Look closely, the target is 25 yards downrange.
I’d already replaced the rear sights on my other Colt revolvers, and the other day I finally got around to the baby of the bunch — my .22 caliber King Cobra.
Look carefully at the photo of the pistol on a pillow in my truck bed and focus downrange. You’ll see a tiny target between the firewood shed and the azalea bush on the left. That’s what I was aiming for.
That cluster of shots you see in the close-up photo below is what I was left with after installing the new rear sight. I left the elevation at zero and didn’t adjust the windage from what it was at the install.
It looked about right to me when I eyeballed it. Turns out I wasn’t far off.
Not bad for a first run through.
The rear sights on Colt pistols as they come from the factory are — as everyone knows — pretty much garbage. Adjusting windage is a two-part process: you first have to loosen a “hold-tight” screw atop the sight and then turn another screw on its side to move the sight or point of impact right or left; then you have to re-tighten the first screw, the hold-tight screw.
As I said, it’s a messy process.
The tiny hold-tight screw is a flimsy thing that won’t remain locked down — even with the recommended use of lock-tight.
Shame on Colt. New, reliable sights run about $100 and are well worth the expense.
On the two replacement sights I have used — Kensight and Wilson Combat — there’s a single screw to adjust windage — as it should be, but isn’t, with the Colt factory sights.
Both Kensight and Wilson make fine products that are easy to install. Kensight, out of the Atlanta area, offers better shipping terms, so you save a few bucks over the Arkansas produced Wilson. But, as I say, both are excellent replacements for the Colt mess.
You won’t go wrong whichever you choose.
