Help With Sig P226 Sight

M

mukibetser

New member
My P226 shoots 6-8" low at 10 yds. I am 100% sure the problem is the sights and not inherent accuracy. I have a laser attached and zeroed it in and can shoot one ragged hole with it. After zeroing in the laser, I confirmed the problem by noting that when aiming down the sights the laser dot is indeed roughly 6-8" below the point of aim.

How can the elevation problem be fixed? I am hoping that this will not require a trip back to the factory. The sights were off from day one, including windage, which a friend managed to fix with a Glock sight adjustment tool, but I don't know what to do about the elevation. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
You say you have a laser on the gun. Have you tried a laser bore sighter that mounts in the barrel?

I think I would want to do that before I started messing with the sights.

I have a laser bore sighter and I confirm every gun I buy. I have several Sigs and none of them have required sight adjustment. I am not saying yours isn't different, but it might be worth a look.

I did put a bore sighter in my Dan Wesson Valor and it indicated the gun would shoot to the left.

It shot to the left for me as well as for two experienced shooters.

I took the gun back and had the sights moved .021 in. to the right and the gun shoots fine.

I have CT sights on a couple of my Sigs and after I checked the iron sights to the laser bore sighter, I just turned on the CT laser and moved the dot on the CT to be coincident with the boresighter and I am good to go.

Just something to think about. It should be a simple matter for your local gunsmith to change the sight height to fix your problem as long as you are sure what the problem is.

In any event, good luck and get back with us and let us know what you did to fix the problem.

Geetarman:D
 
If your sights are actually off youre in the 10000:1 minority. i thought the same thing. if you really think they are off, you can buy my dawson precision competition sights off of my sig p226 uspsa edition. $40. PM me if interested.

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Thanks for the input. I am 100% the gun is shooting low -- I know that the proper point of aim with the sights is a 12 oclock hold, not a 6 oclock hold. I am thinking that an adjustable rear combat sight may be the way to go so that I can adjust the point of aim to my liking.
 
Be prepared for an unpleasant experience if you call SIG Customer Service. Under no conditions give them your credit card number or the serial number of your pistol.

If you ship your pistol back to SIG, they will test it on their range. If it shoots to their standards they are going to charge you $100 or more (a couple of years ago it was $90.00) and send it back as is. It will cost a hideous amount for different sights.

Customer service will tell you that you don’t know how to shoot, regardless of your background. They will tell you that a Six O’Clock hold is not the proper “combat hold” and that you are supposed to cover the target with your front sight and the pistol is regulated to shoot center of mass when the target is obscured.

I had this problem with a SIG P220 in 45 ACP. It shot way low at 25 yards. They don’t make a front or rear combination that will provide enough elevation to zero the pistol. I took the pistol back to the dealer and they fussed with the idiots at SIG Customer Service and got no where. What saved me was the pistol also shot low in their hands and they gave me the choice of trying another. This shot low, but not as low, so I took it. If the first pistol ever got to SIG, because I gave SIG the serial number and a credit card number, regardless of who sent the thing, (the dealer or me!) SIG would have charged my credit card. They are just a greedy, arrogant corporation in this regard.

Eventually I bought an adjustable sight set from Midway.
 
when i first had my uspsa sig p226, i thought it shot 6in low at 22ft. now i have been shooting sigs for years, so i thought that the sights were off for sure. i called up sig support and they told me that 99.5% of their calls were people complaining about the pistols shooting low, and that it was related to my sight picture. i explained to them that i had been using the same sight picture on their pistols for years and never had a problem. they offered to take a look at it if i wanted to pay for shipping both ways and $50 for them to look at it.

i decided to just switch out for some trijicon night sights and had the local armorer install them. guess what - it still shot low. i put it away in my safe for months.

then i got some crimson trace laser grips for my other p226. i was curious just how far off the sights were, so i took the sighted-in grips off my other p226 and put them on the uspsa model. guess what - the sights lined up perfectly with laser. needless to say, i was confused. so i pointed at a spot on my wall and did some dry firing. i noticed some jerking, but nothing awful, so i took it to the range.

i turned the laser on, but shot from the sights. i had my buddy watch the laser from behind. he told me i was jerking 6in low every time i pulled the trigger. the short reset trigger was tuned so light, that i was jerking it, because i was used to their old combat trigger.

after some practice and concentration, i found that i was dead on accurate. now it's one of the most accurate guns in my collection. right up their with my custom 1911's and competition cz's.
 
Thank you all for the input, very helpful. I did call Sig customer service this morning and was indeed treated dismissively. They did offer to send me a new replacement rear sight, but I need to check again to make sure I know exactly how low it is shooting so that I know which sight I would need to make the adjustment. I really don't think it is my shooting technique -- the mounted laser was perfectly zeroed and is clearly lower than the sight picture, using the recommend 12 ocllock hold. But, I will confirm. Sounds like a problem with the pistol to me. I own a number of other combat handguns -- including a Sig 1911 Tac Ops -- and can shoot accurately with all of them right out of the box. After the input here I most definitely won't bother sending it back to Sig.
 
