SA GI .45 - Too much sight adjustment?

[Snakebite Nixon]

How much sight adjustment is too much? This is the rear sight on my new Springfield GI. I thought I was having trouble getting used to the 1911 after shooting Glocks exclusively but after handing the gun off to 3 other experienced 1911 shooters to try, I learned it was the gun, not me. Out of the box it shot considerably to the left. The last shooter I lent it too adjusted it to the length of the range we shoot at and used a rest to verify the work. In principle, this is all it needs since it will now hit what I'm shooting at.

http://www.kevin108.com/sight.jpg

My question is if you were buying this gun used and saw how much the sight was moved, would you still buy it?

I've never shipped a gun before. UPS looks around $40 for the cheapest option. If it boils down to my only real option being to send it back to SA all of a sudden my $500 gun has turned into a $540 gun and I don't think I would have paid that for it.

:confused:

[John]

I would learn to live with it.

[BigO]

Well first off the picture of the sight doesn't seem to support what you are saying as to the gun shooting to the left .

All of the fixed sight 1911's I have owned or own "4" have had a small notch instead of an arrow on them and a corresponding notch on the slide and they were either perfectly aligned or very close to it from the factory , so I assume yours started out that way before your friend made an adjustment to it . Your rear sight has been moved to the left "looking from the rear of the slide" this is the adjustment for a weapon that is shooting to the right NOT the left .

Here is a link to a Taurus manual for one of their revolvers scroll less than halfway down and you will see the directions with a set of corresponding targets and illustrations on how open pistol sights are correctly adjusted .

http://www.taurususa.com/pdf/manual_revolver.pdf

As far as would worrying about too much of an adjustment to them , well it isn't like they have been adjusted so far they are in danger of falling off of the gun so what's the big deal ?

If the gun is now sighted for you like John said I would begin enjoying my gun and never give it another thought .

[Tom]

My initial thought was the sight was drifted to the left of center, which would increase the deflection and point-of-impact to the left. But looking closer at the picture, I believe the rear sight is correctly drifted to the right, which would "correct" the shots going to the left.

[Norton]

Hang one here!
I read the Taurus information. It tells what screw to turn in what direction to get the desired effect. No where did it state what is actually happening to the sight.
For all I know there maybe left hand threads or some weird mechanism in there.

If your shooting to one side you would move the sight to that side. The perfect sight picture would be of the blade equally centered between the sides of the rear site
(forget elevation for now). If you're grouping is right and you move the site left, when you hold on target there is a greater angle on the front of the gun to get a site picture. This would cause it to shoot further right.
If you would move to the left, the angle to the front of the barrel to the rear sight and target would decrease. Moving it more to the 12:00 position.

If I missed something flame away.
All comments are with the utmost respect intended.
Norton

[RickB]

I take the tick marks on the slide and sight as reference points for adjustment, not the "correct" location. If the gun shoots to one side, move the sight the thickness of the tick mark, and try it again. Keep adjusting until POA = POI. If it was drifted to the extent that the sight was hanging off the edge of the dovetail, then I might wonder about the fit of the barrel and/or bushing, but the illustrated amount of windage adjustment seems normal. If the gun now shoots to POA, don't worry about it.
To center the group, the rear sight is moved in the direction you want to go (hitting to the right, move the sight to the left). The front sight would be moved in the direction of the group (hitting to the right, move the sight to the right).

[gbw]

Hang one here!

If your shooting to one side you would move the sight to that side. The perfect sight picture would be of the blade equally centered between the sides of the rear site
(forget elevation for now). If you're grouping is right and you move the site left, when you hold on target there is a greater angle on the front of the gun to get a site picture. This would cause it to shoot further right.
If you would move to the left, the angle to the front of the barrel to the rear sight and target would decrease. Moving it more to the 12:00 position.

If I missed something flame away.
All comments are with the utmost respect intended.
Norton

If I understand this (maybe I don't), you may want to re-think it...

(Move the rear sight in the same direction in which you want to shift the group on the target. Move rear sight left, group shifts left, right for right. Elevation works the same way. Opposite effect for moving the front sight.)

