New Gun will not sight in! Help!

Question
QUESTION: I have a Smith and Wessen 460 hand gun. I am shooting the Hornaday 200 grain bullet, and it will not sight in.  Do you have any suggestions. I shot it at 35 yards and it shot 8 inches low.  On the target,left and right are in line however, the up and down are not. Would changing muzzle breaks help.  The longer muzzle break is in the gun currently.  I took it to the gun dealer that I purchased it from and they are not sure what to do either.
Thanks for your input.

ANSWER: Hello Adam.

Here are some good steps to try whenever you have trouble with accuracy of a particular gun:

1 - Ask another experienced shooter to try it for you on the same range with the same targets / ammo. If the guns is more accurate or the group pattern changes then it is probably due to variations in the grip, shooting stance, sight alignment, etc. which vary from person to person. You may not be doing anything wrong directly, but the grip size or grip angle might not be a good fit for your hands, or the sights may not be the best type for your vision.

2 - Have a friend randomly insert 1 or 2 fired cases in the cylinder with the remainder of the cartridges being full loads. Fire the gun as you normally would but don't look at the cylinder or try to guess where the empty cases are. If your hands or grip jerk suddenly or tense up when you pull the trigger on the empty cases then you have developed an automatic flinch. This is common with high power firearms and it happens to pro shootera all the time. Your brain is anticipating the high recoil and causing you to flinch just as the gun is fired. This often results in the gun being pulled low at the moment the bullet is leaving the barrel which would result in low groups on the target.

3 - Try a variety of cartridges. Some cartridges just don't fire accurately in certain firearms. There are many brands to choose from and many combinations of powder, primer, and bullet type. What works well in one gun may be poor in another gun, and some ammunition is designed for specific ranges such as close defense or long range hunting.

4 - Try cleaning the gun very well including a thorough scrubbing of the bore and chambers. If you have been shooting for a while then the bore could be leaded which will reduce accuracy. Also inspect the muzzle crown for any chips, nicks, dents, burrs, or deformities. It doesn't take much to start a bullet tumbling.

5 - Check your sights. You may not be adjusting them properly, or the adjusting mechanism could be loose and drifting out of alignment from the recoil. If your gun has a scope or the ability to mount one then try using a scope. The factory sights might have been installed incorrectly out of alignment with the bore. You can buy an inexpensive laser bore sighter at Walmart or most gun shops that will allow you to confirm the bore to site alignment.

If all else fails then take it to a gunsmith. They can check it for common problems and may be willing to give you a free estimate if any repairs are needed.

Hope this helps!

Bob

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Bob, Thanks for the tips. I will most definately try these. One more qusetion for you; will the shorter muzzle break change the bullets trajectory?

Adam

Answer
The short answer is no. Most muzzle breaks on revolvers should not have any significant impact on the velocity or trajectory of the bullet. There may be a minor variance but not enough to be noticeable to most shootres and certainly not to the extreme which you mention. If the barrel or muzzle ports were cut incorrectly such that there were minor burrs or imperfections in the bore then the accuracy could be significantly impacted but on a properly manufactured revolver you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

The only other factors to consider are thay muzzle breaks reduce or offset the recoil force a bit which can make the gun easier to shoot thus more accurate, but they also introduce a lot more noise and it is often the loud noise which causes people to flinch or jerk when firing so in some cases a muzzle break can introduce accuracy problems indirectly.

Hope this helps.