Thanks Rick. I think that is the best idea I have heard yet as far as
the break is concerned. Is there any forseeable issues with replacing
the sights or will they still line up correctly?

--- In Practical_Carbine@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Randall" <geodkyt@...>
wrote:
>
> Your barrel diameter where the front sight is should be the standard
> 0.575". Guess what? The standard AK74 front sight goes on at a
> barrel diameter of 0.575" (except some Romananian ones)!
>
> Install an AK75 front sight housing, and take a 5.45x39mm AK74 brake
> (original), and open it up to allow the 7.62x39mm bullet through.
> Now you have a threaded muzzle brake and a bayonet lug. (I know this
> will work, as a buddy of mine did it to a "beater" pre-ban AK he had.)
>
> Rick Randall
>
> --- In Practical_Carbine@yahoogroups.com, "not hard if you try"
> <sfcnathansmith@> wrote:
> >
> > All,
> >
> > I've been reading this group for a while but this is my first post.
> I
> > have a Maadi ban-era AK rifle that I am now modifying into the rifle
> > that I want. The rifle has had the threads turned off of the muzzle
> > and the bayonet lug locks removed - rather crudely too. No big deal,
> > the rifle was inexpensive by AK standards and what I want is an
> > intermediate caliber rifle/carbine. It is that. I am now modifying
> the
> > rifle to be a little more tactically oriented. I put a Romanian side
> > folding stock on it, which I love, and am modifying the rest of the
> > furniture as well. I also bought one of those pin-on AK-74 looking
> > muzzle breaks for it. That is where the trouble began. The bayonet
> lug
> > had to removed the rest of the way, which was not hard, just
> > unexpected and time time consuming. A little flat file work squared
> it
> > away so that I could slip the muzzle break on over where it had
> been.
> > I drove the front pin out of the front sight assembly, slipped the
> > break on, and drove the replacement pin into place. It looked
> great. I
> > was disapointed because it rattled every so slightly. I looked at it
> > more closely and realized that it is canted to one side, just enough
> > so that if I were to fire the rifle the bullet would strike the
> inside
> > edge of the break. Not good. I am looking for any advice from
> someone
> > who may have encountered this problem and found a workable
> solution. I
> > may resort to removing the break permanently. That would piss me
> off.
> > I also bought the UltiMax picatinney rail gas tube on the rifle. I
> > found that the tube cannot be tightend down completely without it
> > binding the gas piston. When the piston runs smoothly the rail
> > rattles. It does me no good to have a loose scope mount. I also
> bought
> > the lower handguard with the rails on it. Again, it looks great, but
> > it binds on the barrel bands that hold the gas tube. It can be
> > modified with a little careful file work, but the friggin handguard
> > cost me 50 bucks, the gas tube cost 100. I now have over $300 in
> > accessories for this $300 rifle and instead of a rifle that has all
> of
> > the features that I want I have a rifle that is nearly unusable
> unless
> > I remove some of the mods! I hope some experienced carbine
> afficienado
> > has some good ideas.
> > In the mean time - Happy Easter and thanks for listening.
> >
> > ~NKS
> >
>