Front sight adjustment on luger P08?

J

JeffK

New member
I finally got around to some careful bench shooting with my P08 and two different kinds of ammo, and concluded that the sights are off a bit. Using the standard sight picture (#1 at http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/german-infantry-weapons/luger-pistol.html), the pattern is 1.5 degrees to the left and 1 degree high, at 10 yards. The elevation offset would improve at longer distances, and I could compensate by using sight picture #6 at closer distances, but the windage is off.

The rear sight is fixed, but the front sight is adjustable for windage. Any suggestions on how to do this without buying a special tool? I found this, http://cmrfirearms.com/shop/images/P08 Luger Front Sight Adjusting Tool.jpg, but it doesn't make sense to find and buy such a tool for a one-time adjustment of one gun. I was thinking maybe using an old micrometer I have, but I'd have to kluge up some kind of fixturing.
 
I've used a brass bolt as a one-time sight drifting tool.
I had to drift the front sight on my Luger "a lot" to get it on at 25 yards, after a barrel change. I wondered if the barrel had been tweaked a bit in removing it from its previous home.
I saw the barrel that had come off my gun, and with the wrench indexing on the barrel band/front sight mount, it had twisted considerably.
 
Hmmm, or a small steel drift with a brass case around the end? I have a brass drift but it's very beat-up. I'd rather not use an impact if I can avoid it, though.
 
The metal in the front sight is surprisingly soft on my Luger. It started to peen when I tried to drift. I ended up cutting the V notch to the right. I wanted to enlarge the notch anyway.

You probably don't need to do that same as I did. But you want want to soak the front sight with kroil over night before you start drifting it. Go slow and stop when it peens. 1/16" is how much you need to move.

For the elevation I would just hold 6 o'clock to compensate.

-TL
 
The Luger front sight was not intended to be adjusted; it was set at the factory and then marked for zero.

Given that Lugers are getting to be pretty high priced these days, it might be better to just hold off a bit than to try to adjust the sight and chance damaging the gun.

Jim
 
Mine has an alignment mark that runs from the sight to the sight base; the mark was applied after the gun was sighted-in?
 
Mine has that too, perhaps it was once correct but it's not anymore. Yep, I don't want to damage my very nice numbers-matching luger, but I enjoy it mostly because I shoot it now and then, and having the sights accurate would make it more enjoyable... But I'm wary of any impact approach.
 
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