SAA clone and laser boresighting

J

Jeff2222

New member
I bought a Cimarron Frontier SAA clone made by Pietta and haven't had a chance to shoot it yet. It has the 5.5" barrel and is chambered in .357/.38

I usually check the sights on all of my new guns with a laser boresight to get an idea of poi and proper sight picture and with all of my modern guns it lines up as expected.

When I tried it on the SAA the laser is 4" low from where I would expect it to be on the front sight. This is at 15 yards. The windage is dead on.

I have been reading that a lot of these guns are coming with high front sights that you need to file down but it seemed like I would need to do an awful lot of filing to get the sights and laser to where I think they should line up.

I must be missing something. Has anyone ever tried to boresight an SAA before?
 
Shoot it, then adjust.*
As before ignore the laser.


* And shoot it -- a lot -- off bags, then 2-hands free, then one hand free, and with different ammunition before deciding to file that front sight.

BTW: At 15 yds with a 7" sight radius, your adjustment would be about 13-thou/in
 
For sure, find out by shooting it before doing irreparable damage to the front sight.
Bore scopes aren't as reliable as actual trial and error.
At least none of mine aren't.
They mostly help reduce the number of shots required to get on target.
 
Bore sights only tell you where the barrel is aimed in relation to the sights. They have no connection with point of impact.

With a handgun, your line of bore should be well below the line of sight.

Bob Wright
 
I learned by purchasing a laser boresight and then ruining the front sight of an unoffending 32 caliber revolver. :(

Don't be like Tallball. Shoot a lot, adjust a little, repeat as needed.
 
Bore sighted lots of scoped rifles by removing the bolt and looking at a target with a bright dot on it through the bore of the rifle. Then adjusting the mounted scope to a couple inches high at 10 yards. This gets me on paper at the 100 yard range. Never needed a laser or used one.

I never bore sighted a pistol though, because it would be worthless as different weight and type of bullets/ powder charges would give very different results. You need to go out and shoot the load you plan to use and make small adjustments to the sights when you are Sure you are not flinching or jerking the trigger.
 
Alright thanks for the advice. I won't touch the front sight until I go shoot it.

Does anyone have one of these? Is there any chance I won't need to touch it at all or do they almost always need filed down?
 
A single action, or mine at least, seems very sensitive to how you hold onto it. The recoil of the shot makes the who thing a system of forces and motion. Like any handgun make sure you plant the backstrap on the heel of your hand, you should not be able to see it. This gets the gun lined up with your arm in windage. Mine shot way low until I gripped it high enough to feel the hammer when cocked. All this is just to urge you to hold off grinding metal 'till you are fully acquainted with your new iron. They can be amazing fun to shoot.
 
Shoot it, take a file to the range with you and adjust it at the range. The bore sighting tools are useful to try to get on paper when you install a scope and can't look down the bbl as with a semi auto or lever gun. They aren't necessary if you can walk down range and fire the first round at about 10 yards and then adjust and move back and shoot off the bench. Can you say GIMMICK?
 
Is there any chance I won't need to touch it at all or do they almost always need filed down?
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The advise above is good. Shoot it. Once you find ammo (or a reload in my case) that is accurate and is in the velocity range that you are looking for as 'the' load for the gun... Shoot a bit more with that load and then start thinking about cutting down the front sight if necessary to bring up to POA.
 
Howdy

Shoot it and leave the file at home. Don't bother bringing the file until you are absolutely sure you have found the ammo you are going to use all the time. On second thought, don't even think about filing down the sight until you have shot it a whole lot, even after you have settled on the load you are going to use forever.

It's funny how a revolver can start shooting differently once you get used to it.

I have a bazillion single action revolvers. I have only bothered filing down the front sight on two of them. That was a long time ago. I don't file front sights anymore.
 
That was a long time ago. I don't file front sights anymore.
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You might not dig out the file ... but I have too . All my revolvers when I pick them up, most shoot to POA. I want 'no' notes around with the guns that says 'this one shoots left 2", and high by 1"' or this shoots "4 inches low, 1" right at 15 yards" etc. Nope, all must shoot to POA and one does, what one has to do to make that happen ... like file down that front sight if need be. Picking another bullet or load is not an option :) .
 
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