Firearms Stack Exchange Archive

What is the procedure to adjust sights on a pistol?

What should I do to adjust sights on a pistol correctly? I imagine that specific technical details would be specific to the pistol, but what is the general procedure? Should I use a bench rest?

Answer 98

You're right, the details are specific to the pistol. Also, it'e pretty rare for fixed sights on a modern pistol to be very far off and if you really care about minute accuracy adjustments, you're probably in the custom gun, capable of doing this on your own level.

Some general advice: First off, do everything you can to guarantee as much repeatability as possible. You could use a bench or a rest of some sort, or go crazy and get something like a Ransom Rest. Assuming you are adjusting fixed pistol sights that are in a dovetail, you will also need some sort of sight adjustment tool to move the rear sight.

  1. Fire several rounds from your stable position. This is your baseline.
  2. If the shots landed to the left of where you were aiming, move either the rear sight to the right or the front sight to the left. If the shots landed to the right of where you were aiming, move either the rear sight to the left or the front sight to the right.
  3. Fire another shot or two to see the results of step 2.

In general, you should only move the rear sight, not the front. Also, it isn't easy to change elevation (shots landing above of below point-of-aim) on a pistol with fixed sights. It is possible, but often involves changing out parts or filling in the dovetail under the sights.

Answer 97

You can take one of two approaches to adjusting the sites: 1. Adjust to your shooting style and 2. Adjust for “true” accuracy.

I personally like to adjust to my shooting style. Which the procedure looks like:

From your normal shooting stance.

  1. Shoot 5 rounds at $range
  2. Am I on Target - if yes, done.
  3. Inspect and make minor adjustments according ot manufacturer instructions.
  4. GOTO 1.

To adjust for “true” accuracy

From bench rest:

  1. Shoot 5 rounds at $range
  2. Am I on Target - if yes, done.
  3. Inspect and make minor adjustments according to manufacturer instructions.
  4. GOTO 1.

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