Beretta rear sight pusher/sight adjustment tool

[That Guy]

Does anyone have any experience with minor adjustments on a Beretta 92fs rear sight? Mine is far enough off where I'd like to fix it, but not far enough off to feel like I want to invest in adjustable rear sights just yet (maybe later).

Has anyone ever just used a light hammer and a punch or something to move it or am I opening up a can of worms here?

Alternately, does anyone have a rear sight pusher that they would consider letting me use (I would obviously come to you, ideally at your range where I can adjust and then shoot)? I'll be your friend forever if you do that for me.

The last option would be a gun shop where I am not going to get screwed to have this done - since I can buy a sight pusher for $100 it would need to be significantly cheaper than that, otherwise I'll just buy the tool.

Thanks for the help.

 

[joncaparso]

Hey,

I have the same problem. Brand new 92fs that I shot today and was shooting about 8" low at 25'. Good grouping but low. I also had a friend shoot the beretta, (he is a qualified Expert in the US Army with his military issued Beretta) and he had the same issue.

I would love to know what kinds of adjustable night sights people are using with success.

Hopefully we can attract some good comments.

 

[earthshine402]

I have a sight pusher for glocks which is great - you may want to consider just buying one..

Also, I have a Beretta 92 which I always complained that it "shot low", until I realized that it uses the approach of "cover what you want to hit with the front dot" aiming. I prefer the other one, which the top of the front sight is where it will hit. There have been many online discussions on this topic - http://www.handgunforum.net/beretta/27660-two-more-questions-beretta-m9.html

 

[aeromarine]

I, too, am having a related problem with my 92FS Compact. My pistol is an older model that has a a white-dot-over-white-bar on rear sight. A while back I purchased an OEM Beretta-made semi-adjustable (windage only) rear sight in order to get a three dot configuration but I have been having problems finding someone with a sight pusher tool to swap out the rear sight (hate to spend $100 for something I may only use once!). Beretta does not have a very extensive servce network in the US and the closest repair sation to Boston is in Southport, Connecticut. I even spoke with the Beretta rep, Alex Koines, when he had the Beretta product demonstration trailer at Four Seasons two weeks ago and he had no good suggestions. A couple of "smiths" at different gun shops in the area said they could drive off and then install the new rear sight for $40 using a hammer and brass rod. If I don't find a sight pusher tool soon I'll probably just do that myself. Note that the rear sight only comes off in one direction since it is blocked on one side by the decocker/safety lever.

 

[milktree]

Does anyone have any experience with minor adjustments on a Beretta 92fs rear sight? Mine is far enough off where I'd like to fix it, but not far enough off to feel like I want to invest in adjustable rear sights just yet (maybe later).

Has anyone ever just used a light hammer and a punch or something to move it or am I opening up a can of worms here?

I've replaced sights with a brass drift and with a proper pusher. On some guns the drift works just fine, on others it makes a mess. (of the sight, not the gun) The pushers just work. I have a Sig pusher and an M&P pusher both made by Maryland Gun Works. They're freakin' awesome. I read the reviews of all the generic sight tools and saw too many, "It works, but it needs adjustment a lot, and doesn't actually work on all guns, and made marks on my slide" comments to make me really get excited about them. That's what made me shell out for the MGW versions.... at $100 each. I figure they hold their value pretty well


Are your sights off in windage or elevation? I'm guessing windage, since elevation isn't really adjustable. How far off? Does the rear sight *look* off center? Can you measure by how much?

When I got my Sig 226 it shot about 4" to the left at 25 Yards. The sight radius is 6.15" 25Y=900", 6.15/900 = 0.00683333 (yes, too many significant digits) That means 1" error at 25Y requires 0.00683" of sight adjustment. So, 4" error means the sights are off by 0.02"

The rear sight looked centered, but the front... didn't. I measured from the sides of the slide, and sure enough, the front sight was off to the right by 0.02"!

I moved the front sight to the left by that 0.02" with the pusher, and the holes now go where the sights point. (or, to pedantic, the sights now point to where the barrel does.)

In any case, my point is that with an $8 set of digital calipers you should be able to measure something as small as 4"@25Y sight misalignment.

 

[That Guy]

At 50 feet it is off by about 8 - 12 inches to the right. The rear sight doesn't look off center (if anything, I'd say it is ever so slightly pushed further right than centered, which is strange because that means if it was centered the gun would be shooting even further right.

SSW1911 has a S&W Pusher I am going to borrow - I tried a nylon punch and it didn't even move the sight and since I now have located a sight pusher I'm not going to step up to the brass punch.

