Quoted:
Noticing the front sight base was canted to about 1:00,,, so I decided to knock out the taper pins and correct that.
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Would you enlighten us on how you plan to realign the barrel gas port and the front sight gas port after you have spun the front sight tower on the barrel?
Just put the taper pin back in the front sight tower and lets start over on correcting the problem.
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To correct your problem, you need to rotate/slip the entire barrel in the upper barrel socket to correct. You can do this by reinstalling the barrel and prevent the barrel from slipping out of index as you tighten the barrel nut.
Or, hold onto just the receiver, then strike the front sight tower just above the barrel with a leather mallet to slip the entire barrel (not just the sight tower) in the upper barrel socket to get the front sight to the correct index.