Ruger SR9c sights are way off is it defective?

Hey guys,

So i made a post about the scratch on my brand new SR9c. Based on your guys opinions, I decided to keep it and live with the scratch. Now the next problem... The gun came with the front sight slightly to the left and the rear sight pretty centered. I shot the gun from a rest from only 5 yards away. It was shooting 3-4 inches left of where I was aiming, and a few inches low. The elevation was an easy fix, but trying to get it to shoot center was not. I shifted the sight all the way over to the left and now it seems to be shooting center but now the gun looks ridiculous with the front sight not even close to being centered with the barrel. My SR9 never had this problem and was pretty accurate out of the box. Honestly I would like a replacement from Ruger with a gun that doesnt have to have the sights to the extreme left. Would if I wanted to more it more left? I can't because its so far left unless I want the thing hanging off the damn side of the slide... Here are some pics of my setup. I want to thank you guys at this forum for such quick responses and advice!

I forgot to mention.. When I was sighting in and the hits were hitting 3-4 inches left and 2-3 inches low, the shots were in a tight 1 inch group at that same spot while I was aiming directly at the center of the target. So its not my accuracy!!

IF it was mine: I would field strip the pistol and look through the barrel and see if the chamber appears centered and if there is any sign of a bent barrel. If none can be found I would have a friend shoot it and see where it goes. I have changed how my hand grips the gun and it resolved my low & left issue.

I would have someone else shoot it with the sights centered and go from there. If it is still doing that, off to Ruger.

High Dale this offset is has been noted before and is about as old as the SR series pistols itself unfortunately. There was a thread about this very issue some years back. In fact mine also appears to be offset to the side as well but not to the extreme degree yours seems to be.

In the previous thread it was generally decided that the sight was correctly aligned with the barrel and it was in fact the metal cutting that is off center.

Your pics are the most extreme example I've seen of this misalignment however. I have no idea if it's on the true center line or not. It's very hard to eyeball it from the pics to me because of the curved slide. It kind of plays tricks on the eye.

hurm.. looking closer at your second pic now it does in fact seem to be shifted too far to the left from where I think the center line of the bore should be.

I was an advocate of ignoring the scratch but that sight misalignment is too much to pass off. I'd contact Ruger to get both problems fixed at the same time.

My SR9c had to have the front sight slightly off-set to the right to center the point-of-impact but nowhere near as extreme as you show.

The scratch I could live with.

The sights being that far off I couldn't.

Send it back and have Ruger repair it.

Rei40c said:

hurm.. looking closer at your second pic now it does in fact seem to be shifted too far to the left from where I think the center line of the bore should be.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's what my eyes are seeing too.
A photo of the front as it would look from the intended target's perspective would tell the tale in terms of whether the centerline of the sight is presently in line with centerline of the muzzle...which I'm betting that it presently ain't.
Besides that...in my experience, "low and left" most usually has more to do with shooter error than an actual gun problem.

DGW