G36C Tilted Flash Hider Fix

There's one thing that's bothered me a while now with the JG G36C, and as the title suggests, it's the flash hider. As it comes out of the box, the hider isn't screwed all the way in, rather it sits a few twists away.

The retaining screw, if tightened properly, pushes the nose of the flash hider up so it's no longer aligned with the barrel. If the retaining screw is left loose, the flash hider can move around. One of my worries is that in either case, BBs might be hitting the flash hider and going every which way.

I've used a scale modelling cutting mat to further illustrate the problem

If you do loosen the retaining screw and screw the flash hider on as far as it goes, it will sit straight.

No more tilt

But then the prongs of the flash hider are no longer properly aligned, and the retaining screw will be in the wrong position.

Retaining screw at around two o'clock position when looked at from the rear

If you're happy with this situation, then your tilt issue is fixed. I wasn't quite pleased here, however, so I sought some other options.

First I thought I could alleviate the problem by simply making the barrel threads tighter with some PTFE tape.

PTFE tape around the threads. You can also see the dents left by the retaining screw on the flat section of the barrel.

The tape was not enough to fix it, though, so I went further. If I could, in effect, lengthen the barrel a bit, the flash hider would tighten at the right spot. I noticed there's a nice flat area inside the flash hider.

Looking into the flash hider from the rear

A properly sized o-ring there would net me the effect I need. Sampling from my sorted o-rings box that I recently bought, I found the fitting one: 9.5 mm (3/8") by 12.7 mm (1/2").

The o-ring placed in the flash hider

With the o-ring in place, I screwed the flash hider back on, and it tightened just right where the retaining screw is pointed downwards.

Fitting tight, retaining screw at 6 o'clock position

The o-ring keeps pressure on the threads, so the flash hider is unlikely to unscrew itself even without the retaining screw, but it's best to tighten it a bit just to be sure. No need to twist it to even close to maximum tightness, though.

Finished fix. Flash hider sitting snug and straight