Do Nite Sights Have To Be Perfectly Centered?

[RAH]

Do nite sights have to be centered perfectly on the slide or are they centered using the front sight post? My buddy got new nite sights installed by a Glock armorer but the rear sight doesn't look perfectly centered on the slide. The armorer said that they were centered using the front sight. What's the deal?

[Monty2_2001]

I'd think it would all depend on where the point of aim hits.. Is it off when he shoots it?

[RAH]

He hasn't tried it yet. I was just curious because the rear sight isn't as perfectly centered like the plastic sights on his other Glock.

[Monty2_2001]

Mine are centered. But again, he won't know until he fires it or uses a laser bore sight.

[RAH]

It looks like it's only a mm off from center. I guess the only way to know is to try it at the range.

[tantrix]

I have a G17 with Heinie SlantPro's on it, and the rear sight is drifted to the right pretty well off center. When I first got it back after them being installed, I looked and thought...how the hell am I going to hit anything with this rear sight way off to the right?! Well, sure enough I took it shooting and could hit coke cans one after another at 15 yards. I thought it was weird too, as my G30 with Meprolights are dead center in the middle of the slide. Is his a G17 too? May have something to do with the model/caliber we have. Maybe some others will chip in with how centered their rear sights are.;g

[David R Hoffman]

For some reason, all of my guns if they are sighted to hit at point of aim, the rear sight is just to the right of center. With my Ruger Vaqureos (rear sight is notch in frame) I have to take a 5 o'clock sight picture. I am currently waiting for my Glock sighting tool so I can get the fixed sights on my G24C set up correctly. I got a Glockmeister sight kit so I have all the different heights and I have a file set for any fine tuning.

[MuRDoC]

when I got my 36 from glock, I had them put on my nightsites from the 36 they replaced(from the rail recall thing), when I got it it was horrible off center, I centered it myself and it hits right on

[RAH]

His is a Glock 19. He said that if he places a ruler between the rear sight's notch and the top of the front sight the ruler is perfectly straight. It looks like the rear sight aligns exactly with the front sight but he won't know until he tries it out.

[WalterGA]

I'd have serious doubts about an armoror's claims that he centered the rear sight, relative to the front sight. But, then, check my sig line out. :)

[RAH]

Is there a way to center the sight relative to the slide?:)

[WalterGA]

Originally posted by RAH
Is there a way to center the sight relative to the slide?:)

I've found that eyeballing is probably within .ooooo2" of close enough. :)

[RAH]

Thanks.:)

[Bogman]

I just got a new G17 and the first time I shot it I had no shots on the target at 20 meters. There was however a real nice group at 9 o'clock just off the paper. I took my little plastic hammer and knocked the rear sight way to the right and the I shot a sub 3 inch group the first day I had the gun. The rear sight now sits way over to the right flush withe right side of the slide leaving a big gap on the left. Looks funny if you look close but shoots like a dream ,and lets face it what ever it takes right

[WalterGA]

Originally posted by Bogman
I just got a new G17 and the first time I shot it I had no shots on the target at 20 meters. There was however a real nice group at 9 o'clock just off the paper. I took my little plastic hammer and knocked the rear sight way to the right and the I shot a sub 3 inch group the first day I had the gun. The rear sight now sits way over to the right flush withe right side of the slide leaving a big gap on the left. Looks funny if you look close but shoots like a dream ,and lets face it what ever it takes right

Another, perhaps preferable, possiblity would be to learn how to properly activate a Glock's trigger. :) There have been eleventy-zillion posts about this very subject. It's a matter of trigger control, not moving sights. :)

[rlaht7f8]

I just got an armorer to install Glock night sights on my 21 while I watched. He said "how's that?" I had him shift the rear 0.4mm one way, then 0.2mm back. Looked OK and I tried it against my other 21, no difference in the size or location of my groups. Any of the 3 positions probably would have been fine. My unsteady hand is a much bigger factor than precision of sight alignment.

