# sight adjustment



## donk123 (Jun 6, 2013)

Have had a 96a1 for a little over a year. For me, has been consistently been impacting low. Have had several others try it and had similiar results. How do i go about adjusting my vertical point of impact, it is shooting low and i have several other semi-autos and have no sight problems. Have tried different holds with no luck. Do i get a shorter front sight? If so, where from. Also, does anyone know of a good video that shows detailed breakdown of frame and slide. Any input much appreciated.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

If you can't find a shorter front sight, it's pretty easy to file the one you have down just a bit. _*Not much!*_

Use blue tape to wrap the rear half of a fine-cut, flat file. Make sure that the blue tape is flat on the file, with no lumps.
Use the taped ("made safe") end of the file to make it lay flat across the top of your gun's rear sight, while the front part actually works on the front sight. That keeps the top of the front sight square to the rear sight.
Take a couple of file strokes, and then fire a three-shot group. If you need the front sight to be lower, take a few more strokes, and fire another group. Stroke a little, and test, again and again, until it's right.

*BUT before you do any filing*, make really, really sure that the problem is not in your shooting technique. Let a known-expert pistol shooter try your gun, and see what he or she can do with it. Only file the front sight if you have proof positive that it's too high.


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## Pistol 9mm (Feb 22, 2019)

The problem with Beretta92 FS is that the factory sights come adjusted to #2 in the following graph:










And most of us use #1. Then the shots go down.
Install an adjustable sight and you'll see your problem solved


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Pistol 9mm said:


> The problem with Beretta92 FS is that the factory sights come adjusted to #2...And most of us use #1. Then the shots go down. Install an adjustable sight and you'll see your problem solved


If you are practicing defensive shooting, I must strongly disagree with this advice.

The best thing to do is change your sights and your sighting technique so that you are making hits right at the tip of the front sight in the middle illustration (Sight Image 2).

Image #1 is for bullseye target shooting, and #3 is essentially useless because it obscures most of the important "hit area" of your, um, target.

Of course, at very close range, any one of the three sight pictures shown will work well enough.


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## pblanc (Mar 3, 2015)

As for detailed assembly and disassembly of the Beretta 92 series pistols, go to youtube and check out a whole series of videos posted by childofjuly. These are very well done with excellent camera work and explanations. The Beretta 96 will be essentially identical.

As for the sight issue, it has been my experience and that of others that stock Berettas very often use a "drive the dots" sight picture like sight image 3 in the post two above this. You can try that and see if it helps. If not, or if you want a different sight picture and want to move your POI up, you can either use a shorter front sight, a taller rear sight, both, or install an adjustable rear sight. The good news is that with the Beretta 92/96 A1 the front sight is dovetailed unlike the Beretta 92/96 in which it is an integral part of the slide and cannot be removed and replaced.

As for the adjustable sight option, berettausa sells an adjustable rear for the 92/96 that should work:

http://www.berettausa.com/en-us/beretta-92-96-target-adjustable-rear-sight/e00169/

If you don't want to go with an adjustable sight you can swap one or both of the sights but you first need to determine the current height of your front and rear sights and the sight radius (distance between sights). The amount you need to change your sight height then becomes a geometrical exercise in proportional triangles.

Or you can go to Dawson Precision's website. Although Dave Dawson does not list replacement sights for Beretta pistols, you can use the calculator on his website to determine how much you need to shorten your front sight height to move your POI the desired amount at any given range. Again, you need to input the height of your front sight above the top surface of the slide, and the distance between the front and rear sights. This calculator will only be of benefit if you plan to replace the front sight only:

http://dawsonprecision.com/sight-calculator/

You can also of course trim down your stock front sight as Steve suggests which would be the cheapest option. The Dawson calculator should give you a reasonable estimate of how much you need to trim it down. The stock front sight could be replaced if the result did not meet your expectations or if you decided to sell the gun.

Wilson Combat also sells high quality front and rear replacement sights for the Beretta 92/96. It looks as if the height of all of the WC front sights is the same, but there is a range of height options for the rear sight. According to his website, the standard factory rear sight height is .270", but I would confirm that by measuring the height of your rear sight with a caliper. Again, per Bill Wilson's website, changing the height of your rear sight by .010" will move your POI approximately 1.7" up or down at 20 yards. At 10 yards, the shift in POI would be half that. Again, taller rear sight makes point of impact go up, shorter rear sight moves POI down:

http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Beretta-92_96/products/465/1/0


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## Pistol 9mm (Feb 22, 2019)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> If you are practicing defensive shooting, I must strongly disagree with this advice.
> 
> The best thing to do is change your sights and your sighting technique so that you are making hits right at the tip of the front sight in the middle illustration (Sight Image 2).
> 
> ...


I'll be very interested in knowing why your advise in the first two lines. I strongly disagree that you use different way of sighting for bullseye and for defense. That does NOT make sense to me.


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## berettatoter (Sep 1, 2011)

Pistol 9mm said:


> The problem with Beretta92 FS is that the factory sights come adjusted to #2 in the following graph:
> 
> View attachment 16980
> 
> ...


Well, I tend to use sight image #2, when shooting handguns. About the only time I use #1 is if I am shooting an old military surplus rifle with irons. I guess that's just me.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Pistol 9mm said:


> I'll be very interested in knowing why your advise in the first two lines. I strongly disagree that you use different way of sighting for bullseye and for defense. That does NOT make sense to me.


You've misread what I wrote.
I strongly suggest that the defensive shooter always use the same sight picture, both in practice and in "real life," and that the sight picture I suggest is typified by Illustration #2.

If you'd like to discuss the pros and cons of that one sight picture, I'm open to that at any time.


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## pblanc (Mar 3, 2015)

I too prefer the sight image #2 or "center hold" for defensive pistols in which the POI is right at the top of the front sight post when the front sight post is centered and leveled in the rear sight notch. Unfortunately, I have found that is not how many makers of combat pistols sight their models. I own four Berettas and five SIG Sauer pistols and I have found that they all tend to be sighted more for the #3 sight picture ("combat hold"). In my experience, Glocks tend to be set up more for a center hold sight image.

As for bullseye pistol shooting, there are very good reasons for them to be set up to use the #1 sight picture or "6 o'clock hold". The six o'clock hold really only works well for a certain size bullseye shot at a certain range, but that is the norm for bullseye shooting. The advantage is that the top of a black front sight post can be quite difficult to center precisely against a black bull. It is much easier to see the precise position of the top of the front sight post when it is exactly at the bottom edge of the bull. In fact, a lot of bullseye shooters will adjust their sights so that there is a tiny sliver of "white" between the bottom of the bull (sub 6 o'clock hold) that can make it even easier to precisely judge the position of the top of the front sight post relative to the bottom of the bull.

But bullseye shooters most often use pistols with an adjustable rear sight and do not use those pistols for defensive purposes.


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