gun site

Question
Dear sir,
My wife and I live on a small farm in eastern Tennessee. I own a H&R model 649 22 lr pistol. The rear site is off a few cm to the left. This site is a fixed site in a v groove.
My question is, can I just move the site over? will the site be harmed by moving it? Will the site stay where it is adjusted to or will this loosen the site?

Answer
I can't tell for sure without seeing the gun, so I will tell you some general principles and you can make your own decision about what to do.

1) Are the shots actually hitting to the left? The sight may have been adjusted that way so that it shoots to point of aim. Don't worry about it being mechanically zeroed, check and see if it is hitting.

2) If you do need to move the sight, this is a normal procedure and should not damage the gun.

a) unload the gun

b) clamp it in a padded vice (you can make pads out of leather or thick material). If you know how to remove the cylinder, do that and clamp it at the top strap were the sight is mounted. Otherwise, remove the grips and clamp it up as close to the cylinder bottom as you can get.

c) Using a length of wooden dowel of 1/2" diameter or larger using a mallet tap the dowel against the sight in the direction you want it to move. Go gently at first, sometimes on those old revolvers the sights move quite easily. If it doesn't go, you can whack it a bit harder. The dowel will splinter before you will hurt the sight, but if this happens, it's probably rusted in. Put some penetrating oil like Kroil or Liquid Wrench, let it sit for a while and try again.

Best to you.