Adjusting windage on a fixed sight gun

[BigBlueDodge]

Picked up a Walther PPK/S at last gun show for my wife (great gun btw, but that is another post). Took it to the gun range and it is shooting the the left. It has a dovetail rear sight. Aside from getting a hammer and to bang on it, do you guys have any other suggestions for adjusting it? Are there any tools out there that will push it over without hammering on it? I don't want to scratch up the finish on the gun.

[bdickens]

Hold the gun in a vise with padded jaws and use a brass punch.

[Greybeard]

Before doing any whoopin' on it, if not done already, I'd suggest shooting some groups from bench and bag and/or letting someone else shoot it. The problem is often with the operator and not the sights.

Most common error I see from the shot placment you describe is too much trigger finger and/or sympathetic squeezing with the non-trigger fingers.

[BigBlueDodge]

As much as I would like to think it is operator error, I really don't think that is the case on this one. You can see that the sight is not centered in the dovetail channel. I've decided to not mess with it right now, and just shoot some more rounds through it and let the barrel break in some more before I start adjusting the sights. I don't want to adjust them now, and then have to adjust them once more when gun starts getting broken in and group potentiall shifts a bit.

[57Coastie]

Picked up a Walther PPK/S at last gun show for my wife (great gun btw, but that is another post). Took it to the gun range and it is shooting the the left. It has a dovetail rear sight. Aside from getting a hammer and to bang on it, do you guys have any other suggestions for adjusting it? Are there any tools out there that will push it over without hammering on it? I don't want to scratch up the finish on the gun.

While I cannot address your specific question as to the PPK/S, I can say that such tools are made, or can be made by a competent machinist, to use generally a rotary screw pressure to make this adjustment. A couple of years ago I purchased such a tool on the 'Net from either Brownells or MidwayUSA - I just cannot remember which. I had to replace the front sight dovetailed insert on a milsurp rifle (it had to be taller in order to change the minimum elevation on the iron sights from 300 meters to 100 yards, a common requirement for a 100 year-old Swedish Mauser). It was necessary for me to modify the tool a bit to fit the Swede nicely, but it was well worth the time and money in avoiding pounding on the front sight, even with a punch, probably the normal procedure, and scratching up a lovely usable collector's item. I guess that what I am saying is that if you make a serious effort to find one you may be lucky, like I was.

I certainly agree, on the other hand, with Graybeard's suggestion, if you have not done this already. Adjustment in grip and trigger control may take care of the problem, but there is no way to know from a distance, of course.

If I might take that a little further, recognize that my need to apply gentle pressure to the front sight was necessitated by the rifle being intended for shooting in stock iron sight milsurp matches at my local club, and the difference between a zero at 300 meters and 100 yards takes just too much Kentucky windage in a match against tough competitors. On the other hand, assuming your Walther is for self-defense, a bit of Kentucky windage at a normal combat distance may be no big deal -- but that is of course a subjective matter.

Jim

[striker55]

Tried moving my front sight on my Remington XP-100, stripped out the screw. Purchased a sight pusher, no more problems.

[jimlongley]

I would suggest a little plane geometry exercise before you move the sight. As suggested above, get different shooters to shoot groups with it, and if the same left displacement occurs with all shooters, use the meta group to figure out how far you have to displace the sight. Calculate the mean center of all the groups, then calculate the angle for the range the test was shot at, then calculate the relative displacement of the sight over the sight radius of the gun, then use a sight pusher to move the sight that far.

The necessary angle formulae can be found in your handy CRC Table, or Wikipedia.

I have used the above to both finish mounting a sight on my CVA percussion rifle, and to place a new sight on my Ruger .22/45.

[The Annoyed Man]

I would suggest a little plane geometry exercise before you move the sight. As suggested above, get different shooters to shoot groups with it, and if the same left displacement occurs with all shooters, use the meta group to figure out how far you have to displace the sight. Calculate the mean center of all the groups, then calculate the angle for the range the test was shot at, then calculate the relative displacement of the sight over the sight radius of the gun, then use a sight pusher to move the sight that far....

...or, you could squint, and hold your tongue just so...