It was also shooting low, but I also discovered this weekend what someone above mentioned - apparently Beretta wants you to cover your target with the front post, not place the target on top.

 

[earthshine402]

At 50 feet it is off by about 8 - 12 inches to the right. The rear sight doesn't look off center (if anything, I'd say it is ever so slightly pushed further right than centered, which is strange because that means if it was centered the gun would be shooting even further right.

The rule of sight adjustment is: move your rear sight in the direction you need it to go, so if you are shooting right, push your rear sight left to center it back up. I learned this the hard way when trying to adjust sights once - I only wasted about 50 rounds or so until I finally figured it out..

 

[yanici]

The rule of sight adjustment is: move your rear sight in the direction you need it to go, so if you are shooting right, push your rear sight left to center it back up. I learned this the hard way when trying to adjust sights once - I only wasted about 50 rounds or so until I finally figured it out..

What he said. Since your guns POI is hitting to the right of POA you need to drift the rear sight to the left, not to the right.

 

[That Guy]

Duh. I'm always horrible at figuring that out - I way overthink it. That probably explains why it's slightly off to the right - it appears to be slightly to the right on the slide.

 

[ToddDubya]

I'm in the midst of "re-centering" my 92FS. After swearing at myself and calling myself "stupid" and "worthless" for shooting so poorly, I used a rest to eliminate some of the user-induced error and found I was still grouping maybe 2" to the left @ 50'. I'm going to do another round with a little more scientific approach, but in the meantime I'm going to order a set of punches from Brownells. I can't justify the $100+ for a pusher I'm only going to use once.

That Guy, is it possible your rear sight is maxed out to the right and that's why the nylon punch wasn't working? I believe the sight is removed to the left and you need to either remove the safety or flip it to safe to remove the sight. That's what they're saying over on the Beretta forum, anyway. I'm trying to talk myself into going the nylon punch route .

 

[milktree]

At 50 feet it is off by about 8 - 12 inches to the right. The rear sight doesn't look off center (if anything, I'd say it is ever so slightly pushed further right than centered, which is strange because that means if it was centered the gun would be shooting even further right.

SSW1911 has a S&W Pusher I am going to borrow - I tried a nylon punch and it didn't even move the sight and since I now have located a sight pusher I'm not going to step up to the brass punch.

8-12" @50'? Holy cow. That's pretty huge.

Are you getting a nice tight group? If not, then before you muck with the sights, make sure it's not *you* doing something. Try shooting off a sandbag, or with your other hand, or both, and do that until you get a tight group. *then* worry about how the sights are wrong.

10" @50' is nearly 1/10" sight position error. You should be able to see that pretty easily. Remember, I could see 0.02"

Another easy way to remember which way to move the sights is to point the sights at the impact; think of the barrel as being fixed; just adjust the sights to where the bullet is going.

You have to put some real energy into the sights to move them, I'm not surprised a nylon one didn't work. The two pushers I have are *not* interchangeable, so be extra, super careful that the base grabs the slide properly and solidly, and that the pusher lines up with the sight properly, or you'll break something. There's a reason MGW has so many specialized model specific sight tools.

 

[That Guy]

Yeah, it's definitely the sights. I'm pretty experienced with several different Berettas and I've never had a problem like this. Shooting at the steel Sunday I had to aim six inches off the steel to hit it. When I did that I was nailing it every time - I've also shot paper and been careful with my sight picture to make sure. I also had another shooter try it out and he got the same results - when he aimed where I told him he was all set.

 

[RealQuick]

Invest in a pusher... I just installed target rear sights on my Beretta 92A1 and Para P14 1911, and I used a hammer and drift punch. It marked up the side of the sights (removed the finish).

 

[ToddDubya]

Does anyone have a sight tool for the 92fs they would be willing to lend or rent for a small fee? Mine is off about 2 inches at 50 feet from a rest. I have to do the math on how far to move it, but I would guess it is not much.

 

[ToddDubya]

Gratuitous bump. I'm still looking for a sight tool if anyone has one. I'd be happy to buy it from you, borrow for fee or borrow for free, whatever.

 

[That Guy]

I ended up just buying a set of brass punches to move mine - it worked, but as predicted it marred the finish (not terribly) but I am planning to refinish this gun sometime soon anyway, so I wasn't too worried. But it worked - right on the money now.

 

[ToddDubya]

I ended up just buying a set of brass punches to move mine - it worked, but as predicted it marred the finish (not terribly) but I am planning to refinish this gun sometime soon anyway, so I wasn't too worried. But it worked - right on the money now.

I assume you finally moved the rear to the left, correct?