Hello.

What would cause my 69 to hit to the left with the rear sight already adjusted all the way to the right? It's hitting about 2+ inches to the left at 25m. (From a rest, and regardless of who's firing it.)

Thanks,

-Doc

My first thing would be to check the Muzzle Crown under magnification to see if there are any nicks or scratches.

A canted barrel would cause that. Is it visually off center?

Here is an example of a canted barrel.

Thank you for the replies!

The crown looks ok, even under a jeweler's loop, and it doesn't look like the barrel is canted.






In the interest of full disclosure, though I don't think it's part of the issue, I have a set of night sights installed (front and rear), but I don't know why aftermarket sights would cause such a severe windage issue. (I've never had to do that with any revolver sights to get it to shoot straight, regardless of OEM or aftermarket sights.) The rear sight is a typical blade/adjusting screw/nut kit installed on the OEM base, and the front sight is centered and square. (It can't really not be due to how it's installed on these.)

Note: I was just able to get a bit more rightward movement out of the rear sight which should help a bit, but still ... it's adjusted way over to the right and that doesn't seem correct.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I may not get out to shoot again for a couple of weeks, so there's no hurry to sort it out; it's perfectly accurate enough for self defense ranges.

-Doc

Is the axis of the bore in line with the cylinder ?.I had a colt once that looked like it was built to shoot around a corner.

Might want to try experimenting with your grip and how much finger you put on the trigger. I have seen a lot of shooters pull their shots with grips that felt good in their hand, but did not fit them properly.

I have the same problem with SA revolvers that have thin grips. Always seem to pull to the left. Thicker aftermarket grips cure the problem, or resting my right thumb on the recoil shield with stock grips. I know its me, but sometimes its easier to fix the problem with different grips than it is to fight it.

Benchrest - Good for accuracy testing, but, depending on your technique, recoil can cause a bullet to strike much differently then it would fired from a standing, two hand hold. Try a few cylinders full standing on your hind legs. When bench testing, for me, resting my wrists on a large soft sand bag, and making sure the gun is not touching anything works well. Also try a couple different loads.

Of course it could be a mechanical issue that S&W needs to look at, but the above is something I would try before thinking about sending it back.

Larry

Hello, folks.

Arjay: The bore certainly seems to be in line with the frame, but with it hitting just a few inches off at 25m, it could be out of line less than I'd be able to tell by eyeballing it.

Fishinfool: All good suggestions. I was definitely resting the thing completely on the sandbag, so that could be a factor. I tried several loads, including generic 240gr magnum, 320gr hard cast hunting (unpleasant!), and my .44 Special carry loads. The left issue was the same across the board. I carry it with the compact Hogue grips that are really too small for any serious shooting, but good for carry and SD ranges. (less printing with IWB carry) I shot with those and with the stock grips. Same results with both.

It has been a long time since I've shot regularly, but over the years I've been through a King Cobra, Mountain Gun, and Redhawk; and I had an opportunity to spend some time on the range with one of Bowen's .500 Linebaugh conversions. (Extremely unpleasant to shoot!) I carried a scandium/Ti .357 J-frame for a long time as well, and spent a fair amount of practice time with it. While I'm no dead-eye, I don't remember having a consistent leftward problem. (Learned to shoot handguns in general competing in IPSC, though no big recoil factors there.)

The bummer is that I never fired it with the stock sights, so I can't immediately say if it's the revolver or the aftermarket sights. Crud. I'll order a new screw/nut and put the original front and rear blades back in for a test. It'll be a couple weeks or so though.

Thanks again!

-Doc