[Grunt66]

I am a left hand shooter and when I was issued my Glock 17, I was grouping to the left at 9 o'clock on the target when I was shooting from 10 yards and back. After several training sessions the firearms instructor shot my pistol and he was also grouping to the left of the target and he is a right hand shooter. He adjusted the rear sight and it sits to the right on the slide assembly. Three weeks ago I just installed the meprolight ML-20224 adjustable night sights and they centered the rear sight. I did a three shot grouping exercise and I was impacting to the left at 9 o'clock. I adjusted the rear sight and I am impacting right in the center. I own several other handguns and spent 20 years in the Marine Corps with 7 of those years as a High Risk Personnel Instructor teaching defensive pistol tactics to DOD personnel. I always qualifed as a expert shooter with both the rifle and pistol and won the firearms award in the police academy against 52 other shooters. I would agree that trigger manipulation could be the problem for some shooters. I always taught my students that you achieve sight alignment through trigger control, that you are constantly make adjustments in sight alignment if required till the shot breaks. Sorry to ramble on, but when I had my stock rear sight on my pistol they had to adjust the rear sight to the right and you could tell that it was not centered on the slide assembly of the pistol.

[WalterGA]

Originally posted by Grunt66
I am a left hand shooter and when I was issued my Glock 17, I was grouping to the left at 9 o'clock on the target when I was shooting from 10 yards and back. After several training sessions the firearms instructor shot my pistol and he was also grouping to the left of the target and he is a right hand shooter. He adjusted the rear sight and it sits to the right on the slide assembly. Three weeks ago I just installed the meprolight ML-20224 adjustable night sights and they centered the rear sight. I did a three shot grouping exercise and I was impacting to the left at 9 o'clock. I adjusted the rear sight and I am impacting right in the center. I own several other handguns and spent 20 years in the Marine Corps with 7 of those years as a High Risk Personnel Instructor teaching defensive pistol tactics to DOD personnel. I always qualifed as a expert shooter with both the rifle and pistol and won the firearms award in the police academy against 52 other shooters. I would agree that trigger manipulation could be the problem for some shooters. I always taught my students that you achieve sight alignment through trigger control, that you are constantly make adjustments in sight alignment if required till the shot breaks. Sorry to ramble on, but when I had my stock rear sight on my pistol they had to adjust the rear sight to the right and you could tell that it was not centered on the slide assembly of the pistol.


How much of that excellent shooting that you did in the Marine Corps and elsewhere was done with Glocks??? ;)

[dport]

Originally posted by WalterGA
How much of that excellent shooting that you did in the Marine Corps and elsewhere was done with Glocks??? ;)

What does that have to do with a gun that is obviously grouping to the left with the sights centered? If a lefty and a righty are both grouping to the left then it's the gun, not the shooter.

[WalterGA]

Originally posted by dport
What does that have to do with a gun that is obviously grouping to the left with the sights centered? If a lefty and a righty are both grouping to the left then it's the gun, not the shooter.

Nothing, unless the question happens to be addresed to you, and you're competent to provide a cogent answer. :) (That would have been the "Old WalterGA" answer.:))

My "current" answer would be, "I was just curious, as folks who've shot 1911's and other pistols whose triggers are dramatically different from Glocks frequently have a little trouble getting used to the Glock trigger." :) Past experience with 1911's/Beretta's, etc., would be a negative, not a positive, relative to the question raised in this thread.

[Grunt66]

I used a Glock 17 in the Marine Corps when I was teaching defensive pistol tactics. We were allowed the flexibility to use whatever pistol our students were using. Since I instructed not only Marines but also DOD personnel from every military branch and federal law enforcement. Even though the issued handgun for Marines is the Berretta M9 (92F civilian) and that is the only weapon we could qualify with once a year. Many of our students would elect to carry the glock. I used the glock for 4 years and transitioned to a 1911 A1 45 from Springfield Armory. I also was an Auxiliary Police Officer for 3 years in Virginia and was issued a Glock 22. On both those weapons I never had to touch the rear sight. I have been shooting my issued glock 17 for 5 months now in the police academy. I have owned a glock since 1991 and have attended numerous shooting schools and used the glock at those schools. I do not claim to know everything about pistol marksmanship but it was my main job in the Corps to teach DOD personnel how to survive a violent confrontation using a handgun when no other options were available. I will say this, one drill that I still do today is to pick a white wall with no pictures on it. I ensure my handgun is unloaded and then I do some dry fire drills. The purpose is to watch the front sight in the rear sight as I squeeze the trigger to ensure there is no aggressive movement before the shot breaks. My belief is that basic pistol marksmanship remains the same for every handgun.