[BigO]

Have no intention of flaming anyone as I may be mistaken also but , Tom if you look you will see the cocking serrations start at the front of the picture and continue towards the back which would indicate to me that we are getting a view from the rear of the slide and the sight would be drifted to the left .

Norton if you revist the Taurus sight and look at the upper left hand pic you will see it is of a target with a left of center POI and a rear sight showing the screw being turned clockwise .
These are the instructions as to what direction turning each screw will do I have highlighted the windage adjustment for you .

To raise the
rear sight, turn the
elevation adjusting screw
counterclockwise. To
lower the rear sight turn the screw clockwise. When raising the sight the
point of impact rises.
Lowering the sight, the point is lowered. The rear sight can also be adjusted
for windage. Turn the windage adjusting screw clockwise to move the notch
to right side, and counter-clockwise to move the notch to left side.

Open sight you move the rear in the direction in which you WANT YOUR POI TO MOVE scope you move the crosshairs over to the POI of the bullets .

If this is incorrect well all I can say is this is how I have been doing it for 30+ years and it works for some odd reason .

[Norton]

[QUOTE=BigO]
Open sight you move the rear in the direction in which you WANT YOUR POI TO MOVE scope you move the crosshairs over to the POI of the bullets .QUOTE]

That is what I thought I said! At least what I was attempting to get across.
Thanks,
Norton

[FreeMe]

Guys - look at the countersink cutout on the top of the rear sight in the photo. The cutout is (suposed to be) at the rear of the notch. We are indeed looking at the sight with the rear of the slide at the bottom of the photo. The sight has been drifted to the left. This would have been proper correction is the gun was grouping to the right, but that doesn't seem to jive with the OP.

Maybe time for the OP to "re-group" and re-evaluate? Then see where we're at...

[Tom]

Right. If you drift the rear sight to the left, then in order to line up the front and rear sight, the rear of the slide has to move to the right to compensate, and that will cause your shots to go towards the left. Conversely, if the rear sight is drifted to the right, then the rear of the slide must move to the left to correct, and you will shoot more to the right. It's very counter-intuitive.

No flaming inferred, BigO. We're just discussing. :D I understand what you're saying. I'd like to see a slightly larger picture area that shows more of the slide.

[FreeMe]

...or, maybe what we're missing is that the sight started out even farther to the left? In that case, everything's fine. If it's still shooting left, a little more to the center mark will probably cure - if it's right on, it's good to go. Just shoot it! :D

[1911-MASTERSMITH]

Snakebite,If moving your sight puts it on target, then by all means do so, after all that is why they make the back sight move in the dovetail. After looking at your photo your sight is not moved all that much, It has been my experince to move some a whole lot more than that. Myself, I would not spend money that I could buy ammo with on sending it back. Take it out and enjoy it. If after a while if it still bugs you, have a gunsmith install a new set of sights it wont be all that much. KEEP PACKIN THOSE 1911's!

[RickB]

The rear of the slide is at the top of the photo.

[Snakebite Nixon]

Sorry for the confusing photo. Yes, it was shooting left. The sight is drifted right to compensate.

[quadra]

Remember FORS(FrontOppositeRearSame) for moving Point of Impact. The photo has the rear of the slide at the top of the photo. I have the same GI 1911. The witness mark for drifting the rear sight is in front of the dovetail. My sights were right on for me. However, the rear sight did loosen(fall out). A little stippling of the bottom of the slide and Red Loctite fixed that. Sight is set dead on the witness marks. Pistol shoots to POA.

[BigO]

Ok I was indeed wrong after handling a 1911 Gods knows how many times I was certain "from memory" that the adjusting notch on the slide was on the backside "rearmost" part of the slide when it is on the front .

My apology's to all as this was inexcusable since my gun safe is within arms length from my computer chair and I could have grabbed one and looked before I started beating on the computer keys .

So yes Snakebite Nixon did indeed drift the sight to the right which is the correct adjustment for a left of center POI .

I do still stand by what I said in the original post as to simply forgetting about it and enjoying shooting the gun if it is now sighted in correctly .

[Snakebite Nixon]

Glad to know everything's (close enough) to as it should be.

If I had just cropped a little less of the picture everything would have been easier. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Thank you all!

[FreeMe]

The rear of the slide is at the top of the photo.

I stand corrected!