S&W 41 Windage adjusted fully left

I recently acquired an early 80s M41 with a 7" barrel.  POI is about 1" right at 15 yards and rear blade is nearly fully adjusted all the way to the left.  How can I fix this?

Buy another pistol.

;-)

Has anyone else shot it?

I have purchased numerous used pistols over the years and most had sights adjusted all over the place. The first thing I did was to center the sights on the slide and they nearly always shot to POA.

I do have a friend that recently bought a new 41 and could not get the elevation adjusted at 25 yards. S&W replaced the pistol after a couple trips back to tham.

Well, I centered the sights and shot from a bench. Had to adjust back left. I will have two other guys I shoot with give it a try tomorrow.

Difficult to answer without seeing the whole pistol.

how the front sight look?

My 41 barrel slugs at .228. I made a replacement ... lined it with a scrap from a 541-X from CMP. THAT has a Lilja on it now.

From an old timer, way back...

"Junk you buy, junk you get".

Shot again this morning.  Had another shoot it from the bench with same result.  Here are a couple more pictures.

Pull the barrel off and eyeball the bore rotating it a bit. See if it appears to be curved. If you've got a lamp with a pullstring to cast a shadow even better.

Looked at my 7" 41 barrel. Sight is cranked to the left.

The muzzle end of the bore is off center by about .005, but it's to the left ... which should require the sight to be cranked the other way. Except the front sight is also about .005 to the left, which should cancel that out.

Weird. But I think some of the numbers are not really correct, as there's some distortion of the 'flats' from polishing.

Maybe get out the gauge pins and use the bandsaw table as a surface plate.

If I am measuring bore center correctly, looks to be about 0.008" off center to the right. Additionally, sighting down the bore, looks like it may curve to the right, maybe.

Greetings,

I have the opposite problem.

I am right handed and shoot left eye.

My sights are adjusted all the way to the right.

I attribute this to shooting with bent/broken wrist.

Cheers,

Dave

I bought a new night sight for my S&W M&P. The factory front sight was gosh awful tight in the dovetail. I thought that I was going to break my sight pusher getting it out so into the padded vise jaws and started with a brass punch and hammer. THEN---- went to a bigger hammer. Finally it came out.
The new front night sight slid into the dovetail with finger pressure. I used green Loctite on the new  sight and it has never come loose.
By the way, I have also used green Loctite to retain new cones on pistol barrels. I never had one of those to come loose.
You mileage may vary.

So yours is at least pointing in the correct direction to require a left adjustment of the sight.

Mine is the opposite. Bore points to the left, so I should need the rear sight offset to the right.

FWIW, the theoretical POI in relation to the centerline of the barrel flats is 11/16" at 25 yds. Which would be a couple clicks right of center?

LOL!

Someday, when I get a chance, I think this will go in the Random Rest. But first I think I'll shoot it from the hand. I'm almost positive I never used this barrel after switching from right to left handed.

Adding: The front sight on the 41 is machined from the blank. Windage adjustment would require milling it off and dovetailing the barrel.

One more detail. The earlier comment about the barrel slugging at .228 is wrong. That's the chamber dia, the bore is .224, and 6 grooves.

Will relining the barrel get me centered and fix this issue?

Greetings,

If the barrel was machined incorrectly, Smith and Wesson may elect to replace it with another unit.

Give them a call or send them a nice letter via the mail.

Cheers,

Dave

Hiya,

Measuring the bore to side of the barrel isn't really an indicator of good or bad on a 41 as the sides are ground/polished by hand before bluing so they likely aren't exactly square/in-line with the bore. 

In my experience, firearms that can't be corrected for windage or elevation within "normal" limits of the sights have damage to the bore/rifling close to/at the muzzle, the crown is not correctly centered or damaged. I suggest you get a good loupe or magnifying lens and take a close look at the barrel end.

If your bore is damaged, relining is an option and a lot of times results in a more accurate gun than "factory". If you need a reline, I hear Alex at Tenring in TX does exceptional work.