Hello guys

I recently bought a mint condition 1984 MkI HW77, beautiful wood and unmarked blueing. I have fitted a Vmach kit and improved the performance, smoothness and hushed it up some what in the process. (Although it was still pushing 11.6 ft/Ibs after 27 years!)

Anyway, here's the issue. For a few weeks the whole forward sight/underlever retaining assembly has become loose and moves backwards and forwards a few mm, then, I was cleaning my rifle yesterday and as I pulled the under lever out the retaining spring and ball bearing flew out! To be able to fix it properly requires the edges of the metal to be crimped in to stop the ball bearing coming out which looks to be very difficult to fix whilst on the rifle. As the forward sight assembly was already a bit loose I decided to give it a tap with a plastic hammer to see if it would come off.....well it wasn't actually much of a tap but the whole thing came off instantly! Glad it didn't fall apart in the field as I would have been really in the sh**t!

Anyway, has anyone experienced this issue before? If I can get the ball bearing and spring to stay in place with a small cold chisel making the original cold headed marks a bit bigger there is always the issue of the whole assembly still being loose on the end of the barrel. Will locktite work? Any suggestions? Also been thinking, as the end is already off what about the Vmach race muzzle brake/moderator kit? Does anyone know if this is still available as I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet. Are they any good?

All thoughts welcomed!

Adrian