Yugo front sight stuck up

[BrianTSmith99]

Hi!

Brand new to the SKS. And I had to start playing with it I lifted up the front grenade sight, and now it is stuck. I soaked it in kerosene for a while, and then cleaned up with CLP but it is still stuck. I see what I think are the hinge pins on the muzzle end of the sight base, and what look like locking nibs just a little behind the hinge pins, and I tried pushing them in with picks while attempting to simultaneously rotate the sight back, but no luck. Is there a catch somewhere that I am clueless on? Or do I have to fire a grenade before I can get the sight down?

Thanks!
Brian

[Junk Yard Dog]

SKS guys? Were you at? We have a situation here!

[BrianTSmith99]

Take a deep breath. We will be OK. Or was my grenade comment scaring you? It is not me you need to worry about. My son envisions using his SKS to launch tennis balls for his Lab.

Besides your love of TR, I also like your sense of humor.

[Junk Yard Dog]

We got SKS guys all over the board, one of them is bound to see this question. I have a Yugo SKS with that same sight, but it's buried in storage and I don't remember how it's done. I do remember that I locked it open once and did figure out how to close it eventually, what I did I don't recall.
No, the grenade comment didn't scare me, if it goes off there is no possibility of it harming me

[Greasemonkey]

It's just held up by detents, no lock or anything, except when in the down position, the gas selector switch kind of closes over the ladder sight. If it is one of the unissued Yugo's, it may just be extremely tight and take quite a bit of force to release it from the detent.

[Woodbeef]

Yup two short pins with a spring in the middle. If you look at your sight,at the end of the "L" closest to the gas valve are the detents. Probaly just gummed up with cosmo. Try a blow dryer on them to get the cosmo out.

[OLD OUTLAW]

Even then, on my new guns, I have to push hard or bump them with the back of my hand to get it to go back down. Those suckers are really
tight to get to lay back down. That's why I don't launch dummy grenades or tennis balls. By the way, with that Lab, better have the lab trained to sit and
stay a hundred yards or so in front of your launch point!

Also, be darned sure you buy the correct launcher blanks for the Yugo rifle. Do not want any unnecessary accidents to occur.

[Junk Yard Dog]

See, question answered, I guess I must have forced mine back down, force is not something I like to use on a firearm or other device, but I guess some things require it.

[BrianTSmith99]

Hey! Thanks for that guys! I will forward the tennis ball comments on to son

Yeah, makes me nervous to force it, but I will clean/heat/bump and see if I can get it back down.

Reminds me of a quote I read about the M1895 Nagant Revolver in wikipedia "As one former Imperial Russian officer stated, "if anything went wrong with the M1895, you could fix it with a hammer".

Maybe I need to get one of those for practice

Thanks!

[BrianTSmith99]

A little brake cleaner, a little blow dryer, a little thump, and it budged!

Junk Yard Dog... you are safe to come out. The sight is down and it ain't going back up any time soon That thing is TIGHT.

Thanks again guys!