Frozen Gas Plug

[toolzguy]

Had my old M1 rebuilt many years ago by a professional smith with NM parts including 308 barrel. Now the gas plug is frozen. Attempts to use solvent, heat, impact tools including another professional smith have been unsuccessful and I'm faced with the choice of using as-is or drilling the plug out.

Has anyone else drilled this plug? I'm really scared that I will damage the weapon.

Has anyone else used their rifle and successfully cleaned it without removing the plug?

[RDS]

The gas cylinder can be cleaned from the rear once you remove the op rod.

[lapriester]

I don't think drilling will be very successful since it might not come out even then and then you'd have a useless rifle when all is said and done. The threads are very fine and, unless you have a professional Machinist do the drilling, with good equipment, you are going to destroy the cylinder. Attempting to do it yourself is a non-starter. I don't know what the other Gunsmith did but I suspect he red Loctited the gas plug in place. About the only way to defeat it, because of the fine threads, would be copious amounts of heat applied and go back to a 1/4" sized impact wrench or a larger with a 1/4" drive adapter. Just be mindful that while doing it you simply must have the gas cylinder clamped securely in a vise to prevent excess stress on the barrel grooves and gas cylinder splines when using impact or breaker bar tools. Not doing so would no doubt cause significant damage in those areas. This process will probably render the gas cylinder useless due to over heating so plan on replacing it and doing the NM mods to it if you want to retain the NM accuracy of the rifle.

As RDS stated, the best suggestion I would also have is to clean the cylinder every so often from the rear. Maybe once a shooting season max. As a NM modified rifle all that removing the cylinder does is loosen the splines each time you remove it. I have a 308 NM I built 6 years ago with many hundreds of rounds through it. The cylinder has never been off the rifle, the plug never removed and the rifle has never been out of the fully bedded stock. There's no need to do any of those things to adequately clean the rifle and anytime you do any of those things you stand a greater chance of ruining or wearing something you don't want to ruin or wear. NM rifles are not meant to be taken apart unless absolutely necessary for repairs or parts replacement.

[lapriester]

I wonder if he ever got the gas plug out.

[Jersey Devil]

I wonder, too. Hasn't been back since he posted his question.

[RDS]

It would be nice if some of the posters would give a follow up post. There is always something to learn from someone else.

[CCyooper]

I had one really stuck once and could not get it to release even with an extension on the handle of my small breaker bar. I even tried a little heat. Finally I let it soak in kroil for a few days and used one of those big screwdriver compression type tools, push down and it turns. I gave it a good wack and it released. It damaged the gas plug but that was easy to replace.

[Jersey Devil]

It would be nice if some of the posters would give a follow up post. There is always something to lean from someone else.

+1.
Nobody knows it all, and even newcomers have things to offer.