I did some shooting with my 45 this evening and noticed that I ran out of adjustment on my rear sights before I needed to. At 70 feet, I am hitting 4-5 feet in front of my target with the top of the front level with the top of the rear. when I raised the nose of the revolver to the first edge, I hit 10 feet behind my target. Is this a common problem with the Ruger's? If so, how is the professional way to fix it? Thanks.

Don't understand.

You have an adjustable rear sight, or fixed?

What loads are you using?

Did you RAISE the rear sight to bring up the POI? :confused: You will not believe how many go the wrong way! Ruger sights have a lot of adjustment and I have been able to use them as far as 400 yd's.
Of course they might have put too high of a front sight on the gun. You can lower the rear sight and file the front to bring you on target or just replace the front sight.
Then you never told us the load you are using. A very light, fast boolit will hit lower. Some of the cowboy loads go where they want too. Best to look at the loads before messing with the sights unless you goofed up and turned the sight down instead of up.

It has the adjustable sights and I have the screw backet outto where the rear sight is loose (I can move it up by using my finger). I "sighted" the gun in using reloads (250 LRN over 6 gr Red Dot). I say "sighted" because I had never shot a large revolver before this one and I have learned alot since then about my grip, technique, etc. so I don't know how close it really is. Last night I was using some CCI Blazers 200 gr. JHP that I bought cheap. I used two hands and a rest on all of my shots and had a 10"-12" circle in the dirt. I guess a few rounds with my normal loads would tell the story on if it were the loads.

I sighted the gun in at 20 or 30 yards (I forget) and I thought at the time that I had to back out the rear quite a bit more that I should. It seems that I remember reading somewhere that a too tall front sight was common on a Ruger.

I moved in to about 20 feet for the last round (getting too dark) and sent the can flying with every shot.

Have you skip loaded the cylinder so as not to know when an empty chammber is coming up? This will allow you to see if you are flinching and pulling the shots low.
I suggest leave 1 or 2 chambers empty and spin the clylinder . Don't leave 2 chambers side by side empty.
I think that will tell the tale.

With a new gun, I like to shoot at least 1 box of factory ammo through it if I can in case there is a problem that comes up. Have you tried any factory loads yet?

Just what do you mean by "...when I raised the nose of the revolver to the first edge, I hit 10 feet behind my target. .."
Are you aiming off by holding the front blade higher in the rear sight? If so, the fact that it is hitting really high is not unusual.
Another question is the size of target that you are using, as I have found that the range of sight adjustment is normally contained within the standard NRA bullseye target, or something is a about 24 inches in height. If you are using a much smaller target, and depending on the target frame and proximity to the backstop, you will have the impression that the load and gun are shooting much higher or lower than reality.

First of all, stop shooting at the ground! That's a really poor way to try sighting in a gun, and a really good way to cause ricochets that go who knows where. Get a paper target, at the very least a cardboard box with a small dot to shoot at, maybe the size of a quarter or less.

I sometimes see people shooting at cans, rocks, etc, and if they hit them, they figure the gun is "sighted in", but that really is a pretty poor way to do it, and a poor way to practice marksmanship.

You need to be shooting at a vertical paper target to see where your rounds are going, and adjust the sights (or your shooting technique) accordingly. If you are shooting low, raise the rear sight. If you are shooting high, lower the rear sight. Don't start filing on the front sight until you really know what the problem is, and why the gun is shooting low.

Light bullet and higher velocity loads will shoot low. Heavy bullet and low velocity loads shoot high. In my 45 Colt, I use a low velocity, light (255gr) bullet load for practice, and a heavy high velocity load for hunting; with carefull load development, both can shoot to the same point of aim at your normal handgun ranges.

Set up a target at about 20 feet. See where you are hitting. Is it a new gun? If it isnt then the previous owner may have put on a higher front sight to shoot heavweight bullets. I did that on my last SBH.

The blade should measure .455" (or close to that) above the ramp. Bought one brand new once that had a .310" blade and it did not have enough adjustment in the rear sight to get it down to stay in the black at 25 yards using a 6 o'clock hold.

Fellers, he said he never shot a large handgun before.

Before you do anything to the gun, try to get someone else to shoot it. Preferably an experienced handgun shooter. It would be a crime to alter a perfectly good gun, then have to fix it later.

Many years ago, my buddy and I bought identical .44BH's with 5 1/2" barrels. We quickly found out that when each of us were dialed in at 25yds, he was shooting 2' higher than I was with my .44, and I was the same amount lower with his, with the same loads.

My bet is that a heavier bullet will get you a lot closer to where you need to be. With my .44, I cannot get the sight far enough down to keep it on a 25yd slow fire target with a 300 gr bullet, at 25yds! It is on the money with both jacketed and cast 240gr bullets, and 180's require the sight to be almost all the way up to keep POI on the dot.

The shorter the barrel, the more POI can drift.