Lowering the front sight on a SAA.

[USSR]

Jack,

If my rounds fired off hand are not going where the gun shoots them from a steady rest, then the problem is me, not the gun sights. It will be carried in a belt and shot off hand once it is shooting to POA. I don't and have no intention to shoot this revolver at 25 and 50 yards. Don't know why your 452423 is casting such heavy bullets. The mold is designed to cast 238 - 240 grain bullets. I also cast this bullet as hollowpoints, and they weigh about 225 grains.

Don

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I’m just concerned your zero on the bench is higher than your off hand zero, then you’ll have a front sight that isn’t high enough, and you’ll be stuck.

I don’t know why my 452423 drops 250 gr. boolits, it’s an old Lyman single cavity that came in the cardboard black boxes. I don’t use it that much. I cast the 452423 to load for my Starline Schofield brass.

Why don’t you try Dave Scovill’s 45-270-SAA in your single action. This is most accurate boolit at 25 yards and in.

[USSR]

I've got the .45-270-SAA mold and bullets, but I don't want to shoot it in my Pietta. What I'm trying to do is create light recoiling loads with the lighter bullets using fast powders like Red Dot.

Don

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Red Dot is a winner in the .45 Colt and the 452423 is a great boolit. Sounds like an excellent load for your Pietta.

[44MAG#1]

What Silver Jack Hammer is meaning I'm sure is some people, when benching a handgun, will hold it hard into the bags. This impedes free recoil movement which makes the shot go low. When fired offhand the gun recoils more freely and the same load will shoot higher. Some shooters will develop a hold off the bench that will allow the POI to be the same as offhand POI or so close as to not make any difference.
Need to try it offhand just to be on the safe side. This is just being cautious nothing more nothing less. I've seen this happen to people who are more bench shooters than anything else.
What does it cost except a few rounds of ammo and some time to do it.
Ive seen some people shoot 3 inches or more low at 25 yards by holding the gun hard into the bags when offhand they were dead on or slightly high at 25 yards.
IT Does Happen. Believe it or not.

[35 Whelen]

Since I'm a huge fan of SA revolvers and fixed sights, I too have regulated quite a few revolvers, so here are some thoughts from my experience-

Forget trying to calculate how much metal to remove. Shoot, file, repeat, and before you begin that endeavor, shoot your revolver until it becomes an extension of your arm.

The guys telling you not to regulate the sights shooting from the bench are spot on. I learned this the hard way early on and had to replace a couple of front sights on my Uberti SA .44 Special's. If you're not adept at shooting offhand, then use the seated, back-rested position with your wrists resting on your knees. I quite honestly can shoot smaller groups shooting in this fashion than I can from a bench. And as a plus, my POI's from seated, back-rested shooting are the same as shooting offhand.

Pick the load you'll use the most and sight the revolver in with it. Please don't take offense, but I've never seen the use in shooting a wide range of bullet weights in one handgun. I understand not needing heavy bullets and loads all the time, but if a fella sticks with a fairly narrow range of bullet weights, POI's stay closer. This is especially important in the 45 Colt as it tends to show significant vertical dispersion when changing bullet weights. In my Uberti Frisco 45 Colt my hunting load is a 288 gr. SWC cast from the 45-270SAA mold, runs just a hair under 1,000 fps, and the revolvers sights are regulated so that the bullet strikes about 2" high @ 50 yds., putting it pretty much on at 75 yds. If I want to shoot a lighter load, I load a cast 250 gr. RNFP to 800 or so fps which shoots pretty close to POA at 25 yds. My .44 Special is another perfect example; My hunting load(s) for my SA's are typically a 255-260 gr. cast SWC running close to 1,000 fps. For practice and small game loads I cast a RN bullet weighing around 250 gr., give or take, and back it down to 775 fps or so. These two type loads shoots really close to one another at 25 yds.

I don't buy the bullet dwell time thing. I could be wrong, but if a man were to load his 45 Colt with a round ball (146 gr.) to 800 fps and then a 300 gr. bullet to 800 fps, they'd both have the same dwell time, but guess which one would impact higher; the one with the most recoil.

