I have probably owned over 40 different fixed sight revolvers over the years, from Ruger Bearcats, Vaqueros and Wranglers to various S&W J, K and N frame revolvers and Colt, AWA and USFA single actions. All of them except 1 or 2 would have been completely serviceable for defensive purposes out to 40 yards or so. The vast majority were very close to POA at 25 yards for elevation, but most were off by 1 to 4 inches in windage. I have had the barrels turned on about 10 of them that I planned to keep for awhile.
Currently, I own 3 Colt SAA's, in .38 Spl., .44 Spl. and .45. The .38 was perfectly regulated from the box. I had the barrels turned on the others to correct windage. Elevation was fine on all. 2 S&W J-Frame .38's were both dead on at 15 yards. 2 S&W Model 10's; one was perfect and the other shoots 2" left at 25 yards. One Ruger Old Army was perfect as received. One Ruger Wrangler was OK for windage but needed to have the front sight filed down for elevation and 2 AWA Peacekeeper .357's were also OK for windage but had ridiculously high front sights that had to be filed down a great deal to zero them.
If you are only shooting at shorter ranges, most fixed sight guns are fine as is, but if the ranges are longer or the targets are smaller, you may have some tinkering to do. Windage seems to be more of an issue than elevation in my experience.
Last edited by wildhobbybobby; 08/15/22.
