17-3 - rear sight off center, possible canted barrel?
Hello everyone,
This is my first post here as I recently started learning about S&W revolvers and came across this great forum.
I recently picked up my third S&W revolver on gunbroker.com to add to my gun collection and use as a frequent shooter on the local ranges. It is a 17-3 in great shape for a fair price without obvious signs of abuse or neglect. I first took it apart completely, degreased and cleaned it thoroughly inside, put it together, lubed it and it is now a really great gun, probably the most accurate of everything I tried before, grouping 1" from 25 yards using the pistol rest. I later upgraded the rear sight to the competition one and put the custom grips on it.
My only concern is that when I first sighted it in, I noticed that the rear sight needed to be off center and closer to the left to hit the center. I have another 15-4 revolver and the rear sight on it is perfectly centered. My other new 17-9 revolver also had the same issue but new production models are commonly known for misaligned barrels and the quality is not the same even though it is pretty accurate.
My question is whether this is an issue that should be addressed by S&W company or this is perfectly normal and within the quality control/tolerance limits? I read that anywhere within +1- degree is considered normal for barrel alignment.
I attached a few pictures of the revolver for your review and would just like to hear some opinions. I also showed the gun to the local gunsmith at the range and he said it looks normal and the barrel seems straight but I think I can see that the barrel is tiny bit under-torqued or it could be just an optical illusion because the lines are not perfect either.
Please let me know if I should just leave it alone and just keep it as is, I really enjoy shooting it and like the overall quality, it feels very solid and well-built compared to new models. Or should I try to contact the CS at S&W and ship it to them for possible barrel readjustment and aligning to have the rear sight dead-centered. I also do not want to have them mess it up and end up with a badly-repaired revolver. I would rather prefer to keep it as is instead.
Does anyone have the same type of issues with K22s when the rear sight needs to be adjusted to the left or to the right to stay accurate? I know that the sight is adjustable for a reason but I think the level of adjustment in my case is a bit too much.
Please advise and thank you in advance.
Last edited by lucidreamer; 06-17-2018 at 05:17 PM.
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