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[White Falcon]

Very nice.

[Eric Krewson]

I ordered a taller rear sight but it appears the shipping will be delayed.

Today I am going to grind off my existing sight to below the notch and solder on a piece to to raise it up where it needs to be to raise my groups. I have made sights before from angle iron so I can make the add on piece look like it is part of the sight.

I made this one for my fowler with a hacksaw and a file but it took me two days, I don't want to invest that amount of time in making another sight when I have one on the way.

Here is how it started and how it finished up;

[gifford]

Eric - congrats on another fine build along, your Issac Haines rifle is beautifully crafted, well done.

I like your ideas on the wasp waisted bolt and the new rear sight. for your fowler. Innovative and doesn't look the least bit out of place.

Hope that new rear sight puts you in the black.

[Eric Krewson]

I failed at adding a piece to my sight, it kept falling off. I finally got it to stick well and put it in my cross slide vise on my drill press and used a carbide cutter to cut the concave front out. I guess I went too fast and popped the add on piece off. I abandoned the project.

With muzzle loader season opening Monday I need a rear sight right now. A great friend gave me his tackleboxes full of black powder parts and accessories before he died. I had looked through the parts for a Lancaster sight but didn't find one, one more look yesterday turned up a simi-buckhorn sight that was tall enough to work. I had thought about using it on my fowler before I made a sight and had filed the sight to fit my fowler dovetail.  I tested it in my Haines rifle dovetail and the dang thing was just slightly oversized and would go half way into the dovetail.

Better the wrong style sight than no sight so I fit tit to the dovetail and filed a notch in it.

I am browning it today so it won't look so out of place on my gun, I should be able to shoot the gun and adjust the sight height it by this weekend.

 

[JW_Halverson]

Ugg, the struggles of last-minute details!  Hope this latest effort is the fix.

[Eric Krewson]

I couldn't stand it, I just went to to the shop and cut those buck horns off the sight, it is now a Lancaster sight.

[Eric Krewson]

And for the latest; more sighting in, my front sight has very thin nickel silver blade and disappears if the light isn't just right, I ordered a new much wider sight yesterday.

Old Issacs's namesake wont be going to the woods with me until I can get the sights straightened out.

I won't be going to the woods either even though M/L season is now open, I slipped on some old wet leaf covered stone steps on one of my hiking/exercise trails, I did a partial split before I caught myself and was able to regain my balance. I pulled something in my groin, I was taking baby steps and using a cane the first two days but am progressing nicely, perhaps I can go to the woods by the weekend.

Now for another problem to work out; my new gun is excessively hard to start a ball in, a .535 won't go in the bore with any patch thickness, a .530 will go in begrudgingly with an .018 patch and a little easier with a .014 patch but is still very tight.  I really have to smack the ball with starter to get it in and getting it down the next 4" is a chore. I think my Bobby Hoyt rebore didn't go as planned, loose at the breech (the last inch), tight at the bore. The barrel is one of my best shooters though, it really stacks them in.

When I polished the bore with a scotchbright pad I didn't pull the pad all the way to the crown on the muzzle. Today I an going to give this area a going over to smooth things out. I will follow the scotch bright pad with about a zillion passes with patch covered with JB Bore Paste to give the area a mirror finish.

I am going to have to make a peep for this gun to get the maximum performance out of it, my 74 year old eyes just don't see sights well.

I made this peep for my Beck rifle, it was a pain to make and get the bends right but by using it I was able to shrink my groups down to quarter sized at 50 yards.

[Eric Krewson]

Update; before I headed to the shop I thought I would take a look in the bore with my super duper clear bore scope.

The lands are slick but the grooves at the muzzle are still rough, further down the barrel where I used the scotch bright pad more the milling marks still show some roughness but are not as obvious.

I have to work on this today, the picture was made with a Teslong bore scope.

[Eric Krewson]

After good scrubbing with a marron scotchbright pad and JB bore paste, much better.

[Eric Krewson]

Started the new peep today, I need to get the new sights on the gun before I go much further. Adjusting the bends to line up the sights is a pain.

[JW_Halverson]

The more I look at your peep design, the more I wanna try my hand at it.

[Eric Krewson]

My cylinder of Map gas is empty, I have been trying heat and bend the new sight with propane which takes forever.

Drill and countersink the barrel barrel breech side your sight hole first in your stock, it is impossible to do after you make the 90 degree bend. Same with the tang bolt hole but just drill a small locator hole first or that area will try to hinge when you are doing the other bends in stock.

Here is the peep hole counter sink and a thinner peep I made for a TC. The peep made from 1/16" metal was easier to make but the tang screw couldn't get as good purchase on it and it tended to move if bumped slightly. I didn't want to drill another mounting hole in the tang.

The thicker peep with countersink was a failure and I threw it away, I was too sloppy on my shaping and it looked awful.

[Eric Krewson]

More on this cursed precarve from hell saga; I ordered a steel front sight to replace the very thin nickel silver one that I couldn't see. I got the order in and filed the new sight down to be just a little taller than the one I removed so I would have a little fine tuning room on the elevation adjustment.



I swabbed the sight with some LMF browning solution and set it outside under my archery target roof to let it brown overnight, it rained all night, perfect.

The next morning I went out to get my hopefully rusty sight for another application of LMF, there was no rust on it. I then realized they had sent me a German silver sight, nothing would make it brown, cold blue had no affect on it as well.

I emailed the company, the nice lady checked the bins and found they didn't have any of these sights in steel, only German silver. She said they had the steel ones on back order for a long time with the foundry that made them. she promptly refunded my money, which was nice.

I have a brass sight I can use, I guess I will darken it with cold blue to get by.

I have been under the weather with various surgical complications but I decided I was going hunting yesterday evening on the new land I was granted permission to hunt even if I hunted within sight of my truck.

I had scouted some before I took a fall that shut down my walking for the last week or so.  While scouting noticed some well used deer trails coming around the ridge headed to the pasture so I hobbled 75 yards down hill from the truck and watched these trails. I have a Millennium tree seat that is perfect for ground hunting

I'll be danged, about 4:30 I saw a deer headed around the ridge headed to the trails I was watching. Turned out to be a spike, he stepped out into the open road at about 20 yards, I had my flintlock on my cross sticks cocked and ready to roar but thought, "he sure is small, I don't want to fool with a deer" and let him walk. He had love on his mind (our first rut is around thanksgiving) and was extra stupid, he caught my scent when he was 10 yards from me, looked at me quizzically for a couple of minutes then eased on toward the pasture. I don't wear camo, just mute plaids and grays.

I heard another buck grunt one time on the opposite side of the hollow I was sitting in but could never see him.

Just getting out was tremendously up lifting, I am going back today.

[JW_Halverson]

That lil buck got some valuable free education from you.

[Eric Krewson]

I have found out the cast metal front sights are in short supply or non existent.

The brass front sight I have was bent just a little and wouldn't go in the dovetail, I decided to run with the nickel silver one. It turned out to be loose in the dovetail so I put the sight upside down in my vise and peened the bottom to spread the metal out. This got a tighter fit but I still tapped the barrel metal down some at the dovetail to tighten the sight further. 

I find a white dot on my front sight makes it much more visible to my ageing eyes. I painted the bottom part black and the top white for visibility. When my bum knee gets a little better I will get outside and finish the sighting in process.