This is the best tech I've seen on drifting rear sights on slides. I thought I had this in the bag, but I was wrong. This should be considered a public service announcement for all Sigforum graduates of the Wile E. Coyote school of gunsmithing:

RECOMMENDATIONS ON ADJUSTING FIXED SIGHTS

Adjusting the windage of a set of fixed sight requires that you move the rear sight left to move the point of impact left and right to move the point of impact right. We do not recommend that you attempt to move the dovetail front sight to adjust windage. The C&S dovetail front sight has a 1/16” roll pin installed in a hole that is drilled through the blade and the slide. This roll pin insures that the front sight will not drift out of the dovetail. There are two reasons to install a dovetail front sight. One reason is to allow the initial centering of the front sight for windage zeroing. The second reason is to insure that the front sight will not fly off of the pistol as the old style staked on or silver soldered on front sights did.

Adjusting the rear sight for windage requires that you loosen the small Allen set screw and then drift the rear sight right or left. The rear sight must be installed tightly in the dovetail to keep it from moving during firing. The Allen setscrew is merely a back up to add more tension to resist movement during firing. You must never tighten the Allen set screw too much. You can actually jack the rear sight up and bend the dovetail edges in the slide up and loosen the tension that they create on the sight by over tightening the Allen set screw. You should always place the long end of the arm of the Allen wrench in the set screw and use the short arm as the lever to turn the set screw. A small drop of thread locker is recommended on the setscrew. Do not use the red thread locker; use the type that is designed to be loosened without heat.

Drifting the rear sight is accomplished by using a brass drift and a 4 oz. ball peen hammer. The brass drift should be made from a 3/8” piece of brass stock that is about 4” long. You should also file the end of the drift into a rectangle to cover as much of the rear sight through the dovetail as possible. If you only touch the rear sight in a small area on the upper edge you will dent the rear sight when you try to drift it.

You must put the slide in a padded vise to hold it properly when attempting the drift the rear sight. NEVER ATTEMPT TO DRIFT THE REAR SIGHT BY LAYING THE PISTOL ON ITS SIDE ON THE BENCH!!! You can damage the slide to frame fit or the rear sight if you do this. Place the slide in the padded vise so that the rear sight is just above the vise jaws. This will give the slide the most support and allow the blow of the drift to be fully transmitted to the rear sight. DO NOT PLACE THE SLIDE IN THE VISE WITH THE PORTION OF THE SLIDE THAT HOLDS THE REAR SIGHT HANGING OUT OF THE JAWS! This will allow the slide to spring sideways when you try to drift the rear sight. This absorbs the hammer blow and usually makes the drift glance off of the rear sight damaging the rear sight or the slide.

I also recommend that you put a couple of layers of masking tape on the end of the drift that you place against the rear sight. This helps reduce the brass marking of the rear sight. You will have to replace the tape every time you use the drift.

A word of advice when you are zeroing your handgun: You must shoot your handgun exactly as you normally would. You cannot shoot your handgun off of a bench and then expect it to shoot to the same point of aim when you stand and shoot with a two hand hold or one hand hold. The reason for this is the leverage you exert on the recoil of the handgun when shooting off of the bench is more than the leverage
you exert on the handgun when you stand. The increased leverage you exert on the handgun when shooting off of the bench is greater so the barrel raises less before the bullet leaves the barrel than when you stand to shoot. The handgun will always shoot higher when standing than when shot off of the bench. This is based on the premise that you don’t flinch or jerk the trigger when shooting. The handgun will also
shoot higher when using a one hand hold than when using a two hand hold. The grip pressure that you exert must be the same for each shot or you will experience vertical stringing of your shots. The magnum handguns are more likely to be effected by changing your grip pressure than the lighter loaded calibers. You will find that the magnum revolvers that have been ported are easier to shoot groups with than the
un-ported ones. The porting tends to reduce the vertical stringing. This is due mostly to the fact that your grip gets looser as your muscles tire because of the recoil. We rest the side of our forearm of the
supporting arm shooting with a two hand hold when zeroing a handgun. This does not effect the bullet
impact and steadies the handgun so you can be as accurate as you can when shooting standing.

William R. Laughridge
President, Cylinder & Slide Inc.