hawken sight's

[running horse]

I bought a traditions hawken rifle a few years ago but the thing came with plastic front and rear sight's does any one have any pictures of or know what the originals looked like and what metal they where made of? Thought of making the front out of brass so its easer to see but it might be a little thin and may bend or break to easy what do you all think

Thanks for your input
RH

 

[ohio ramrod]

A little time, small vice,a hacksaw, and file are all you need to make sights out of brass. :idunno:

 

[chazz1975]

You could always check with track of the wolf or The Gun Works. They seem to have a lot of sights. You could probably find what you need from one of them. I am not sure how traditions mounts their sights, but I am also guessing that a one that fits the older CVA may also fit the traditions.

 

[mooman76]

CVA and Traditions parts were interchangeable some time ago. I don't know how they mounted plastic sights though. Are they Dovetail sights?

 

[running horse]

The front sight is dove tailed the rear sight has a screw or two to hold it on the rear sight's are adjustable but I don't necessarily need adjustable once I resight it in I shouldn't need to ever change it again

 

[1frozenhillbilly]

I just checked my current traditions Hawkins and it has a steel dovetail on the front, I'd bet you could order a drop in from somewhere

 

[crockett]

I think the front sights were often knocked out and replaced with silver blades made from a coin. The rear was usually iron, I am using "The Plains Rifle" by C. Hanson on that. As stated, do a net search of Track of the Wolf (TOW), they have Hawken sights.
There is some question on the front sight whether a brass or copper base with a silver blade was the more common. I might be wrong but I think a copper base was common (maybe the more common) than one of brass.
Since there is some wiggle room, the smaller the sights the more streamlined the gun appears.

 

[running horse]

Where buckhorn sight's more common or was another rear sight more likely to be used

 

[Dwight Rutherford]

Not an original Hawken but my original J.P.Gemmer has a brass front sight that is dovetailed and a buckhorn rear sight ,also dovetailed.

 

[longcruise]

Track has a good inventory of front sights.

They may also have a screw on adaptor for the rear that has a dovetail in it.

 

[stantdm]

The front site on my Ithaca Hawken is dovetailed in. It is a brass flat in the dovetail with a german silver blade. It is not the original sight but is just like it. The rear sight is dovetailed and is all iron. It came, as I recall, unfiled, and you could file a notch in it going slowly to create a V or half round or whatever you wanted.

 

[ccmountainman]

I have a 35+ year old CVA mountain.
Realizing all the replica traditional sidelocks
are based on the "Hawken" designs.
Mine has a german silver blade sight mounted on a dovetail for windage.
The rear is a buckhorn on a dovetail for windage and a screw for elevation.
Two T/C's I have, the front blade is dovetailed for windage, and have a blocky rear sight that is screw adjustable for windage and elevation.
it is a factory rear, but not really authentic design.
A modern replica rifle might be called a "Hawken"
but it really isn't.
It's overall design just replicates some or all of the original Hawken brothers designs.
Basically and generally speaking. The first mountainmen / trappers that headed west to the Rockies etc carried the older LONG rifles mostly flintlocks. Kentucky and Pennsylvania designs.

They found game many times were at longer distances on the open plains than the old heavy growth forest back east. Many times was bigger and heavier, and winds.
Along comes Hawkens and listens to them and what they felt they needed.
Heavier caliber to buck the wind, have more impact at greater ranges.
A lighter over all rifle, but a stout barrel to handle the heavier charges.
Shorter for quicker swing, point and aim.
Thus the brothers developed the so called "Hawken".
Which in reality would be better named as the (great) plains or Mountain rifle, as dome replica makers did do.
Of course by the mid to late 1830's the percussion cap was in vogue and makers were designing locks for them. Thus the "Hawkens" were pretty much designed to use the new percussion cap, by the time of the Western fur trade of the 1840's.
So unless your rifle is a original Hawkens, today it is just Hawken-esque (sp?)
It looks like, resembles, has some, most or all of the features of the original.

 

[Rifleman1776]

So unless your rifle is a original Hawkens, today it is just Hawken-esque (sp?)
It looks like, resembles, has some, most or all of the features of the original.

I agree with you. I do become a little irked when I see a thread started about a "Hawken" rifle and it turns out to be a TC.
But, the term has become almost generic to half stock rifles even slightly similar to most original mountain rifles.
Think of all tissues called "kleenex" or any big knife being called a "Bowie", etc.

 

[ccmountainman]

So unless your rifle is a original Hawkens, today it is just Hawken-esque (sp?)
It looks like, resembles, has some, most or all of the features of the original.

I agree with you. I do become a little irked when I see a thread started about a "Hawken" rifle and it turns out to be a TC.
But, the term has become almost generic to half stock rifles even slightly similar to most original mountain rifles.
Think of all tissues called "kleenex" or any big knife being called a "Bowie", etc.

Yep that's just the way things are. And it irks me that big companies, like T/C would call their rifle a T/C Hawken.
But that's life.

 

[mooman76]

I don't have a problem with someone calling a gun a Hawken. I guess I'm just not that picky. We all know none of them are true Hawken rifles except those originally made by Hawken brothers.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I don't have a problem with someone calling a gun a Hawken. I guess I'm just not that picky. We all know none of them are true Hawken rifles except those originally made by Hawken brothers.

Right. But I'm still allowed to be "irked" and "rankled". :cursing: :wink: :rotf:

 

[running horse]

The rifle is a Traditions hawken so no it's not a real hawken if it was i wouldn't have plastic sight's to worry about so feel free to be irked. where the rear sight's usually a buckhorn style or was there some other style of rear sight I haven't heard about yet

 

[bubba.50]

Dixie Gun Works, Track of the Wolf & likely others sell a long notched-ramp adjustable rear sight they list as bein' a copy of an original.

 

[BrownBear]

For TC's, here is the dandiest rear sight I've found anywhere. It's "punched" with little index marks so you can drill it with the zact spacing for the existing screw holes in a TC barrel. The picture isn't much to judge from, but it's a very good looking sight that works well, too.