Adjustable sights, how fragile are they?

[His lordship.]

I was cleaning and oiling my Ruger GP 100 yesterday, over several newspapers on an oak table and dropped the gun on the rear sight about 2" on top of the desk.  It got me thinking on how fragile those rear sights can potentially be, some guns are carried for work, like law enforcement, others for hunting, if it gets knocked off on those applications the situation can be very serious.

I would normally not worry and just bring the gun back to the range to check, but I plan to move in a few weeks and am burning off ammo to get rid of the weight, out of .38's now.

I bumped my scoped hunting rifle a few years ago on a chair and it was not knocked out of alignment when I checked it at the range.  20-30 years ago it was stressed that the scopes especially were prone to getting out of alignment, so I am exta careful with them.

Has anyone experienced having the rear sights on their handguns knocked out of alignment, and just how tough are those to impacts?

Thanks.

[safetysheriff]

with a scope being bumped you put stress on the base screws mounting it to the rifle which will stretch them and loosen them.   and other parts of the system are stressed.    with a Ruger GP-100 i think you didn't do any damage unless you did it on concrete or maybe asphalt (whose fault?  your fault!).   

all kidding aside:  i wouldn't worry about that Ruger.

ss'

[jpsmith1]

I agree.  I've dropped a couple of rifles and a handgun or two.  Never messed with the sight alignment to date.  Not to say that I wouldn't test fire, but I wouldn't worry too hard about it.

[williamlayton]

I don't care for adjustable sights on pistols.
They are, according to what I read, suceptable to allignment concerns and some are just not hardy enough.
Blessings

[Ken ONeill]

Should be no problem with a drop like you describe. Check it when you get a chance, and before hunting with it. In the mean time, it will be fine for emergency defensive purposes...I guess you'll have to use it as a club though, since you don't have any ammo. Go buy a box. Adjustable sights on a Ruger are generally very durable. The most fragile are probably the Smiths, where a high blade is subject to wobbling after a lot of bumps. Any zeroed adjustale sighted handgun beats the fixed sight alternative.

[Mikey]

Chris - I have a number of handguns with adjustable sights and regularly knock them out of alignment.  They can go out of alignment fairly easily if you bump them right.  My Ruger MkII 22lr Government Model is a good example and before I use it to hunt small game I make sure she is still sighted in.  Same for my S&W revolvers - fairly easy to bump those rear sights and knock them out of alignment and there simply isn't any way to realign them without another range trip. 

As for scopes - also easy to bugger up.  Scopes are designed to take recoil on a forward/backward motion - they don't do too well if they get a knock on the side.  I find my x-hairs can usually 'jump' a couple of inches after the scope gets a good side 'knock', which means another range trip or a quick look down the tube.  HTH.  Mikey.

[ed1921]

Common sense says that adjustable sights are more fragile than fixed sights.
That being case, in my own experience the adjust siights on my guns have pretty much held up kept zero even when bumped, except in one case where the rear sight fell of while shooting.

[jro45]

I have not had any problem with my adjustable sights on any of my handguns. I've droped my handgun on the cement before and no problem.

[LEO]

I carried Smith and Ruger revolvers for several years with adjustable sights.  Are they more fragile than fixed sights, common sense says yes but they are not as fragile as many people would have you believe.  I carried these revolvers everyday at work and the majority of that time was spent outdoors on foot, ATV, horse, or boat and I can't remeber ever damaging the sights on my revolver, the only time I had a problem was my supervisor was doing a firearms inspection and dropped my revolver, it landed on the corner of the sight blade from about 4 feet on concrete, the sight blade broke.  However I did have to reset my sights fairly regularly because the powers that be bought different ammuniton so that would have been a problem with a fixed sighted revolver.  With that said I prefer the "fixed" sights on my semi-auto, they can be adjusted by drifting the sights and or replacing with different hight components.  Most of the adjustable sights that I have seen on semi autos protrude more and don't appear to be as robust as the sights on the revolvers. Since I can get an exact point of aim/point of impact with the "fixed sight" version I prefer them.

[Savage]

Are adjustable sights more fragile than fixed? I broke the rear sight off my Kimber Stainless target with my hand doing malfunction drills in a class I was taking. Of course the heel and palm of my hand got the worse end of the deal. Fixed sights on my carry/duty guns from then on, thank you very much!
Savage

[slave]

I broke a set on an old Glock. They were of very poor design. In fact Glcok never intended them for use. They needed an adjustable sight to get them in the US do to a LAW back at that time.

[lovedogs]

Tricky question.  Sometimes they'll take quite a bit and the next time a slight bump will affect them.  Usually, with a course factory sight you can see if there's any damage and see if they have moved, if you're familiar with what they looked like before the drop.  I think I'd shoot it to check before I did anything serious, like hunting.

A little off subject but someone mentioned scopes being more fragile.  And this is usually true.  But some of our scopes are quite a bit tougher than we give them credit for.  A few years ago I was shooting a Ruger MkII with a Burris 2X aboard.  I emptied the magazine and  put the pistol in its holster to recharge the magazine.  When I'd loaded the mag and was taking the pistol out to reinsert the mag it slipped out of my hands and tumbled a couple of feet to land on a big, solid rock.  Boing!  It landed right on the ocular housing and rang like a tuning fork.  Man, I was just sick.  I was sure it was broken.  I picked it up and dusted it off.  There was a small scratch on the anodizing.  Otherwise, it looked fine.  No bent tube or broken lenses.  After giving it a good looking over I decided to see how far out of alignment it was.  To my surprise it was still dead on!  Since then I've had that scope on a .44 magnum and a .30-30 Contender and it works perfectly.

After having the priviledge to tour the Burris plant I can see why.  Those tubes are really thick and they are one tough scope.

With irons or scopes I guess it just depends on how they land and how well built they are in the first place.

[superjay01]

two of my pistols have adjustables on them. I have glock 23 that I carry and have never had any problems with them. My other is a target model Kimber and have never had any problem with them. My Glock has taken a lot of abuse both dropping and shooting and they have never let me down yet. Anything that has moveable parts are going to be easier to have problems with than something that doesn't.

[superjay01]

every gun I own I shoot. That way I'm a shooter and not a gun collector.