35W

[USSR]

Shoot, file, repeat, and before you begin that endeavor, shoot your revolver until it becomes an extension of your arm.

I filed it a bit (using Silver Jack Hammer's filing method), test shot it (nice having your own range outside your house) and filed it some more until I got it regulated to shoot POA with my 240gr SWC and 8.0gr of Unique load, which is the heaviest bullet and heaviest load I will be shooting out of it.

The guys telling you not to regulate the sights shooting from the bench are spot on. I learned this the hard way early on and had to replace a couple of front sights on my Uberti SA .44 Special's. If you're not adept at shooting offhand, then use the seated, back-rested position with your wrists resting on your knees. I quite honestly can shoot smaller groups shooting in this fashion than I can from a bench.

Sorry, but I've got a concrete shooting table that I do all my sighting in work from. And, I am quite adept at shooting offhand, as that is how all my handgun practice is done. So, I am good to go now and no further comments/suggestions are necessary.

Don

[DougGuy]

I don't buy the bullet dwell time thing. I could be wrong, but if a man were to load his 45 Colt with a round ball (146 gr.) to 800 fps and then a 300 gr. bullet to 800 fps, they'd both have the same dwell time, but guess which one would impact higher; the one with the most recoil.

35W

You haven't done enough comparisons if you can make this statement. The heavier boolit requires more energy to overcome the moment of momentum, which takes burn time, pressure has to rise more before the heavy reaches the muzzle. It will hit a LOT higher POI than the ball weighing half as much, and each would have a very different length of dwell time.

[ddixie884]

I believe you will find DougGuy is right...........

[44MAG#1]

You haven't done enough comparisons if you can make this statement. The heavier boolit requires more energy to overcome the moment of momentum, which takes burn time, pressure has to rise more before the heavy reaches the muzzle. It will hit a LOT higher POI than the ball weighing half as much, and each would have a very different length of dwell time.

In the grand scheme of things does it really matter what he believes? More than likely he is not going to change his opinion and you aren't going to change him. The OP was the one who asked for help and evidentally he has reached the level he needs and now he needs no more help so keeping this alive really serves no purpose.

[Dale53]

Be nice, good people, be nice!

Dale53

[Froogal]

I refuse to file down a front sight. Instead, I paint the front sight with white paint, and then use a black sharpie to blacken the part of the sight that I do not want to see. Takes a little trial and error, but now when I shoot my Uberti cattleman, I know exactly how much of the front sight I want to see and barring any operator error, I can hit the target at point of aim everytime.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

There are gunsmiths who will file grooves in the front sight post and fill them in with gold. I have shot my buddy’s six gun with this done by Clements. The gold lines are not always zeroed to a specific distance but they do provide good reference points.

By the way, my buddy’s custom .44 Special was a Model 28 6” and is one of the most accurate handguns I have ever shot, but it’s a DA so I’m not that interested.

[35 Whelen]

There are gunsmiths who will file grooves in the front sight post and fill them in with gold. I have shot my buddy’s six gun with this done by Clements. The gold lines are not always zeroed to a specific distance but they do provide good reference points.

By the way, my buddy’s custom .44 Special was a Model 28 6” and is one of the most accurate handguns I have ever shot, but it’s a DA so I’m not that interested.

I did something like this with my Uberti 32-20. After working the sight down to the proper height, I cut grooves in it with a 40 lpi Swiss file-



Then after lots of experimentation, painted one of the grooves with ghetto silver fingernail polish (it looks better than in the pic) so that when the silver line is held at the top of the rear sight, the bullets hit more or less "on" at 160 yds.



160 yds. sounds like a random range, but that is the distance from the overhead door in my shop, where I set up my chronograph, to an embankment at which I aim when chronographing. So I can lean back against the wall of the shop, and as long as the wind is cooperative, I can whack my 22" gong which resides against said embankment.



All of my SA revolvers now have had the Swiss file taken to their front sights and it makes an amazing difference in the sight picture, no more glare! But since 100 yds. is about as far as I shoot with regularity, I haven't applied any fingernail polish to the others.

35W