Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Ruger American Rimfire - rear sight off center?

I posted this to rimfirecentral as well to see if they had any thoughts.

I received a new-to-me RAR this afternoon from my FFL. When I got it home and examined it more closely, I saw that the rear sight is off center. The platform that the adjustable part of the sight is not centered on the middle of the barrel. It's more to the right. I'm attaching an image to this post that hopefully shows it.

Is this normal for this rifle? Let me know if more pictures would be helpful.

Overall, I'm not too impressed. It looks very nice with the wood stock, but magazine does not release or go in easily. This thing with the sights - if it is in fact an unintended error - is pretty disappointing as well. Hopefully I'm just mistaken and still need to get used to this rifle.

Assuming it's not loose in the dovetail, can't you just drift it to adjust windage? Pretty crappy to ship it like that. If it IS sighted in right on, like that, something is wonky...

Would shoot it to see if POA/POI are even close. If it is in fact sighted in correctly it should take a trip right back to Ruger.

How easily does the sight slide in the dovetail?

Was box that it shipped in torn up any?

guys I'm an idiot - it shows how long i've had a rifle with iron sights. I forgot how dovetail sights work. Move along... nothing to see here

Keep us posted. I am interested to see if it is in fact sighted in or if it was moved in transit.

Yeah that will be interesting to see. There is still an issue with the magazine being very hard to put in or take out. I might just need to learn the right moves to make it work smoothly. The bolt also binds and sticks... This is the danger of gunbroker!

I'm going to take it shooting tomorrow and familiarize myself with the thing a little more before I do any more complaining.

Just have to hold your tongue right on the mag, at least I have to with my American in 17HMR.

Take the bolt out and wipe clean it with some kind of penetrant or WD.

Move rear sight the direction you want the bullets poi on the target to move.

Yep... I'm a dummy

Anxious to hear if the sight needs to be there for zero, or it got moved in shipping, etc.


Wipe the bolt down good & put some light lube on it. Seems like when Rugers American line parts washing person leaves to take a leak the line keeps moving & a few actions a shift don't get cleaned.

Don't sweat it. I do stuff like that all the time.

I have managed to keep posting about my whoopsies online, so far anyway.

If that sight is simply loose in the dovetail and it's not where it is because the barrel is crookedy, you can tighten the fit by removing it and stippling the bottom of the sight a bit. Or, get a Williams WDOS sight, which has a locking screw, plus also accepts various leafs and apertures.

The RAR Mach 2 I bought came loose in the box with the bolt rattling around and the trigger guard broken off, courtesy of UPS.