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Old 03-17-2013, 11:31 PM
Jeffersonwasright Jeffersonwasright is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Austin, TX
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Default SD9VE Rear Sight WAY Off

My new SD9VE is the first handgun I've owned in more than 30 years. It's also the first I've purchased brand new, and the first semiauto. When I first took it out of the box, one of the things I noticed was that the rear sight didn't seen to be positioned midway between the two sides of the slide. It was very far to the left. However, the sight is plastic, and I never assume that a plastic piece will be as symmetrical as one that's milled or cast from metal. What I did assume was that the sight had been adjusted at the factory, and that what I was seeing probably resulted from some other aspect of the gun that wasn't in the absolute center of its tolerance window. Well, I went to the range for the first time today, and it turned out that all these assumptions were incorrect.

My first shot at a target about 7 yards away was very near the center. This turned out to be an accident, nothing more than beginner's luck, but it threw me off for the next 50 rounds of shooting. The thing is, I've also discovered that I can no longer see sights clearly without my reading glasses, and things were a little fuzzy on that first shot. After I put on my glasses, the sights were clean and crisp, but I couldn't hit the center of the target to save my life. My wife - shooting a handgun for the first time ever - was lucky to hit the target at all.

By the time we'd shot about 40 rounds, I saw we were grouping mostly in the far lower left corner of the target. It was low mostly because my wife was dropping the barrel slightly before many of her shots, but it was to the extreme left because of the rear sight. This was confirmed by one of the attendants at the range, and at that point, I cut the session short. I have since disassembled the gun for cleaning, and while the slide was off, I adjusted the sight. I made the adjustment by eye using a steel rule. I won't know how accurate it is until my next trip to the range, but I'm sure it will be miles better than before.

My main purpose in posting this is to warn other novice users about this issue. I have read a couple posts here in which new buyers complained about an extreme lack of accuracy. In both cases, the advice was to practice and improve their technique, but with no mention of the rear sight. For anyone else who may be having the same difficulty, it's clearly worth considering that your aim may not be the problem. Check the sight, and if it looks like it's offset, it probably is.

I'll just add that despite this issue, I'm very impressed with this gun. The fit and finish are excellent, and even though it's only now starting to break in, I can already tell that it's smoother. Many thanks to S&W for producing such a good quality firearm at an affordable price!

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