Sight adjustment question

[Smokey Plainsman]

Awesome, thanks again, gang!

I scribed the sights with a sharpie, and drifted them and measured with my micrometer. Hoping next time they’re pointing more towards the target! I’ll leave final adjustment after some more load development. I’m developing some fouling issues out here in the bone-dry winter Nevada air, so those’ll need to be addressed, too. Plenty of lube, patch, ball, powder, etc. experimentation. I’m really enjoying it though. I was really encouraged by my initial groups and am so looking forward to getting this beautiful rifle “on the target” and making smoke!

-Smokey

 

[SDSmlf]

I scribed the sights with a sharpie, and drifted them and measured with my micrometer.

And I’ll bet the sights don’t look ‘wonky’ either?

I’m developing some fouling issues out here in the bone-dry winter Nevada air

The few times I have shot in an arid shooting environment found swabbing (best accuracy) or an almost sloppy wet patch worked best for extended shooting sessions. In the dry and cold environment (wintertime in upstate NY) found -40° blue windshield wiper fluid worked very good and could shoot all day. Stuff worked anytime of the year. Only problem I have had is the bride will put it in her vehicle if she sees it and it is not readily available in NC.

 

[Tom Compton]

Get a rear sight with a very narrow notch or none at all. File the notch say .020” off center in the correct direction and move the front and rear sights the correct direction .020”.

 

[Brokennock]

I know people bend smoothbore barrels to get the enter of the shot pattern closer to where they are pointing. I don't agree with it, think there are better ways, but, I can understand it. I think a rifle is a little different. If you bend the barrel left enough to only have to make a minor rear sight correction for 25 yards, how far to the left will the gun print at 50?
I bought a used .45 caplock once. I could get good groups, I could get the sights adjusted to exactly what I want at 25 yards. When I'd shoot at 50 yards the group would be much to far to the right. I'd adjust for that, and the group would be too far left at 25 yards. It took a long, long, time, and sighting down the barrel with it out of the stock (because the new front sight i installed looked twisted) to see that the barrel was bent to the right. Which is also why the front sight looked twisted, I could see part of the side of the sight.

Please just go shoot and have fun.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

And I’ll bet the sights don’t look ‘wonky’ either?

The few times I have shot in an arid shooting environment found swabbing (best accuracy) or an almost sloppy wet patch worked best for extended shooting sessions. In the dry and cold environment (wintertime in upstate NY) found -40° blue windshield wiper fluid worked very good and could shoot all day. Stuff worked anytime of the year. Only problem I have had is the bride will put it in her vehicle if she sees it and it is not readily available in NC.

No it doesn’t look too wonky at all, thankfully. Thanks for the tip on patch lubes. I was experiencing “rod creep” were after each successive shot, the ramrod would refuse to settle at the same depth when seating the ball all the way down on the powder. It would slowly creep up until I swabbed the bore and it seemed there was tightness near the breech, maybe the dreaded “crude ring” I hear about.

I’d like to keep it period so do you think a sloppy spit patch might do? I have no intentions of shooting during freezing weather, the few days a year we get it here! Lol

 

[SDSmlf]

I’d like to keep it period so do you think a sloppy spit patch might do?

Nothing wrong with spit patch, the original standby. Try it and see. I was just telling you what worked for me. Have also used TOW Mink Oil for hunting, but wasn’t all that great for all day shooting at the range without swabbed, at least with patches I use. Most accurate that I have found is a dry patch (Dutch’s System) swabbing between shots. With the ‘sloppy’ patch get pretty good accuracy without swabbing and can shoot all day. The Blue -40° windshield wiper fluid or Hoppe’s 9 for Black Powder are great for that. The WW fluid wins out because a gallon of the stuff is less than $5 and lasts me for years. And you can use it in your vehicle......

 

[Col. Batguano]

Moving both of them .04" will make it look a bit on the goofy side. Can you visibly see a bend in the barrel? I had that issue with an FCI barrel and had to bend on it quite a bit to get it centered. You have to really crank on it and can actually feel the barrel yielding when it is starting to bend to take the set. I won't say that the process didn't have an excess of "pucker factor" involved though!

The front sight is easy enough to deal with by filing the front or upping your powder charge, but you may not want to lop that much off. I find that very low sights are difficult to use, so I would go the bending route there a bit too. You can always go back to moving the sights for the final fine tuning once you get really close.