How hard is it to move the rear sight?

[Adui]

I have a TRaditions Hawken caplock. I love the gun, but the thread on peep sights got me thinking. Looking at the profile of the gun, I realize that my very non PC adjustable rear sight is a long way forward on the barrel. It would be nice to have a longer sight profile on it, might even help my tired eyes tighten up my grouping a bit.

How hard would it be to move it back, and assuming I didn't take it to a smith what tools would be required to do it safely and right?

(Not sure its worth paying a smith for this little job)

 

[Spikebuck]

Well, not hard at all, just don't go deep on the dovetail in the barrel...it doesn't take a lot. This is a front sight, but process is the same.

1) Mark your barrel narrower than the bottom of your sight base and using a hacksaw make a series of cuts (no deeper than the teeth on the blade.) The picture makes them look deeper than they are. A lot of sight bases are way thicker than needed and I file them thinner. .030 to .050 is plenty.

2) You can then either hold your hacksaw kinda sideways and cut those remaining pieces out, or I sometimes just use a file to take them down. You'll want to file the bottom smooth anyway.

3) Using a "safe" triangle file (teeth ground off the surface that rides on the bottom)start making your dovetail cuts on both sides. GO SLOW and test the sight for fit often.

4)You don't want to have to "hammer" the thing in, but it should fit snugly. When I get there, I put a drop of oil on it and tap on the sight.

This one I did on the breech end was not as deep as I wanted to maintain as much metal on the barrel as possible, which is not quite so much of an issue way up at the muzzle.

I made the dovetail to attach to the Johnson peep. You can see it's not very thick.

Others use different methods, like using a tool to raise the dovetail vs filing it out with a safe file. This is just my method as I learned it.

 

[Patocazador]

Good tutorial. :thumbsup:

 

[Adui]

Had I not seen your pictures I'd never have believed a simple hacksaw could be used to do that! Thank you for the pictures AND the tutorial! :thumbsup:

Sadly, while it looks like the front sight on mine is dovetailed, the rear appears to be a new fangled bolt on....

 

[S.Kenton]

You can remove the screws in your new fangled bolt on sight, the take the sight off, the take the screws out of the sight, add a little epoxy to the threads of each screw and put them back in the barrel, then file them flat to the barrel. You can then touch them up with browning solution or blueing solution, whichever is appropriate. Then order an appropriate sight from track of the wolf and use the above turorial to attach... :wink:

 

[don hepler]

You could add one of the long Hawken style sights to your rifle, without modifying the gun. You can get one of the Hawken style long sights, similar to the Johnson sight, then remove the dove tail and drill holes to match your existing holes. You can move the front sight to correct windage and file or add taller sight for elevation.

Somewhere, I had seen this done to a TC Hawken.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Audi,
Just my thought: Generally one's eyes like the rear sight moved forward with age. (49, you are there or will soon notice sight loss) While a longer sight distance is a more accurate sight, one needs to consider eye clarity. Place a rear sight on top of the barrel where you think you want it. Now aim at something small to check sight clarity. Is it better or worse than you have now?
Flintlocklar :wink:

 

[Adui]

I hadnt considered that. Ill do just that to be sure I dont regret a permanent move.