How does one "adjust barrel alignment"?

[Triggernosis]

I just received my 317 revolver back from S&W where I had sent it in because it was shooting about 3"-5" too high, even with the rear sight all the way down.
Their repair summary said that they "adjusted barrel alignment". Can someone explain to me exactly what that means and how it's done? I'm guessing the must've whacked it with one of those lead bars or something.
I don't care what they did to fix it, just trying to understand.

 

[Triggernosis]

I just received my 317 revolver back from S&W where I had sent it in because it was shooting about 3"-5" too high, even with the rear sight all the way down.
Their repair summary said that they "adjusted barrel alignment". Can someone explain to me exactly what that means and how it's done? I'm guessing the must've whacked it with one of those lead bars or something.
I don't care what they did to fix it, just trying to understand.

 

[john traveler]

As radical and as disgusting as it sounds, bending the frame by whacking with a soft metal bar is exactly what they do.

Regulating a fixed sight revolver involves smacking on the barrel-to-frame junction, to raise or lower the barrel pointing direction or correct left-right impact errors.

For your adjustable sight gun, they very likely replaced the rear sight blade with a lower one.

 

[bill_in_TX]

It may depend on exactly what they find.

I sent a 686 back that had a visually obvious "cock" to the barrel. They told me that they took the barrel off, refaced the barrel shoulder to square it up and reinstalled, then put in a new cylinder (no reason given).

As an aside, I bought the gun used and told S&W as much. They still corrected it and sent it back no charge.

 

[bountyhunter]

It was also my understanding that they could slightly change the point of impact by machining some metal off the barrel shoulder to get it to lean a bit in the necessary direction.

I sure don't want them taking the metal bar to any gun I own....

 

[Triggernosis]

Thanks for the info. guys.

 

[Rock185]

I couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents worth. To correct the point of impact on a fixed sight gun or on adjustable sighted gun, where there is not enough sight adjustment to get the POI where the user wants it, john traveler is right. A flat-sided lead babbitt is used to smack the barrel in the direction you want the POI to move. It does make one a bit queasy the first time you see it done. Once the barrel is wiped off, it doesn't seem to leave a mark. By the way, it does work. If the front sight and/or rib is leaning to one side or another,other types of correction, as mentioned by the previous posters, is required.