Anyone have any good tips for centering the front sight without calipers? It is much easier to change out a Glock type front sight. Even the S&W rear sight, as difficult as it is to push, has edges that line up pretty close to the edge of the slide so you can tell if it is centered. But the front sight is dovetailed, not posted, and there aren't any precision reference points to work with. In fact the beveling on the last slide I worked on seemed a little asymmetrical which made it even harder. When I try to eyeball it, it always seems to look different when viewed from different angles so hard to be definitive.

So without calipers what's the best way to make sure it's even? I ended up using an allen wrench to measure-- used the bend to hook the edge of the slide and marked the measure to the sight and then reversed and measured form the other side to see if it was equal. There has to be a better way?

Of course you have to shoot it to tell for sure, just want to see if anyone has good ideas for getting to that starting point.

Buy yourself a set of digital calipers, they can be had for less than $20 at just about any auto parts store. They have many other uses as well.

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Minimize the variables

Use a good depth gauge.

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Centennial Every Day

Even if the sights are exactly centered on the slide it doesn't mean the gun will shoot exactly straight, that can only be achieved by fine tuning at the range. However an easy answer to your question is put the slide in a vice slightly below the jaw line so you can measure from the jaw to the sight on each side. This will work even if the slide is tapered at some point.