S.A.A. Sight-in

[Bisley]

Hello, I have a 2nd. gen Colt S.A.A. 71/2" .38 spec. Hamilton Bowen did action/trigger work, as well as sight regulation with Black Hills std. vel. round nose ammo. Gun then went to Turnbull for his magic. I have been trying to find a load that shoots to sights for quite a while now. At 25yd. off rest, p.o.i. is right at lower right edge of target paper! Resting forearms on bag & letting wrist relax, brings groups up a little. Finally, I tried off-hand, with left hand supporting right arm, back of wrist, with a relaxed wrist. p.o.i. came up to about 3" low & right. Went up to 7yd. line, using 158gr, wadcutters & 2.8 B'eye, it piled 5 shots into one ragged hole right on top of where front sight was, with perfect windage..this was one handed..arm extended. went back to 10yd. exact same group. back to 15yd., This time I used left hand in back of wrist, with a relaxed wrist..Group was about 1" lower & 1" to right. Now here is my problem...Bowen said they would be happy to re-sight it for 25yd. But then, those beautiful one hole groups at 7 & 10 yd. would move. To be quite honest, it was alot more fun shooting at the closer distances, with my 57 year old eyes, I need a Merit disk on glasses. Also, I have gotten hooked on shooting old playing cards..makes for an easy to carry bragging group. Now at 25yd., I'd be lucky to even hit a card! After all, that skinny, nearly pointed at the top profile of a front sight, is no target gun. I have plenty of other adj. sighted revolvers to use at 25 or more yds. I have tried just about every combination I could think of to raise the group at 25yd. trying very heavy bulleted light loads for greater barrel time to raise p.o.i. What do you think? Should I leave well enough alone and be satisfied with a 10yd. zero that puts them in one ragged hole?

[Colt75]

I'd leave well enough alone. Sounds like you are getting essentially point blank usable accuracy to 15 yards. Not bad in my book. JMHO.

[Bisley]

Hello, Colt 75. Thanks for reply, I think I will take your advice..Any barrel turning or drastic sight filing would be a minus in my opinion. I did try some very heavy (200gr.) Lyman round nose, but even with light loads recoil was rather stiff, and not much fun..however they did bring groups up to near bottom of bull with 6:00 hold.

[hanover67]

I have a fixed sight revolver, also a .38 Spl. than constantly shoots to the left and high, about 8 inches left at 25 yds. I thought the rear sight groove was off center to the left and sent it back to Smith & Wesson and asked them to open up the rear groove on the right side to move the point of impact. They called and said it shot to the right and sent the gun back. Go figure. I've had to adapt my aim low and to the right to compensate. Since this was a low cost gun, I'm going to take a file and move the right side of the sight groove myself as others at my local range have done.