Drifting the rear sight, how hard is it to do?

[Ikeo74]

My CM9 shoots to point of aim vertically but hits 3" left at 7 yards. I know it is probably my trigger control pushing the gun as I fire. But until I get more proficient with the gun I thought I might move the rear sight over to correct my aim. Then when my shots start drifting too far right (if they ever do) I can re-drift the sights back toward center setting. My question is, do you think I can easily do this and do you recommend it? What method of drifting can a regular gun owner do without a sight tool?

[yetchtoo]

I am not an expert or gunsmith, but after witnessing the installation of new sights on my PM9, without the sight tool, you are out of luck. They are in there pretty tight.

[gb6491]

When I removed the rear sight on my CW45, I used a sight pusher. The sight was very stubborn and while I did get the sight to move, I slightly damaged my sight pusher doing so. I finished removing that sight with a hammer and brass punch.

When I replaced the rear sight on my CW9 (http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8585) I went with the punch to remove the sight and the pusher to install the new night sight. I gave the sight a shot of PB Blaster the night before and again right before attempting removal. In addition to the PB Blaster, I use a heat gun on the sight area immediately preceding removal. The sight came off much easier than I expected.

Tips: I made my punch from .25" thick, 1" wide brass bar stock: this fit the rear sight dovetail quite well. You need to use a big enough hammer: heavy is good, but control is important as well. I tape off the rest of the slide with masking tape. To keep the brass smear off the sight, I coat it with pencil lead (other folks use tape).

I'm of a thought here that if this is indeed a trigger control issue, you might initially experience some success by moving the sight then find yourself shooting left again. I suggest you try shooting thumbs forward (if you don't already) and while doing so try putting pressure against the frame with your lead thumb. You might also try using a little less trigger finger (trigger closer to the tip of finger).

Regards,
Greg

[JFootin]

Also, try firing from a bench rest to determine the true aim of the sight. If it is right on, leave it alone and work on your trigger pull.

[JBarbaresi]

it is not usually recommend to drift the sights simply to change your POI due to bad fundamentals. that being said, i found the need to drift my rear sight slightly to the right on my cm9. i shot several hundred rounds and was consistently hitting left, the rear sight was visibly not centered by about 1mm so i used a brass drift and centered it on the slide. my hits are dead center now.

[jmurch]

The procedure that I have used is to zero it at 15 yards from a benchrest (vise if you can get one) with a brass drift punch. I like the drift punch better than the pusher, to me you have more control over the force that you apply to the sight.

[jjmc2001]

Just a thought. I had a similar problem with a kel-tec pf9. Luckily the sight was adjustable and I fiddled with it until it work for me but I never liked the concept of having the sights in the "wrong" position just to cover my shortcoming. I ended up moving the sight back to where it should be and installed a pachmayer JR grip and I can shoot it as well as any other pistol. With the quality of the kahr trigger try the grip they can be picked up cheaply.

[ToneSurfer]

Timely post as I had the exact same question. After reading a few of the posts on here I'm gonna wait a bit before fiddling with the sights and work more on trigger control. I'm a lefty and I'm grouping low and right to point of aim. This seems to be a symptom of poor trigger control. For a right hander, it would be low and to the left of point of aim.

[DaveInCA]

The sights on my P380 were just a bit off. I found if I focused on only the front sight, ignoring the rear sight it hit dead on. I used a brass bar to move the rear sight maybe a 16th inch and now it's dead on.

[jmurch]

Low and right for a lefty is like low and left for a righty on a kahr or glock type trigger, Keep practicing.