Purchased a S&W 627-5 and it has a barrel that is very slightly canted to the left. The rear sight was adjusted to the left to zero the gun at the factory. This is a performance center gun. I returned it to the factory as I expected better quality in my opinion. I wasn't able to zero the gun to my expectation since the rear sight couldn't be adjusted to the right more than a couple of turns before it locked up, one more issue. It was targeting to the left for me and I couldn't bring it back to the right enough to zero it for me. Can the barrel canting be centered or will I have to settle for good enough? Seams to me it should be centered at least to eyesight observation and the rear sight should be somewhere in the middle of the rear sight. Any experienced comments would be appreciated.

It's an easy fix if you have the right frame wrench. This is common on new guns these days. I find it easier to see this condition when looking front to rear, lining up the sights by eyeball. I can measure everything, but if it's off enough to be a problem you can tell just by looking at it. Make sure the cylinder is open during the inspection.

The factory should be able to correct it so the sight is centered. They'll retighten/retorque the barrel. Sounds like it was underclocked (not turned far enough) since it's POI is to the left.

My new 625PC has the same trouble.

Let us know how it shoots once you get it back.

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Waiting for the break of day

My new 686+ 2.5" I got last month came with the barrel canted or overclocked right. I called S&W and they sent me a prepaid FedEx label via email. I sent the gun back and got it back in about 10 days. It looks straight now. I took it to the range today and sighted it in at 10 yards. I did have to move the rear sight all the way to the left though. Nice tight groups with my wad cutters. I just might keep this one!

Glad they got it returned quickly to you & it's grouping well.

Having to adjust the rear sight that far is (has been for me) indicitive of the front sight canted though. If you closely look at the front sight blade, thru the rear sight notch while aiming, & closely check to see if the top & bottom of the blade are parallel to the notch's vertical edges, you can usually see if it's canted.

My 5" 686+ TALO is the worse of my canted barrels (adjusted fully right) but it shoots/groups great so unless another problem arises to send it in to the factory I plan on living with it.

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Waiting for the break of day

I tend not to tweak barrels unless running out of rear sight travel. Certainly not for cosmetic reasons!

Mostly because of the thread relief cut at the front of the barrel shank. It's not too difficult to get a bit of permanent deformation in the bore at this area, even just unscrewing the barrel a bit!

A factory induced distortion shown for illustration:



ETA: It's not so much the diametrical distortion that bugs me as the joggle offset in the rifling that sometimes occurs. The ring is usually a few thousandths bigger, but short enough that it doesn't much affect accuracy. Rifling offset seems to do nothing good, though.

ETW&BTW: The lack of a thread relief cut on pinned S&Ws is the only thing I find better from a build standpoint over the non-pinned models. They are just as commonly "off clocked" ("Indexed" seems the better term) though, and the pin on Post WWII revolvers is more for kind thoughts as the barrel top was pre-cut to allow the pin clearance before assembly!

Has anyone else noticed lately that there are SO MANY Performance Center guns with problems? I was under the impression that the PC line-up was SUPPOSED TO BE a bit higher in quality and accuracy than their standard line up is. Maybe S&W should find the root of this problem and actually hire experienced people to correct this situation! This has been a sticky situation for a while now and (at least in my circle of shooters) has become sort of a "joke".

The only thing you are getting with a Performance Center gun is a facy shaped barrel. All the rumors of action jobs and extra care in assembly are just BS marketing. I've been building my own custom revos for 30+ years so I've seen a few.

That's pretty rude. A VERY over-torqued barrel. I'd send it back for a new barrel...