Need new rear sight Traditions Hawken Woodsman

[tedmn]

Hi
I have, from what I can determine, a non standard Traditions Hawken Woodsman in .50. I say non standard because I have never seen one of the same type before and it does not match the parts that Traditions has on their website. The wood is a gray laminate, the rear sight is a plastic fire wire held by 2 screws and the front is a screw on red fire wire. The Traditions parts list does not show my nickle satin barrel and the list only shows a dove tail front sight. The barrel is in octagon shape as well. This is not a kit gun and purchased directly from Traditions website.

At a primitive biathlon this weekend I took a tumble and broke off the plastic rear sight. I would like to take this opportunity to change/upgrade to a metal rear sight with maybe a peep or ghost ring. I've looked and looked and can't seem to find any rear sight replacement other than the Traditions standard plastic ramp and sight.

Any sort of help would be appreciated...
Thanks

 

[arcticap]

Most all of the new Traditions guns come with a Williams metal fiber optic sight set.
Call Traditions customer service and see if they have a metal sight set to offer as a replacement that will fit.
If you only change the rear sight, it may not match the front sight when you try to zero it in or want to make adjustments for different projectile trajectories.
Was the plastic rear sight so bad that you wouldn't want an exact replacement if there isn't another convenient option?
If you don't want the exact replacement, then consider a new Williams sight set if they have one that fits the hole spacing.
But the height of the front sight can sometimes be tricky, as well as how to custom fit a new rear peep or ghost ring to your gun.
Even Williams offers many different options for front sight heights.
I wouldn't go looking around until I spoke to Traditions to see what they have that fits the existing tapped holes.
They're easy to contact and to deal with.
BTW, you have a beautiful stock and barrel.
It looks like a special run of components that they only sold for a short time.

Traditions Performance Firearms
Phone# 860-388-4656
Monday - Thursday 7:45am-4:30pm
Friday 7:45-3:15pm - Eastern Time

One reason why I take a cautious approach towards changing to a new peep sight system is because
I have a rifle with an excellent Lyman rear peep sight installed.
But possibly because the previous owner didn't match it up with the front sight height very well,
just about every time I shoot the gun at a different distance it needs to be re-sighted in.
I believe that if the target peep is too high for the height of the front sight, then it won't shoot flat enough
to accommodate very many different target distances.

 

[tedmn]

Thanks for the info and kind words about the rifle (hmmm...now that I think about it, don't have a name for the thing....)
I'll give a call over to Traditions and see what they say. What you point out is/was the only option that I was facing.
I had tried to find a ghost ring aperture type sight to put on the existing ramp, but even that slide/groove spacing was oddballish, too wide for like the Williams ghost ring etc.
I'm a 22 position competitor most of the time, so I'm totally used to an aperture sight. A little fine for use in ringing the gongs at a biathlon, but easier and more accurate for me over all.
Thanks for the info! I'll keep you posted.

 

[tedmn]

Okay I learned somethings today. Based on a phone call to Traditions, my gun was a run of weather resistant Hawkens made in 2007. Hence the laminate stock and satin nickel finish. The "normal" replacement sights are even worse than the original ones which were "real" FireWire types, the new ones (also plastic) are just "Lite Optic" ones (A1571 $29.99) and honestly they look cheaper than the ones that came with the gun. HOWEVER, they did say that the sights on a Deerhunter model DO fit on the same Hawkens Model that I own. These are Williams METAL rear and front sights, optic type, and have a Traditions part # of 70952 $49.95. Okay, I called Williams and attempted to get the cross reference part...no joy. However I did learn that one can change the actual SIGHT on the base easy enough, so you can start with the optic green or change it to a ghost ring etc. BTW, the holes/screws are METRIC 3x5 for the rear sight and 3x4 for the front sight. I need to think about this more.

 

[Nuthatch]

New member here. I have the same rifle and the rear sight is cracked from being overtightened at some point before I bought it. It still works so I'm in no hurry to change it. But I would like to upgrade the rear sight at some point to an aperture.

I have another question about this rifle but will start a new thread since it doesn't have anything to do with your sight question.

 

[tedmn]

Nuthatch...well you are the first person that I know of that has the same rifle. Everything I like, except the cheap plastic sights and the fact that they are screw mounted. As you saw, there are some alternatives, I am waiting on a reply to a message I sent to RMC to see if their universal sight would fit as well. I'll wait for your other thread, maybe I can shed some light.

 

[arcticap]

I have a Deerhunter with a nickeled barrel, bore, hammer, tang and lock plate.
But its old style plastic sights are much coarser than yours and I'm happy that Traditions has an upgraded metal sight set available.

I remember when that Woodsman model was being sold and I really liked it at the time.
But I already had the electroless Deerhunter model.
The Woodsman is also quite a bit heavier than a Deerhuner with the plastic stock that I have.