Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Adjust rear sight on a Shield?

I got my 9 Shield a couple days ago, put about 80 rounds through it today, ran great. It is shooting a bit to the left. The rear sight is a bit off centered, I think if it was centered it would help my POI. Manual says the rear sight can't be adjusted, but unless the set screw goes into a hole it the slide it seems like it should be able to be drifted. Has anyone been able to adjust the rear sight, or just adjust the front one? I got the small Allen screw out, but the sight won't move. Might have to put it in a vice with a good drift pin to exert more force on it. The front sight wouldn't move either. I don't have a sight pusher tool, maybe that would be a good investment.

You can drift the sights with basic but proper tools.
I have the MGW sight pusher and it works great but I probably wouldn't make that investment for a single pistol. I happen to have more than one and it seems all my buddies have them too.

My M&P 40 was consistently shooting to the left. Then a buddy shot it and everything centered. Turns out I was pushing the trigger to the left.

Just saying.

My Shield is pretty much on, but my S&W SD40VE shoots to the left. The book says if it has a set screw, loosen it and move it in the direction that you want the group to move, but it doesn't have a set screw. I'm going to buy a Brass punch and tap it a bit and see if that works.

You made a good point. I have done it with different pistols, an RIA that I had was one.

Remember reading the manual that comes with the shields, They say to drift the front site not the rear. would be wise to double check, and I could be wrong

I bought a Shield in the early part of this year and it too shot a little to the left. I drifted the front sight to the left. Scratch a line in the dovetail slot on the right edge of the front sight. Get a good brass punch a hammer with some weight to it and put the slide in a vise with leather on the jaws of the vice to protect your finish and give it some good whacks. The scratch line will show you if and how much your sight is being moved. These sights can be VERY hard to move. I finally got mine to move enough to center my shots. After I did all this, my buddy who is a pistol gunsmith told me he had the tool to easily move the sight. Even though I got it to move, it would have saved me time and aggravation to have just taken it to him.

Fortunately my 9MM shield is more accurate then me and seems to be pretty centered.

Yes, that's what the manual says, but since the rear sight is replaceable and in a dovetail, I was wondering if it could be drifted. Looking for someone who had done that. It could be my shooting, but I'm pretty centered with my .40 Shield.

I don't think I will monkey with my Shield 40. It's not perfect, but it's only an inch or so to the left. My SD40VE is 6 inches or so to the left, so I am going to work on that. Their manual says to move the rear sight in the direction of the group that you want it to move to. Sounds reasonable, but I hate to pound on the sight with a hammer and punch, but that might be the only way.

Yes, it can be drifted but I highly recommend a sight pusher and moving the front sight as suggested.

I think their reasoning is due to the plunger and spring underneath the rear sight. I would not want to move it very much at all to the left, plunger is on the right side edge. There's also not a lot of room to move the rear without the side sticking out past the slide. They are very hard to move even with a sight pusher but I've changed sights on 3 or 4 of them.

Sight pushers are generally not recommend on a S&W Shield - crisp taps with a hammer and punch will work better. The action is similar to an impact wrench rather than a breaker bar.

No, a punch and hammer didn't work better on 2 of my Shields, I marred up a rear sight on the first one just to get it to break loose. Second wasn't going any better so I broke down and ordered a sight pusher which worked perfectly on the others I changed.

I have 2 Apex triggers, 2 DCAEK's and one barrel from them. I like their products but call BS on removing the factory rear sight with a punch that easily.

We change a lot of M&P sights.

Shields are much more difficult than the full size guns. A sight pusher generally works much better than a punch.

I was able to drift the rear sight with a brass pin and hammer, with the slide set in a vise. Took a few taps, but nothing major. Now I need a shooting session to see if it helped.

He made that look very very easy. I was using a POS stanley punch set I bought from lowes Uggg

Had this gun out at the range yesterday, the sight adjustment made a difference. I really like shooting this thing, noticeably softer shooting than the .40.