Result of rear sight removal?

[roundball]

.62cal/.20ga GM Flint smoothbore barrel...will only be using it as a shotgun with shot loads for trap, skeet, doves, and crows...but it comes from GM with adjustable rear and raised bead front sights...as a smooth rifle really.

Since I won't be using it as a rifle I thought I'd just remove (save) the rear sight to eliminate distractions / obstructions in the sight plane for shot-gunning.

That'll leave a fairly tall front sight all by itself...was wondering if anybody had any hands on experience doing something similar and what the results were?

 

[Big John]

Longfowler did the same, but tried to shoot smoothbore roundball with poor results, needed a lower sight. I'm sure with shot it will be the same problem.

 

[Leonredbeard]

Roundball,
Are both these sights dovetailed in? If so you could remove/save both. Then dovetail in a flat piece in the rear and a very low sight in the front. for shotgunning with a single barrel I find any front sight distracting.
volatpluvia

 

[torn moc]

agreed with Vol :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

The rear sight is simple to take off just by removing a screw...put a dummy screw back in the threaded hole, etc.

The front sight is on a dovetail base and I've got a few old TC front sights the same size...figure I could grind one down for that very purpose and get a very low profile front sight out of one of them.

 

[Slamfire]

The rear sight is simple to take off just by removing a screw...put a dummy screw back in the threaded hole, etc.

The front sight is on a dovetail base and I've got a few old TC front sights the same size...figure I could grind one down for that very purpose and get a very low profile front sight out of one of them.

I did all that with the smooth bore barrel of my Renegade. The original front sight was too high and I was shootin' under everything. After puttin' on a replacement, I managed to file it down too much, and had to epoxy a bigger bead on. Now it works about as good as I expected with that high comb. :surrender:

 

[roundball]

:hmm: that's good to know...I think I better just pull the rear sight and then try some trap targets...differences in peoples builds, sight pictures, etc...might find that for me the original GM front sight on a Hawken might just work...if not, then I can grind down an old TC sight half way, try again, etc

 

[longfowler]

master blaster is right, you'll shoot under everything unless you change the front sight. I put a much shorter one on my smoothie at his suggestion and now I can hold dead center on targets out to 30 yds.

 

Roundball,
You will definitly have to go to a much lower front sight. You might want to think about filing off the front blade entirely then drilling and tapping a hole into the brass for a conventional shotgun bead. Doing that lets you use the original dovetailed base. You can buy different size beads to accomodate your sight picture, just like on a trap gun.
Mark

 

[xxgrampa]

try it, you mite like it..

tt.g

 

[roundball]

Only had one crow come in this morning and missed him...caught me by surprise and before I knew it I had raised up off the bucket and tried a snap shot as he was going overhead...should have let him go...called for another hour, nothing else. It's been two weeks since I first shot there but those crows would not come into that set again...they're not only smart but they remember real good too!

Anyhow, after getting home and cleaning the flinter by mid morning, I had plenty of time on my hands...decided to see what the sight picture would look like without the rear sight...it comes right off easily with one screw and I hadn't sighted it in for anything yet...and to my surprise the plane of the barrel came up pretty good to my eye, not perfect but very close to a normal shotgun sight picture.

So then I went ahead and drifted out the new GM front sight, tapped in a TC sight which had a ding on top that I'd be grinding off anyway, and ground down the entire blade until I got down to the bottom 3/16" where the flare starts to widen out for a base. Dabbed some white paint on the face of it and I have a flat top barrel with a 3/16" white triangle shaped bead.

The whole thing comes up pretty well...one thing I did notice is that due to the relatively straight pistol grip of a TC Hawken, when I grip the stock and bring it up, I am concious that the top edge of my thumb going across the top of the pistol grip is just barely getting into the bottom edge of my sight picture, right under my right eye.

If I can drag out of bed early tomorrow I'll try crows at a different farm, and/or then there's Sunday to try some trap targets with it in this sight configuration. Tinkering is fun.

 

[roundball]

Sight removal theory didn't work.

Tested 16yd trap targets with the GM .62cal Flint cylinder bore barrel, with rear sight removed out of the way and a front sight only 3/16" high, using 70grns Goex 3F & 1+1/8oz #8's.
Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn...every now and then I'd fracture a target into 2-3 pieces but very poor overall to begin with.

But then I finally figured out I was shooting way, way too high...as I began troubleshooting it wasn't until I held way down under the target...lots of daylight...that I started breaking some, so the sight theory didn't work...I put the tall front blade/bead sight back on, and will try it again in a week or so.

I'll also take the rear sight with me next time and reinstall it if I still have trouble...at least I know I can break them pretty well with the factory sights installed...but I made some smoke and learned something so the trip was not a total waste.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Roundball: I found out my gun was shooting high by putting clay targets( it could have been empty pop cans just as well) on the side of a hill and then shooting at them. You can always pattern on paper, but if you are just trying to find out where the pattern is going compare to your POA, then this will suffice. If you don't have hills available ( What, in NC???) an old tree will do as well, particularly if you find one of those trees that has three or four forks about two feet off the ground, so that you have a wide and TALL background to shoot into. I like the small hill, because the dirt kicked up by my shot tells me exactly where the pattern is, and how big it is at a given distance.