S&W Model 629 PC 2 5/8

Something's fd up with that bud the dovetail sight shouldnt be limited like that. I know they push in from l"ooking at muzzle" left to right but you should still be able to drift it fully left or right for windage adjustments. The sight is usually limited to stay within flush of the spine i.e you cant have the post hanging off one side but with such a short barrel if you needed to drift that far you'll be shooting out of a boomerang barrel. Calling s&w would be the best way to go then you'll wind up transfered to the right person in the qc center or shop floor you can email some pics to.
 
They aren’t all bad - Hope you get yours straightened out


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Hey, any update on your hand-cannon ? Really interested to see what S&W had to say in the end !
 
The front sight just needs to be drifted to the left till centered. The sight dovetail is not designed to be flush on both sides of the barrel, it will overhang each side like the previous photos.
You can see that the sight rib is not centered on the frame, but I can't tell from the pics if the barrel was over-rotated when tightening, or the hole in the frame was drilled offcenter - SW has been guilty of both recently. If the barrel is over-rotated, centering the front sight over TDC of the barrel (not centering it on the rib) will provide true accuracy (but might give the shooter a funny sight picture depending on how far off it is), and if the barrel is off-center but not over-rotated, centering the sight to the rail will work best.
Based on what I've heard while working at a gun store, if the barrel is over-rotated, SW may take care of it. If the hole was drilled off-center, you're probably stuck with it.
 
View attachment 995041 Guys — I can’t believe I didn’t notice this sooner. I think this may be normal and the way it’s “supposed” to be. Look at the pictures — there’s no way the front sight could be centered even if they wanted to. One side of the front side mount is longer than the other

The front sight just needs to be drifted to the left till centered.
....yes what we all said (me included), but if you read closely and then look at the pics you can see that the blade has been drifted as far to the left as is possible due to what appears to be an incompletely finished (it overhangs it dovetail cut so is hard up against the front sight base) dovetail base on the blade.
 
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"....yes what we all said (me included)"
Understood, sorry for being redundant... the point I was trying to make was that SW might or might not fix it depending on if the barrel is off-center or over-torqued.

"you can see that the blade has been drifted as far to the left as is possible"
I read that, but can't see that in the pics. I don't see anything wrong with the dovetail cut or the front sight. A left side pic of the dovetail might help.
 
I'm with Knifeleather. I can't see that the dovetail cut of the sight base are miscut. Just that the sight isn't centered. Need a left-side photo.
 
Its not the dovetail cut on the base that is incorrect, it is that the actual base on the sight blade that is too large and does not appear to have been properly finished. If you look at the pics in post 33 (Rob needed to point it out to me as well) it is glaring. The sight base has basically been left with "wings" that preclude it being drifted any further to the left than it is, these extend toward both the butt and barrel and look to be the result of an incomplete manufacturing process. In post 33 (pics taken from the muzzle) you can compare the size of each end of that base and see the (looking at this view) the left is much longer than the right so therefore (from the perspective of aiming the revolver) the front sight blade cannot be drifted any further left than it is. If you compare the base of the sight blade (not the dovetail cut) in those pics (post #33) and the pics of RedbeAR15 in post #62 above the difference is also obvious. I didn't see it either but once you do you can't "unsee" it.....LOL
 
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man I've been staring at those pics for 2 days, still don't see anything wrong...must be me, wouldn't be the first time lol
 
When I am back home and not using my phone I will Photoshop some arrows...I was exactly the same mate, looked at it for ages and then when I did see it leaps off the screen.
 
All I can say with confidence looking at post 33 is that the dovetail base is longer (wider?) than the TOP of the dovetail cut in the barrel rib. As you would want it to be. Otherwise, it isn't a dovetail cut; it's a square cut, and nothing will be held (unless it is an interference fit into the rib; if that were the case, you couldn't move the front sight at all. If you did, it would likely fall out). Every dovetail I have on any gun I have looks exactly like the one in post 33, the best I can tell looking from the top. I need to see the top compared to the left side.

ETA: Yeah, I just went and looked again, for like the 5th or 6th time today. Everything looks right with the cut and the base. It just needs to be drifted over more.
 
Trust me... it can't drift more as the "wings" that have been inadvertently left on the base (which protrude to the fore and aft of the cut) are now hard pressed against the side (right side when viewed from the firing view) of the front sight base.
 
Let me try to explain the Mr Squiggle drawing above. The Two Red Lines are the approximate top and bottom of the dovetail cut when viewed from above. This distance is most important (I understand a dovetail is narrower at the top than the bottom but the dimension does not effect this).

The Green Line is the width of the base of the front sight blade base on the correctly cut side. This width, as can be seen, corresponds with distance between the two red lines ie it needs to be able to slide between them (its easiest to consider this as a two dimensional problem but it exists in 3 dimension as well).

The Yellow line is the width of the base on the incorrectly cut side, it is clear that this cannot slide into the dovetail groove in the barrel base, it is FAR too wide.

The Purple Boxes are the excess steel that should have been removed to make a properly sized dovetail at that end that can slide into the groove. Those excess areas of steel are hard pressed against the barrel sight base and as such preclude the sight being drifted any further (from this view) to the right, they physically can't enter the dovetail groove/cut as they are much larger than the cut. They are dovetail shaped but too large for the cut.

I struggled to get my head around it for a bit as well.
 
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628 blade.jpg

So a rough drawing on Rob's first pic. The Red and Green lines (please ignore the red overhangs, shaking hand) are the approximate sise of the dovetail cut/groove in the barrel/sight base. They kind of correspond with the pic I drew on above.

The Yellow Box (dovetail shape ;) ) is the size of the base on this side of this front sight - ie WAY larger than the actual dovetail cut/groove that has been made. It cant go further into the cut/groove due to the overhang areas in Purple shade.

The rest of the base on that blade has been CORRECTLY CUT, therefore the blade has gone into the cut/groove to the point we see but is not close to being centered as that overhang (Purple area) is now sitting hard up against the barrel.
 
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I understand what you are saying, but I believe the red lines are the top of the cut, and the bottom of the cut is the same width as the outside edges of the purple boxes..ie, the sight does not have wings. It's not obvious becaue the left edge of the sight is flush with the flat on the barrel ramp. If you push the sight a tad more to the left, you'll see the 'wings' on that side as well. At least that's how I see it !! I hope I'm right, I cannot fathom that as bad as the SW QC is, that they would push on a front sight that had 'wings' like that on it.
 
base.jpg

The wings are exactly what Rob describes, my second (kiddie like) drawing may help. The sight base dove tail is cut to different sizes at each end. This pic above also shows the "wings" Rob explains. They are the area outside the yellow box above. If you look closely at the original pic you can see the size transitions between the top and bottom.

Most noteworthy is Robs own description that the sight cannot (despite us all (me too) telling him to do so over and over) be drifted any further across
 
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To me the dovetail appears to only be sticking out of one side of the barrel, making that side to appear to be wider when viewed from the top, since the bottom of the dovetail is wider than the top. The dovetail on the opposite side of the sight blade appears to be narrower because only the top of the dovetail is visible on that side. I’m probably missing something, though.
 
To me the dovetail appears to only be sticking out of one side of the barrel, making that side to appear to be wider when viewed from the top, since the bottom of the dovetail is wider than the top. The dovetail on the opposite side of the sight blade appears to be narrower because only the top of the dovetail is visible on that side. I’m probably missing something, though.
exactly what we all said and thought till Rob explained the overhang.
 
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