Front Sight Filing

jimmyj

jimmyj

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Hi:
In the "distance past" windage adjustment on a fixed sight revolver was made by taking off metal from one side of the front sight.
Does anyone recall which side would change the POI to the right or left ?

Thanks,
Jimmy
 
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Hopefully others will confirm but by my desktop figuring you would take the material off the side that you want to shot group to shift to.
That said, I would not do this myself for fear of devaluing the gun with an in-correctable change.
 
FORE = front opposite, rear same; meaning move the front sight the opposite direction you want to change the POI (point of impact) and the rear sight the same direction you want to change your POI.

For example, if the POI (point of impact) is to the left move the front sight to the left (i.e. the opposite of the direction in which you want to change your POI) and/or move the rear sight to the right (i.e. the same direction in which you want to move your POI).

Jimmy,
Filing material off the left side of the front sight effective moves the front sight to the right and filing material off the right side of the front sight effectively moves it to the left. So, for example, if your POI (point of impact) is to the left, and you're obviously wanting to move your POI to the right, you would file off the right side of your front sight because you want to move the front sight the in the opposite direction to which you want to change your POI.

In general I do not believe in taking hammers or files to firearms, especially S&W revolvers, unless it's the only option and you've figured it out and measured multiple times before acting so please get additional opinions to confirm (or refute) what I have written.

AJ,
I'm fairly sure Jimmy is referring to taking material off the side of the the front sight. You are correct in that filing down the height of the front sight will raise the POI.
 
The POI will shift in the OPPOSITE direction you move the front sight, regardless of whether you drift or file it.
Filing off the TOP of the front sight LOWERS the sight, moving the POI UP.
Filing off the right side of the sight moves the front sight LEFT, which moves the POI RIGHT.
Filing off the left side of the sight moves the front sight RIGHT, which moves the POI LEFT.


Filing the sides of the sight makes little difference, and seldom produces satisfactory results. It was common practice on many blackpowder guns to make the front sight too tall and file it down to match the chosen load in elevation at the desired range.


Added: g8rb8 types faster :)
 
Last edited:
Wee Hooker said:
Hopefully others will confirm but by my desktop figuring you would take the material off the side that you want to shot group to shift to.
That said, I would not do this myself for fear of devaluing the gun with an in-correctable change.
Click to expand...

I would agree with Wee Hooker. If the gun is shooting to the left and you want it to shoot more to the right then take material off the right side of the front sight.
 
Have never seen anybody file a front sight for a windage problem. Move it left or right in a dovetail, I have seen.
 
Most S&W front sights are not in a dovetail, as they are on a semi-auto. A dovetail can be machined into the barrel and a dovetail sight installed, if that is desired.
 
You can make some pretty good windage adj by filing the 1/8" wide front sight blades. There's enough mat'l there so you still have a decent width blade when done if you don't over do it.
The earlier 1/10" wide blades don't leave you much to work with. Even a small adj can leave you with a hair line of a blade as a sighting post if you're not watching what you're doing.

Check the bbl first to make sure it's not canted in the first place one way or the other. Even a portion of a degree off and it'll be the same as the front sight being adjusted way off to the side.
Resetting to 12oclock generally doesn't need the cross pin hole to be redrilled if the adj is very small. Sometimes the bbl can be turned that small amt w/o even removing the pin but it's a call you have to make from experience.
Check the bbl crown too for damage or wear, that can throw groups off also from the POA.
 
I should mention that I once had a model 637 that shot 6" left at 50'. I sent it to smith (no charge even though I was the third owner) and they did their magic to make it shoot right on. ( I believe their magic was to whack the barrel with a lead slug but can't confirm. :-))
 
JimmyJ, you have not told us exactly what firearm you are working with, and that could affect the opinions about the best method for fixing it.

Other people have given good advice about this issue, but I'll still offer the overall summary which came to mind for me. There are two well known methods for adjusting the windage on fixed sight revolvers. One method is to slightly torque the barrel so the sight moves a little in the desired direction. This method may or may not require removing the barrel, and possibly cutting the barrel so it screws in another turn. The other method is to whack the frame of the gun with a lead bar in a very judicious way. Note, that whacking the frame with a lead bar is not as crude as it sounds. It is my understanding that this is an actual factory armorers procedure and is done with a fair bit of finesse. It is recommended that this method should be left to people who have done it many times before.

Neither of these methods is likely to be a home repair, but either method is likely to give better aesthetic results than filing the front sight. If you have a relatively thick front sight, and you are good with a file, it may be possible to get good results by filing the front sight.

If you are working with a common gun that has a heavy barrel, then milling a dovetail, and going to a dovetail front sight, can also be a good option. There was a recent thread about someone who had this work done to a model 65, and the results were quite good.

On any recent gun that was under warranty, I would consider sending it to S&W and letting them use one of the factory armorer methods to correct the issue.
 
I have asked the question before about the exact procedure used to whack the frame with a Babbitt bar to move the POI. So far, no one has ever provided any details as to exactly how that act is accomplished, just some broad generalities. So I am asking again.
 
You may be expecting too much from a fixed sight service revolver. I would suggest learning to shoot the gun based on it's tendencies or replace it with a target sighted gun. Good luck.
 
If it is a "Fixed" front sight, I would not remove any metal or change the sight. It can not be replaced...........

Send it to a smith to have the needed "Adjustments" to the weapon to shoot correctly.
A good "Gunnie" has the knowledge, correct tools and and tricks of the trade
passed down to him from many years of working on weapons
from other Gunsmiths.

When in the service, we never removed metal from the front sight of a weapon. We might have altered the rear sight or swapped it out, in order to improve the "Impact area".......
but 90% of the time the shooter learned to adjust for the load.

You might even switch to a different ammo, to fix the problem.
Grabbing a file is the last resort.
 
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