red dot sight

[Trooper]

I have a 54 cal TC Hawken barrel with a 1 in 48 twist (I think). I ordered a Williams FP tang site last January and the darned thing is held up in customs, God only knows for how long. Anyway, I mounted a short weaver rail where the rear sight would normally go then mounted a Tasco red dot sight on that rail. I intend on using this barrel for hunting this fall. My other barrel is a 1 in 66 twist 54 cal PRB barrel.

 

[Grimord]

To me, a traditional rifle with a scope or red dot scope just doesn't look right and is contrary to using a tradional gun for hunting. I completely understand the need to have sights that you can use. You could order a Skinner Peep sight. They have several models that will work on your Hawken, and they are made in the good ol U.S.A..

 

[doubleset]

Anyway, I mounted a short weaver rail where the rear sight would normally go then mounted a Tasco red dot sight on that rail.

And you posted that in this forum because ... ??? ... You were having a slow and lazy Saturday and just wanted a flurry of intensely emotional social medium action?

 

[Trooper]

And you posted that in this forum because ... ??? ... You were having a slow and lazy Saturday and just wanted a flurry of intensely emotional social medium action?

Yep. Actually, the reason was my eyesight is getting progressively worse. I had ordered and paid for two peep sights for my wife's and my Hawken rifles, but our vaunted customs are being asshats and we still don't have them. My anger and frustration are getting the better part of me. I mounted the red dot because I WANT to enjoy our sport. BTW, if you're getting emotional because I mounted a red dot sight on my barrel, you have a problem, not me. It's time you find a new hobby. I'll stay with mine as long as the Lord allows me to.

 

[Trooper]

To me, a traditional rifle with a scope or red dot scope just doesn't look right and is contrary to using a tradional gun for hunting. I completely understand the need to have sights that you can use. You could order a Skinner Peep sight. They have several models that will work on your Hawken, and they are made in the good ol U.S.A..

Unfortunately, Canada customs has a problem allowing delivery of sights purchased south of the 49th but they'll allow other sight systems like red dot sights and scopes made in the USA across the border. I just can't see the logic in their Bovine manure.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Contrary to a lot of beliefs...., one is allowed to discus modern sights on traditional, sidelock muzzleloaders on this forum.

We have an aging membership AND..., as hunters we have an ethical duty to use a sighting system that allows us as individuals to place the round on the animal for a quick and humane kill.

Now I'm blessed with farsightedness..., so I can still use my iron sights, no worries, BUT that's for me..., not for everybody else.

While all of us are encouraged to use an antique sighting system whenever possible, it's not part of our rules. Well..., until the Administrator changes the rules, it's not part of our rules.

So for now it's OK, to talk modern scopes, and scope mounts. ..., on traditional muzzleloaders....

OH FYI the first telescopic rifle sight was first mounted on a rifle in 1776.

Yes, you read that right. The problem was the telescope had not been made for eye relief, so the inventor, famous portrait artist Charles Wilson Peale, tied to make it work BUT..., the recoil kept causing the rear end of the scope to smack him in the eye! Must've been HILARIOUS the following day, this guy with his huge black eye and or a cut on his eyebrow from the scope and the recoil. SO the invention went waiting until eye relief had been worked out..., but a scope and cross hairs "was a real thing" back in 1776.

Rifle with a Telescope

LD

 

[Trooper]

I seem to recall seeing pics of a brass scope that was very long and was mounted on a sharps rifle.

 

[Trooper]

Contrary to a lot of beliefs...., one is allowed to discus modern sights on traditional, sidelock muzzleloaders on this forum.

We have an aging membership AND..., as hunters we have an ethical duty to use a sighting system that allows us as individuals to place the round on the animal for a quick and humane kill.

Now I'm blessed with farsightedness..., so I can still use my iron sights, no worries, BUT that's for me..., not for everybody else.

While all of us are encouraged to use an antique sighting system whenever possible, it's not part of our rules. Well..., until the Administrator changes the rules, it's not part of our rules.

So for now it's OK, to talk modern scopes, and scope mounts. ..., on traditional muzzleloaders....

OH FYI the first telescopic rifle sight was first mounted on a rifle in 1776.

Yes, you read that right. The problem was the telescope had not been made for eye relief, so the inventor, famous portrait artist Charles Wilson Peale, tied to make it work BUT..., the recoil kept causing the rear end of the scope to smack him in the eye! Must've been HILARIOUS the following day, this guy with his huge black eye and or a cut on his eyebrow from the scope and the recoil. SO the invention went waiting until eye relief had been worked out..., but a scope and cross hairs "was a real thing" back in 1776.

Rifle with a Telescope

LD

Thank you Loyalist Dave, thats a great read. I had no idea that scopes went that far back. I was under the impression that the scope was invented around the time of the US civil war.

 

[doubleset]

Actually, the reason was my eyesight is getting progressively worse. I had ordered and paid for two peep sights for my wife's and my Hawken rifles, but our vaunted customs are being pineapples and we still don't have them.

I wish you luck. I've never had any luck with the red dot sight (a fairly decent one by all accounts) that I bought many years ago and tried on at least three rifles. I could get it to work well at any single distance, but shooting at any other distance was just a mess -- much worse than with iron sights, and nothing like a scope. Maybe it was just me and not using it correctly, but I simply couldn't make it work. I hope you'll post your results with it.

