Front sight, can it move? it seems a little to the right

You can have it drifted more to the right.



More importantly, how does it shoot?

The important part is the point of impact, if the point of impact is correct I wouldn't mess with it unless it's way off, if you center the front sight you might need to move the rear sight to correct point of aim.



If the point of impact is definitely off to one side you probably need to center it, you should be able to do that with a brass drift, you may still need to adjust the rear sight to correct the point of aim.

darklyte24...There have been many write-ups about the front sight. Click on the "Search" box and enter "Front Sight" and you'll see what I mean. Mine was off about 1/8 inch to the right. Somebody at the S&W factory needs new glasses!

Arizona Smithshooter said:

darklyte24...There have been many write-ups about the front sight. Click on the "Search" box and enter "Front Sight" and you'll see what I mean. Mine was off about 1/8 inch to the right. Somebody at the S&W factory needs new glasses!

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beat you to it, i already did that of course. all the threads i found were rear sights not front, and about shooting low left.. the ones that did talk about front sights didnt say how to correct if needed

It can be corrected, but you should really have a sight pusher to do it other wise it may take a good bit of luck to get it right. You need to take it the whole way off clean the dovetail and use some red locktite then put it back in then you can tap (OK, Smack it) into place.



You will absolutely need a brass punch and a real hammer not one of those little jeweler's hammers. Make sure you always have the punch on the dovetail not the sight blade. You will also have to have the slide in a sturdy vise. They are in there very, very tight so be careful.



This is not easy to do but with the right tools it can be done.

My front sight was also off to the right. The POI was definitely left. I put the slide in the vice, and with a proper hammer, proceeded to bend 2 brass punches. Sight did not move. I resorted to a steel punch with a (this is true) short sledge hammer. The sight moved slightly, and no more. I did manage to crush the sight base a little.

I sent it to S&W. They installed a new sight (properly centered), put a mirror finish on the feed ramp, installed a new striker (Sigma), and threw in a hi cap mag. Very happy now.

Almost forgot. I examined 4 M&P's at a gun show. 3 of them had the front sight too far right. My theory is that the installer is afraid to go too far left, then having to move it right again...? Or he's (she?) simply blind.

There were a bunch of front sights that fell out at the range too... make sure yours is nice and snug

I was able to tap mine to the center with a punch and hammer. It was only about 1/32" off, but it was certainly very tight!

PhilM said:

I was able to tap mine to the center with a punch and hammer. It was only about 1/32" off, but it was certainly very tight!

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My front sight, as many others have reported, was also slightly right of center and my point of impact was always left. I finally had the courage today to try to fix this myself and all seems to have gone well. I'll know the results when I shoot at the range again next week.



I asked at a few hardware stores about a "brass drift" and got lots of blank stares from sales people. I suspect this kind of tool is available only from machine shop supplies. I finally bought a brass bolt and ground the tip to fit the shape of the sight base and all went well with a couple of sharp taps from a small ball pein hammer. I suspect the bolt was more of an alloy than pure brass but it all seemed to work. I may finally follow Dan's full instruction and knock the sight out and reset it with Loktite. Right now it still seems pretty tight.

My front sight was a little to the right also. I tapped it to center, and it was tight.