Barrel and breach stamped alignment marks?

[slobbergoat]

While cleaning my m4, I noticed that there seems to be a pair of stamped 'alignment marks' or something of that nature where the barrel is mated to the breach piece - they're not entirely aligned being off by about half a millimeter. Can post a photo if that's any help.

Looking online, most removed barrel assemblies don't seem to have these marks at all.

Is this anything to concern myself about? I spent a while staring at them but can't seem to see any noticeable misalignment with the front sight or so on that'd suggest that the barrel has been pressed on crooked.

[RxArms]

Pics will help

[slobbergoat]

You can see the tab here. Checked the gas  pistons, their clearances seem to be equal, certainly not off as much as the marks are.

Is this maybe a drift mark to friction weld the two surfaces and not an alignment mark at all? It looks like they have been punched rather than cut into the surfaces.

[Unobtanium]

This is fine. I have never seen them align on any of mine. I do not understand their purpose to be honest, given this.

[Ben elLes]

7 hours ago, Unobtanium said:

This is fine. I have never seen them align on any of mine. I do not understand their purpose to be honest, given this.

Perhaps their purpose is to make sure they’re slightly unaligned then. 😀