I have the same problem with a Sig P226 Mk25
When I align the tops of the rear&front sights the front dot is higher than the rear dots. It is dead on with this sight picture otherwise (tops of the sights flush and the front dot covering the bullseye).
Unfortunately, when I align the center of the dots (night sights ***!!!!) it shoots 2 inches low at 7 yards, therefore, pretty much impossible to make use of the night sights....
I sent it to Sig Sauer just to be returned as is. They stated they failed to see the problem.
See the attached pictures.
conclusion: nice gun, not so nice price, terrible customer service
Never Again!
 

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It is probably not your problem, but could you have the wrong sights on your P226? What caliber is your gun? For 9mm and .357 P226s, the sights are #8 front and #8 rear. For .40 the front is #6 and the rear #8 (or is it the other way around? :o ).

The POI is raised 2" with each increase in number for the rear sight and 1" for each increase in the front sight. It would appear to me that you might have to go to an adjustable rear sight to get the change you need, plus it would be cheaper if you wind up doing trial and error with the factory fixed sights to get the right POA.

I'm not familiar with the 12 o'clock hold, but I'm pretty sure the front dot needs to be over the desired POI.
 
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They are both #8. It is a 9mm.
As I said, with the tops of the rear&front sights flush and the front dot covering the target, it is dead on.
The problem is the dots do not align, which is pretty stupid, as they are night sights...In the dark I must align the dots...which when aligned, shoots 2 inches low at 7 yards and 4-5 at 15 yards, which, for a $900 gun is unacceptable.
What is more outrageous is that Sig Sauer Customer Service treated me like a crazy person refusing to admit that the dots do not align when it is clear as the light of day...
I will shop around for different sights...
 
I just picked up a Sig P226 Mk 25 and I notice an 8 on the front sight. Looking at that do they make a #9 which would be a tad shorter. That should help the shooting low.
 
Sorry, wustenfuchs, I was responding to mukibetser's original post. I'm a little slow.

Eghad, I believe SIG makes front sights #5 - #9 and rear sights #5 - #10.
 
Back in the day when a revolver shot low with a fixed front sight you simply took some off the top of the front sight. I have not had a chance to shoot mine yet as I just picked it up this evening after work.

I would talk to them about sending me a lower front sight.
 
change sights

You need to change sight heights. There is a chart and a means to figure out what sights you need to get to point of aim. And I can't remember which way the numbers go for up and down. But a good armorer or 'smith can fix you up. Before you start swapping sights, shoot the gun with your ammo of choice off of bags and a bench at a reasonable range, say 15 yds or so.

Oh yeah, you are not shooting some exotic light bullet are you?

I've got a Glock 20/10mm that had the same problem, did not shoot to POA with the "standard" sight heights. I changed the rear out and it came right around.

I would not send it back to SIG unless swapping some sights around does not solve your problem. I will check on the sight #'s and how much change you will get resultantly when I get near a manual back at work.

Off for bow season just now.
 
Yea, this isn't that har of a prolem to fix. Sandbag shoot your gun and confirm what the gun is doing on a solid rest. Swap out the front sight for a higher number. Pending on how much, you may need to swap out the rear sight as well. On a side note, I have never seen a p series Sig that wasn't almost spot on from the factory. Even my Elite Dark with adjustable night sights were bead on accurate. I like shooting bead under so I always try to get adjustable sights.

I much prefer sight pic 2

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OP, take heart. I had the exact same problem with my 2010 vintage P226 9mm. I shot my P220 .45ACP and P226 .40S&W just fine, but the 9mm was 4-5" low at 7 yds. I used the same combat sight picture for all of them, and shot off a rest to confirm. Finally called SIG and explained the issue and what I'd done. They were quite nice, said to ship it, they'd charge me only if I was wrong. They shipped it back with a test cartridge shell and a new rear sight (higher number, of course). No charge.
 
sig p226r 9mm bad sights

just purchased my sig p226r 9mm, 1st time at the range and every shot was low, just like I'm reading about all your postings. it is sad for that price and quality gun that this is an issue. my sights have on them MH3, front and back sights. first i thought it was me but after 100 rounds and all my other groupings with other gun makers , no, its not me. would anyone help me with any input? it seems i need to do this without the help of sig, too much $$$ and time waiting and all there blame on the owner, i just want to fix the issue. i don't see that these sights are adjustable and I'm leaning towards buying other sights to replace? these say MH3 on both so maybe i have to get a higher # for the rear sight only to raise the 5" drop at 25'? and what would be a good brand name? thank you guys for all your posts that i've read, they really did shine a light on all I'm going thru, any help would be greatly appreciated, chris
 
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