My sights. I built this rifle many years ago from a kit. These sights came on the barrel.
-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
Thompson Center questions.
- Thread starter mjpchief
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Not sure you can do much to lower that rear sight. File it down any and the elevation adjustment screw will be in the way.
A POSSIBLE option could be one of these fixed rear sights that you could lower as much as you need. Would have to be careful with how much material you remove as you can’t put it back, and there is no windage adjustment, but you can still move front sight. Forget where I got these (believe I have three), but someone will know. Think they were less that $20 and you could get them with or without the screw holes. From what I can see, best options unless you want to cut a dovetail for a totally different rear sight.
Curious if anyone has a better ‘solution’.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2016
- Messages
- 1,567
- Reaction score
- 3,969
Well...there goes my hope of any easy fix by swapping out sight inserts. I was hoping you had a tall sight and I would have sent you a short one...your sight is already short.
I ran into the same problem on two different TCs, most of the above advice is speculation without experience. There is a difference in TC sight height as was mentioned, the older rears go lower than the newer ones. The older mounting holes don't line up with the newer barrels and you will have to put the older sight on with one screw instead of two. You will also have to completely disassemble an older sight to get to the mounting screws.
I found both guns would shoot on with a maxiball but not a patched round ball which hit 6" high even with a 6 o'clock hold. I had to put a taller front sight on the grayhawk to give me some wiggle room with the rear sight, this brought the patched ball back down to earth with any load.The tall front looks kinda' odd, it is really tall but it works.
On the other, a TC Hawkens I built from a kit, I couldn't begin to see the factory sights in the evening with my trifocal 71 year old eyes, even with white paint on the front, so I bought Willam's fiber optics. The Williams rear goes lower than the TC and corrected the problem.
I found both guns would shoot on with a maxiball but not a patched round ball which hit 6" high even with a 6 o'clock hold. I had to put a taller front sight on the grayhawk to give me some wiggle room with the rear sight, this brought the patched ball back down to earth with any load.The tall front looks kinda' odd, it is really tall but it works.
On the other, a TC Hawkens I built from a kit, I couldn't begin to see the factory sights in the evening with my trifocal 71 year old eyes, even with white paint on the front, so I bought Willam's fiber optics. The Williams rear goes lower than the TC and corrected the problem.
Last edited:
What do your patches look like after you shoot them? Are there any holes in them?
No holes. Patches look like I could use them again. Is there a lower rear sight that will work on this gun?
I would try to get it to group good before I started to get the sights dialed in. Otherwise you will be chasing your tail.
bubba.50
Barefoot Hillbilly
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2010
- Messages
- 3,837
- Reaction score
- 3,348
The fixed sight in post #22 will work and you can make it as low as you want.
If you want to file a dovetail in your barrel you can get a reproduction of an original Hawken adjustable sight that’s lower.
And there’s also the option of mounting a peep sight on the tang.
Agree with height difference. Checked a few that I have and found most at about .375”, but a few were around .312”. Interestingly, one of the oldest (late 1970s vintage) measured about .375”. If OP’s and my numbers are accurate, he needs a rear sight about .235” high. As far as mounting holes, I remember adjusting a few bases years ago but have no idea where they ended up. Wasn’t a big deal.
How low does the Williams sight go? Do not have one to measure, and not a fan of fiber optic sights, but would be handy to know if I had a can’t see, too high of a sight problem to resolve.
Last edited:
The rear sight I referenced is available at the Hawken Shop. http://www.thehawkenshop.com/Products/Conversion-rear-sight__FSC.aspx You will have to spot and drill mounting holes. There was someone selling these sights with the holes drilled and c’bored for about $5 more. You should be able to search and find them if you don’t want to drill the holes.
My TC is like mjpchief shows. It was hittng a bit high and I noticed when the rear sight was all the way down I could still push it down a bit. To solve this I trimed the the adjustment screw untill I could no longer physically push the sight down. Hope this helps.
My T/C Hawken kit was built way back in the dark ages (my hair was dark red) and T/C had the mounting holes for the tang sights drilled and tapped. The tang peep will go lower and the hooded front sight is higher.
The tang peep Vernier sight is a bit hard to find and is notoriously a bit fragile. I would recommend the Lyman SML 57 and the companion front sight with the inserts.
Yeah, I kept the original rear sight on the rifle. Its sort of like wearing a belt when you have suspenders. Just couldn't make up my mind.
The tang peep Vernier sight is a bit hard to find and is notoriously a bit fragile. I would recommend the Lyman SML 57 and the companion front sight with the inserts.
Yeah, I kept the original rear sight on the rifle. Its sort of like wearing a belt when you have suspenders. Just couldn't make up my mind.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2009
- Messages
- 3,088
- Reaction score
- 3,052
Posts #19 and #24 covered the problem very well. It's about incompatible sights on TC muzzleloaders. The front sight is often too low and the rear sight often lacks the ability to compensate. This is especially true with patched round balls.
i've dealt with this issue with about 10-15 TC muzzleloaders. Recently i sighted in two TC Hawken rifles after their owners had given up trying to zero those rifles with patched round balls. With six o'clock holds and the rear sights in their lowest position one rifle shot about 9" high at 50 yards the other about six inches high. Both problems were corrected by the installation of taller front sights.
The worst cases are the TC round barrel guns, New Englander, Grey Hawk, etc. Sometimes i cut a dovetail and install a ladder rear sight.
i've dealt with this issue with about 10-15 TC muzzleloaders. Recently i sighted in two TC Hawken rifles after their owners had given up trying to zero those rifles with patched round balls. With six o'clock holds and the rear sights in their lowest position one rifle shot about 9" high at 50 yards the other about six inches high. Both problems were corrected by the installation of taller front sights.
The worst cases are the TC round barrel guns, New Englander, Grey Hawk, etc. Sometimes i cut a dovetail and install a ladder rear sight.
I am a spritely 68 in my avatar picture, just had my sigmoid colon removed a couple weeks prior and was down about 10# from my normal weight, made for a good youthful picture.
Bighorserider
40 Cal
I only have ever had one TC Hawken. It is a kit I bult around 1980. The adjustable sights wotked fine, but I didn't like them. I filled the screw holes and dovetailed in a buckhorn sight and replaced the front with a silver blade on a copper base. The sights work better and look better.
Elkeater
45 Cal.
Cut the spring shorter.
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2018
- Messages
- 433
- Reaction score
- 34
As a couple others have said, I would consider mounting a peep such as the Lyman 57 SML. It doesn't do much for your rifle's aesthetics, but I sure like the way mine works.
Better than the Lyman for looks is the TOW ghost ring tang sight. It is very similar to the old T/C 'hunting Peep" sight except it doesn't accept screw in apertures. I have heard that the ghost ring on these sights can be tapped to accept williams apertures.