 

[appalichian hunter]

O for shame, go buy a in-line and put a ACME X-1000 wizz bang gizmoto range finding electronic lazer zapper scope on it. Just kidding its your gun do what ya need to stay in the game. Good luck with the gestapho on the boarder.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Trooper, I understand how the bureaucracy can frustrate things in Canada. If you are a little bit handy make yer own real sight. With some searching you can find a lot of "how to" articles and vids on the subject.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Thank you Loyalist Dave, thats a great read. I had no idea that scopes went that far back. I was under the impression that the scope was invented around the time of the US civil war.

I know, right?
It seems that right before the ACW was when they had worked out the eye relief, so the scope image would be in full field of view , and in focus, but some inches from the shooter's eye.

O for shame, go buy a in-line and put a ACME X-1000 wizz bang gizmoto range finding electronic lazer zapper scope on it. Just kidding its your gun do what ya need to stay in the game. Good luck with the gestapho on the boarder.

Yes I agree it doesn't look "right"..., BUT I'd MUCH rather our members on their hunting rifle use something that is aesthetically unpleasant, and continue to use a traditional muzzleloader to successfully hunt..., than to switch to a reverse engineered modern contraption designed to thwart the intent of local game laws, eh?

Especially if the venison or other game is shared with me... I no longer sport a mustache, but this is essentially a good rendition of me....

LD

 

[McClura]

Hope you do well this hunting season with your Hawken/Dot sight. Many years back some of my friends from work lived and hunted in Arkansas with muzzleloaders and they were getting "OLD", bad eye sight. The state of AR finally folded to the numbers and allowed a scope on muzzleloaders but they were sneaky in that it had to be a 1x power or you could not use it. You may not know how hard it is to find a 1x power scope but it was crazy. I told them, let me put one of my Ultra Dots from one of my hunting pistols on the muzzleloader and if you don't like it we can go another route. After a week of muzzleloader season they came back to work with 4 muzzleloaders, all Hawken style TC's and wanted red dots on them for the whole family.
If you want to continue hunting with the blackpowder guns, you have to adapt. We don't want anyone to leave the Blackpowder community because of failing sight. If it's just moving the rear sight forward a few inches every couple of years, peep sights or Veneer sights, just adapt.
Mike

 

[2 shots]

you owe it to yourself to stay in the game, and owe it to the game to shoot well

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a top shooter friend that JB Welds a scope mount on some of the competition B/P guns he builds while he is working up a load, he says the JB Weld scope mount pops right off with heat.

I can't see sights worth a hoot either with my 74 year old eyes, I did make a peep for my deer rifle that works so well I feel like I am cheating after seeing blurry sights for the last 5 or 6 years.

This works for me but was a pain to make and adjust to work just right, I had to re-bend it a dozen times. I adjusted it to put the front sight blade perfectly centered and level with the notch of the rear sight.

 

[doubleset]

I no longer sport a mustache, but this is essentially a good rendition of me....

Including the lederhosen? Must be a big hit at a rendezvous.

 

[MTMountainman]

Yep. Actually, the reason was my eyesight is getting progressively worse. I had ordered and paid for two peep sights for my wife's and my Hawken rifles, but our vaunted customs are being pineapples and we still don't have them. My anger and frustration are getting the better part of me. I mounted the red dot because I WANT to enjoy our sport. BTW, if you're getting emotional because I mounted a red dot sight on my barrel, you have a problem, not me. It's time you find a new hobby. I'll stay with mine as long as the Lord allows me to.

Don't let them give you any grief over the decision. I had shingles attack the optic nerve in my shooting eye. Sight is not good. I can use a scope or red dot sight and manage to see the sight and the target. I mounted a red dot on my 54 cal. and it works. I make NO apologies for trying to stay in the shooting sports as long as I can, God willing.

 

[Frosty861]

As a suggestion, you might want to look into this. Might be a real pain hunting, but it certainly works at the bench.

Merit Adjustable Apertures - Peep Sighting Adjustable Peep for Aperture Sights and Eyeglasses, Sight Focus (eabco.com)

Warning, it will attract attention at the range, but heck, so does all the smoke!

 

[TFoley]

Although they were made in the middle of the 20th C, these two scopes would not have been out of the ordiany by 1862, when the first Whitworth rifles were arriving in the Confederacy. They are both VERY similar to those Col. Davidson scopes side-mounted on some Whitworth rifles by Confederate sharpshooters.

The front slider - here the left-hand - adjusts the focus of the target - the right-hand slider adjusts the focus of the crosshair. Azimuth and elevation on these more modern scopes is carried out by twiddling the knobs. When fitted to the Whitworth rifle the front of the scope would have been mounted on a swivelling mount to allow the tube to rotate about its axis.

 

[Jim K]

I have a top shooter friend that JB Welds a scope mount on some of the competition B/P guns he builds while he is working up a load, he says the JB Weld scope mount pops right off with heat.

I can't see sights worth a hoot either with my 74 year old eyes, I did make a peep for my deer rifle that works so well I feel like I am cheating after seeing blurry sights for the last 5 or 6 years.

This works for me but was a pain to make and adjust to work just right, I had to re-bend it a dozen times. I adjusted it to put the front sight blade perfectly centered and level with the notch of the rear sight.

View attachment 140749

Eric, what size hole is that? You have me thinking. Thanks