aside as a "rainy day" project and over time its got pushed to the back of the safe. One of these days I need to go back to it and figure it out. It has to be a bent barrel. Never seen one that screwed up before.

[luvmym1 13]

When I bought my rifle I was told that the sights were zeroed in so dont touch them. Went to the range and he was right they were zeroed in. So of course I did what you would expect... I touched them. bottomed the appeture out because I wanted to sight it myself. Thought it was cool to watch a 1943 Army training film on sighting on youtube and headed to the range. Went the prescribed 8 clicks up and proceeded to make every worm and gofer in the area afraid for there lives. It took a month to figure out what I screwed up. So now I try not to touch them.

[The Garand Guy]

If the shoulders of the barrel were trimmed with a file, there is the possibility that it was done in a uneven manner, causing the barrel to cock to the right or left. You have to take it off & have a machinist cut the shoulder even. If it was uneven, this could cause the shots to be off. Tony Giacobbe, The Garand Guy