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After a few frustrating trips to the range with my S&W M&P Shield 9mm, I realized that the front sight is badly misaligned, to the point where it's grouping 6+ inches to the left at 7 yards. After Googling it, I see that others have reported exactly the same issue.

The manual states that the front sight can be adjusted by drifting it with a brass punch. I knocked it around pretty good with a brass punch, but it wouldn't budge.

I then decide to replace the sights, because I don't shoot 3-dot sights well anyway. I buy a sight pusher and am able to remove and replace the rear sight. It put up a struggle, but ultimately it wasn't too difficult.

The front sight, however, would not budge, and actually broke the sight pusher. I then resort to pounding the hell out of it with brass punches, bending several of them. I then use a steel punch with PVC tape on it and pound on that as hard as I dare for fear of marring the finish, and that doesn't work either. I tried freezing the slide as one internet poster suggested, but that, rather predictably, did not work.

I'm left with a somewhat deformed, brass-marked and misaligned white dot front sight, in front of my nice, properly-centered Wilson Combat Vickers Elite rear.

Apparently I'm not the first to experience the problem of a stubborn front sight either. Does anyone have any ideas? If someone knows a gunsmith in the Houston area who could remove it for a reasonable price (I can install my own replacement), I'd appreciate that as well.