Model 41 Sight Adjustment

[Bumper]

I'm the happy owner of a Model 41, 1979 vintage. It has the standard factory rear sight for the period. 7" barrel.

Great shooter BUT the rear sight doesn't have enough travel in windage to zero. It shoots about 1" left at 25 feet. The left shooting has been confirmed off sandbags, and by good shooters competent with the Model 41. The windage adjustment screw appears to be at a hard-stop clockwise and with the sight blade is off-set to the right, but by my arithmetic, about 0.020" short of where it needs to me.

Looking at the sight/slide, it's not obvious how the sight should be drifted to get the required movement. The sight appears to be properly centered on the slide, and the sight blade offset to the right, just not enough.

Should the sight be disassembled, and the sight pivot pin drifted
appropriately or ?? Insight would be appreciated before I do something inappropriate.

 

[TOM BECKWITH]

Very unusual situation??? Suggest you check to see if front site is off center or that bbl rib is straight. Although never seen this - see if bbl is misaligned to bbl body?

 

[civil1977]

I don't think you can drift that style sight like you can with the style found on the other barrels, which sit in a dovetail.

Does it do this with different brands of ammo or just one?

Is the barrel extension bent at all? Take a look at it from the top and from the rear to see if it lines up well with the slide on both sides.

 

[Bumper]

I agree that "drifting" the sight doesn't appear to be possible.

One type of ammo so far--Federal Auto Match.

There isn't any obvious distortion of anything having to do with sighting. I think it would take a surface plate and dial indicators
to detect what I'm looking for.

Another question--the windage screw only has about 200 degrees of rotation, from full left to full right. The total sight blade movement for that screw rotation
appears to be about 0.020ish although I haven't measured it. I will do that. Does this sound about right?

Thanks for the responses!

Added: I measured the total travel of the sight blade from full left, to full right.
That measures 0.010". That seems awful tiny compared to the other
adjustable rear sights I've delt with. Is this reasonable??

 

[TOM BECKWITH]

Should move at least .1875" from side to side - basically right side of site cut (1/8") over to edge of gruve in site base and left side of site cut to opposite edge of gruve - or about .09375 (3/32")left or right of center. May need to shoot in some lube to smooth out movement. Sort of rough and jerky when dry.

 

[Bumper]

Thanks! I have the sight marinating in Kroil right now. There may be 30+ years of coagulated schmutz in the adjustment screw/blade mechanism. Will lube properly when the experiment is over.

I called S&W Customer Service this a.m. asking basically the same question(s). The basic response was "What to you expect--it's a thirty year old gun. Send it in and we'll take a look at it".
Wont make that mistake again.

Thanks again and will report back.

 

[Rawhyde]

I was shooting my 41 one day and my buddy was shooting his. Mine grouped great, and his was scattering them all over the paper. He wanted us to "swap guns" and see whether he was the problem or the gun. He shot fine with my gun. As I was inserting the magazine into his, the rear sight just slid out of its dovetail onto the ground. I told him that I was pretty sure we found the problem.....

Anyway, I unscrewed the elevation screw and gently pivoted up the assembly be careful not to launch the spring into low earth orbit and discovered that the sight is held into the dovetail with small allen set screws. A .050 allen wrench, and a couple of minutes later, we had his gun shooting tight groups again.

 

[Bumper]

I was shooting my 41 one day and my buddy was shooting his. Mine grouped great, and his was scattering them all over the paper. He wanted us to "swap guns" and see whether he was the problem or the gun. He shot fine with my gun. As I was inserting the magazine into his, the rear sight just slid out of its dovetail onto the ground. I told him that I was pretty sure we found the problem.....

Anyway, I unscrewed the elevation screw and gently pivoted up the assembly be careful not to launch the spring into low earth orbit and discovered that the sight is held into the dovetail with small allen set screws. A .050 allen wrench, and a couple of
minutes later, we had his gun shooting tight groups again.

Thanks. On my M41 however, the sight body fits in a milled channel that runs along the top of the slide with a pivot pin at the forward end. There is no dovetail. The sight body cannot drift sideways. My apparent problem is the lack of movement range for the sight blade. It has freed up some with the cleaning of the sight adjustment screw, but still only has a sixteenth of an inch (or less) total sideways movement. Will be off to the range shortly to see if this is enough (don't think it will be) and to try some different ammo.

 

[Robbartley]

I know this thread is over 12 years old...but I have the same issue with my newly acquired early 80's, 41 with 7" barrel. What options are there?

 

[chief38]

You could possibly have a worn out or have bad rear sight adjusting screw. I just went through this on my early 1970's tack driving Colt Gold Cup NM. The windage adjustment screw on the rear Elaison sight striped out and the the nut fell off while shooting one day. I did find the screw on the Range floor and saw that it was stripped on part of the very fine threads. I ordered a new screw and nut and installed them. I then had a situation that the sight would not move as intended with the new parts. It would only go so far and then did nothing - no adjustment left. I then realized the threaded portion of the sight blade barrel was also stripped inside, hence the adjustment feature was kaput!

I wound up buying an entire new Elaison rear sight for the pistol (from Kensight) and installed it. Thankfully new ones are still available. Problem solved. Not sure where you can get a new sight for the M41 or if yours is kaput, but it is worth getting a new screw, nut and washer and seeing if that helps. S&W might have the parts - call them. If they don't, ask them where to get them. I'd also suggest getting a few screws & nuts in case you either loose one or screw it up when installing it. Most need to be staked at the end of the screw after installation but my M41 is asleep in the safe right this minute so I have not looked. The parts are usually inexpensive - most times less than the freight and handling!

 

[Robbartley]

Thank you so much for the reply. I have to apologize, I wasn't clear in my post/ask. I am sorry. My sight moves fine. My problem is the same as the original poster. My windage adjustment is maxed out and I am still 1.5 inched right of POA at 15 yards. The bore at the muzzle appears to be 0.008" off center to the right. The rear sight does not appear to be driftable...will having the barrel re-lined remedy my issue?