Update: Charter Professional problem solved

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AZAndy

AZAndy

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Or solved well enough to suit me, anyway. After having the gun "repaired" under warranty for its sight regulation problem, it still shot 2 1/2" low. I noticed that the rear of the fiber optic was conical and the top was a little above the top of the metal part of the sight, but didn't think it was a big enough amount to make much difference.

While trying to come up with an idea this morning, I did the math to see how much the sight's height needed to be reduced in order to correct the problem, and it turned out to be about .03". So I grabbed my reloading calipers, set them to .03", and compared the gap to the amount of plastic sticking up. Looked to me to be pretty darn close! So I filed the top of the plastic so that it was level with the top of the sight and ran to the range to check it out.

newtarget.jpg
That's from ten yards, offhand, standing, single action. The hole down at the bottom right was me doing that dumb thing where I grab the trigger instead of pressing it, so if I discount that, it's 4 inside one inch, and all six inside two inches. Even if I don't discount the errant shot, it's seven inside of 3", which I can live with. That's good enough for me! Finally, I can carry this thing, which is what I had in mind for it when I bought it.
 
Dave T said:
Andy,

Could you post a picture of your sight modification, so we can see exactly what you did?

Dave
Click to expand...
See how the bottom of the rear of the plastic insert angles down? The top was like that too, and I filed it flat. Took a little off the side to compensate for the shooting-to-the-right problem as well, though it's not enough to get a clear photo of.
flattop.jpg
 
So... the sight was not the exact problem... the FO tube was oversized where it had been heated to keep it in place...
That's not like "typical" FO sights on my pistols. The FO tubes on mine are contained within the sight itself instead of having a large bulbous tube outside the sight. I can see that the end of the FO rod could have easily been too high and affected elevation.
 
I can see how the rear of the FO rod being flared would cause people to alight the highest point on the rod to the top of the rear sight and cause the gun to shoot low to POA. I'm heading to the range tonight and I'll try holding on the center of the rod and at the bottom of the rod and see what happens.
 
@AZAndy
Congratulations!!!!!

Im a Charter guy .. but I had my unbelievable problem with Charter on a repair myself .. not only that .. they told me it would be over 8 weeks , thats after 5 weeks of it being there the first time
Almost laughable...
They argued with me for 2 weeks .. telling me its normal that the cylinder to drag the frame .. at the bottom of the cylinder... it was like I was communicating with children... Finally someone on this forum gave me the owners email.....
 
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I tried mine again yesterday holding the top of the rear sight level with the center of the rod and also at the bottom of the rod and I was hitting the 8 inch steel plates at 12y with both 71gr and 95gr bullets, so bullet weight didn't matter much. That's good considering the ideal load for .32 Mag IMO is an 85gr hollow point.

It was tough tho to get a consistent sight picture because trying to hold on the center of a dog isn't easy. I wound up trying to just hover the rod a bit above the top of the rear sight and not trying to be precise with it and that's when I started getting consistent hits.

So, my thinking is this isn't a gun worth shooting much on paper. It is to see what groups best and where the bullets are hitting in relation to where the front sight is held. I was encouraged enough that I will shoot some more and see if I can commit it to memory where to hold the front sight because every time I pick it up I want to bury the rod into the rear sight and align the top level with top of the rear sight.
 
TTv2 said:
That's good considering the ideal load for .32 Mag IMO is an 85gr hollow point.
Click to expand...
My best accuracy with the cartridge, in two different guns, has been with a 100gn coated LRNFP (Missouri Bullets Cowboy #6 .313) over 4 grains of Unique. I had high hopes for both DEWC and HBWC at 98gn, but nothin' doin'. The lightest I've tried was the Speer 90gn semi-jacketed hollowpoint, and it does okay. I'll check out the 85gn whenever the current crunch goes away. ;)
 
AZAndy said:
My best accuracy with the cartridge, in two different guns, has been with a 100gn coated LRNFP (Missouri Bullets Cowboy #6 .313) over 4 grains of Unique. I had high hopes for both DEWC and HBWC at 98gn, but nothin' doin'. The lightest I've tried was the Speer 90gn semi-jacketed hollowpoint, and it does okay. I'll check out the 85gn whenever the current crunch goes away. ;)
Click to expand...
I say that in terms of self defense. Yeah, the 100 and 115 grain loads are great for outdoors, but I lean to the 80 or 85 grain JHP for general self defense use in .32 Mag. In .327 it's 100gr JHP's.
 
AZAndy said:
My best accuracy with the cartridge, in two different guns, has been with a 100gn coated LRNFP (Missouri Bullets Cowboy #6 .313) over 4 grains of Unique. I had high hopes for both DEWC and HBWC at 98gn, but nothin' doin'. The lightest I've tried was the Speer 90gn semi-jacketed hollowpoint, and it does okay. I'll check out the 85gn whenever the current crunch goes away. ;)
Click to expand...
Regarding wadcutters - Curious if you have slugged the barrel or asked CA what the barrel diameter is. My experience with HBWC in 32 is they need to be at least .314 to get decent accuracy (out of a Benneli) and those were hard to find in the US.
 
kidneyboy said:
Regarding wadcutters - Curious if you have slugged the barrel or asked CA what the barrel diameter is. My experience with HBWC in 32 is they need to be at least .314 to get decent accuracy (out of a Benneli) and those were hard to find in the US.
Click to expand...
I haven't slugged the barrel, which I should probably do at some point. The hollow-base I'm using are Speer .314, which a local shop carries in boxes of a thousand (yay!). I need to do some experimentation with various powders on that one; the only load I've tried is 2.5gn W231.
 
TTv2 said:
I say that in terms of self defense. Yeah, the 100 and 115 grain loads are great for outdoors, but I lean to the 80 or 85 grain JHP for general self defense use in .32 Mag. In .327 it's 100gr JHP's.
Click to expand...
Well dang, and here I just ordered some 100gn XTP. (Though I couldn't find any 85gn anywhere anyway.)
 
Those fiber optic sights are not really intended for precision target shooting - they were designed for extremely rapid "hit it somewhere" aiming on a large target area - not a bullseye. While it can be done with a speed sight it's not really the right tool for the job. That's why the manufacturer's don't worry much about how far off the sight might be.
 
Much improved . Glad you were able to come up with a solution to make the issue less of a problem.
 
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