S&W 629 sight troubles

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Jackal

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Hi everyone. I have an odd problem with my nice older pinned and recessed 629. For some reason, even if i adjust the rear sight as far as it will go, the gun always shoots to the left. Now the odd thing is, that when i center the rear sight, .44 specials shoot dead center point of aim. When i fire any .44mags, at the same centered sight setting, they shoot way left. Im talking about 2ft. to the left at 25yds. Front sight is fixed, so adjusting that aint gonna work. Anyone know how i can solve this without permanently altering the pistol??? See anything messed up in the pics???
 

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2 feet to the left at 25 yards with mags in a gun that shoots dead center with specials causes me to wonder if there's some flinch or jerkiness anticipating the higher recoiling round. Try loading only 3 rounds, spin the cylinder and fire in a steady DA rythmn. Pay attention to the movement of the gun when you happen on an empty chamber - especially any movement of the front sight. Could just be a case of the magnum "jerks".

Can't think of any mechanical anomoly which would cause so much poa/poi distortion in the same gun.
 
Now the odd thing is, that when i center the rear sight, .44 specials shoot dead center point of aim. When i fire any .44mags, at the same centered sight setting, they shoot way left.
Sounds more like shooter error than gun error. How much experience do you have with big bore magnums?
 
Its not just me, a friend fired it about 20 times, and had the same problem. I already thaught it may just be me, but im not that lucky. My father is just as puzzled and he's a longtime magnum gunner. I will try more types of ammo. It may just be the 20 year old box of Remington ive been using.
 
Print out some of these and try then on your next range trip.

For right handed shooters.
attachment.php

I almost always carry a few of them with me every range trip for those days when my accuracy suffers or someone else is having accuracy problems.

They work wonders.

I usually draw an aiming point or use a stick-on dot for more precise aiming.
 
Ok, im gonna go out back today and shoot a bunch. I have just changed the grips. I think that may be leading to the problems u guys all suggested. The Decelerators dont fit my hand at all. I just installed some "Presentation" grips that seem to be perfect for me. Will post back to see if it helps me.
 
Yep its called flinching, I just bought a .44 magnum mountain gun, it was fired less than two boxes of full power ammo, 20 round boxes, by its original owner. :eek: He was horrified at the muzzle blast and recoil he was getting from those Corbon defense loads out of the 4" mountain gun barrel.

The rear sight was cranked all the way up and all the way way to the right:p

Before I shot it I lowered the rear sight to the bottom and cranked it back to the middle.;)

Sure enough my trail boss target loads at 800 fps with a 240 grain bullet hit the black on a 50 foot slowfire bullseye target, I even had a few bullseyes.

BTW full power magnum loads cause me to flinch as well.

If you doubt you are flinching try this take thre fired casings and three live magnum rounds, load them all and spin the cylinder before you close it. when you hit the empties the flinch will become obvious.

You will shoot the specials better, try some light loaded cowboy ammo you will be surprised as how much more fun it is to hit the center of the target.
 
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If I am seeing this problem I might go to the range and shoot cylinderfuls of loads that are mixed. Say 4 of the light loads, one mag load and one empty chamber. Spin the cylinder lock and fire normally. Your buddy can load the cylinder for you so you don't know what to expect. I taught my wife to shoot a 357 that way and I can tell you she knows when she flinches, as she didn't believe me when I told her. Chief :cool:
 
Well Chief 101, i am lucky in that i dont need to travel to a range. I built my own 50 yard range in the back field of my house. I dragged a 3.5ft thick log into the field with a CAT skidder( a peice of logging equipment), piled dirt up in front of it, and set up a makeshift bench at 50 yards away :) I can shoot whenever i want this way. It's kinda nice. I'll go out now and check for flinching. I'll also post back tonight to let u all know if I can conquer my supposed flinching. BTW, thank u all for your opinions. I really like this gun, since it is a classic and REALLY want to shoot it well.
 
Ok, i just got back in after firing 31rds. of mixed .44spc and .44mags. I did as was suggested and randomly loaded the chambers with each type/emtpy chamber. I did notice some flinching on the emty chambers, however, it was always up to the right, not the left. All in all, i had the same results. After i adjusted the sights, the mags were mostly centered but the specials werent even hitting the box i was shooting at. ( They hit way too far to the right ). Grr. Going crazy here. Ive never had this problem with any other gun ive owned, even my dad's Ruger .357 Security Six loaded with heavy rounds.
 
If you're noticing flinching then nothing else you're doing is going to work until you get that under control.

Trying different things until then will drive you crazy trying to compensate for what really isn't there.

You're gonna have to get the flinch beat before you do anything else.

Practice with randomly empty chambers and light loads. Don't try any magnums until there is absolutely zero flinching with the light loads. Then you can shoot a few magnums with randomly empty chambers, but only a cylinder the first time. If you get any flinching with the mags, go back to the light loads with a random empty chamber until there's no flinch and then you're done for the day. You want to stop on a good note.

Practice consciously relaxing between shots. Bring the gun down to low ready, close your eyes, take a deep breath, hold it, let it out slowly, rotate your shoulders and relax your back. Concentrate on staying relaxed while you take a light breath, raise the gun, open your eyes, get the sight picture, hold the breath and squeeze slowly.

If you feel yourself tighten up during the squeeze, release the trigger tension, drop the gun down to low ready and start all over again. Every time you go ahead and take the shot & flinch, you're training your body to do bad things--the more you train, the longer it takes to untrain. Until things are under control, you don't want to take even a single shot if you feel all tensed up.
 
Did you ever notice that the front sight is taller on a 6" barrel .38 special than it is on a 2" .38 special?

That's because the gun is moving before the bullet leaves the muzzle.

The gun is shooting .44 Special to POA because the gun isn't moving enough.
Notice the target I posted. SHooting to the left indicated too little trigger finger. But it also can mean that the gun isn't rotated properly into the center line of the wrist/arm. This can allow the gun to recoil to the left with higher power loads.

Experiment with small changes in the way you grip the gun and see if that helps.


Also, if you're flinching to the right then the .44 special with the improper grip pushes just enough to the left to compensate and hit POA but the magnums push harder/further and impact to the left.


Keep trying. You'll work it out.
 
Of course all of this speculation and advice from us is based on the belief that your barrel isn't crooked or your sights lopsided.

Have you really checked to make sure there's nothing physically wrong with the gun?
 
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