I own a S&W 386 PD. It has a standard "V" rear adjustable sight and a Hi-Viz red front sight. I cannot find the correct sight picture with this combination. I can hit shots at 25 yards on a 12" target, but placement is not well grouped. I've tried putting the red dot "in" the V rear sight, and I've tried laying the dot just above the V, using the top of the dot base, level with the top of the V. What is the correct sight picture? I love my 386 PD, the carry weight and capacity and of course my favorite .357 mag cal. I'm pleased that I can hit 12" at 25 yds all with such a short barrel but feel I could do better if I wasn't guessing at the sight picture. I wrote S&W but have not yet received a response. Any help out there? Thanks.

I have a m-317 with 3 in. barrel and I just could not shoot it accurately with that v-notch even though a friend could . So I emailed Smith for the correct size sight that I would need , then I ordered a white outlined square notched rear sight blade and kept the green hi-vis . Now its a shooter that I can hit what I am aiming at .

My 325PD came with a similar sight set up. I just replaced the V blade with a standard blade and all is good.

BTW: the V blade is intended for fast shooting, not taking the time to gain a true sight picture.

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Go NRA

Like someone else suggested your best bet is putting in a square rear sight as opposed to the V shape. If you want to keep trying with your current set up what I would try out is sighting in with the tops flush to each other. This may give you a bit of a funny image of the front sight as far as the fiber optic is concerned but as you're looking down the sight it will give you something more solid to index on.

The other thing that you may notice is that if you change from a modified weaver stance to a duelist offhand stance your view of the sights will change with the front sight appearing to be smaller and fitting into the V notch better. Its not the stance that was intended for this gun but this gun was designed more for speed and point shooting (defensive) than for target shooting.

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Son of a Gun...Smith

Groo here
Try this, look at the front sight and forget the rear [ your eye will line up
for you]
Then shoot fast!!!!!!!!!!!
That sight is not a target sight ,,rather a dangerous game sight..
Fast and dirty..

Could we try this again and deal with what we have rather than what we could change it to - a "V" rear sight with a HiViz fiber optic front sight.

Should the front sight optic sit in the V or line up with the top of the V?

Should the front sight "dot" have the target sitting on it or should the dot cover the target?

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Shooting for 65 years!

I line the tops up and place them at 6 o'clock, try using a 2" dot at 25 yds, I've had pretty good luck this way , be patient and try it , the more I use these sights the better I get, I went so far as to get a 22 with the same sights as trainer for 44, hope this helps

Line up the tops of the sights. The different shapes (round front sight with the flat top of the V) can make it hard to get a precise sight picture. As noted, this is a fighting sight more in the nature of an express sight, not a precision sight. Look at the discussion of such things on the XS sights website. I have an XS big dot package on my G33; it works for the purpose, but it can be slower for true precision shooting unless you really work at getting to know the sight.

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NHI, 10-8.

My guess is that you should "aim" the Hi Viz on the V blade in a similar manner to XS sights.



XS Sight Systems - Sights

They have you set the dot of the front sight at the base of the V and place the front sight on the target. It works well enough at close range a for quick work, but I've never tried it at any distance. I put XS sights on a NAA .32 Guardian which came with next to nothing for sights. They are fine for that little pocket gun. My brother has Glock 19 with XS sights. He finds them hard to use because of the vertical alignment issues at 7-15 yards.

Vern