45 &50 T/C Hawken rifles

[Ironramrod]

Bob, some supplemental info that is mostly FWIW. The original T/C sights on the Hawkens were good sights, but I found that my eyes had difficulty centering the front bead on bullseye or a deer at ranges much over 50 yds or so. What worked for me was to adjust the rear sight such that I would draw a fine bead in the bottom of the u-shaped notch @ 6 o'clock on the bulleye @ 50 yds and closer, then raise the front bead in the rear sight at various heights for longer distances w/ a 6 o'clock hold. I hope I said that right.

I cast all my m.l. bullets using scrap pure lead (e.g. lead water pipes, etc), because I found they shot better groups than the store bought bullets for me. The original maxi-balls were 370 gr. w/ pure lead, and shot the best of all the T/C conicals for me. The base and middle bearing bands are slightly over bore size, and the nose band is groove size as cast. I can shoot 3-4 maxi-balls w/o fouling mgmt., if I start w/ a clean barrel and use T/C bore butter for lube; the original Sharps bullet lube should be excellent.

The bad news on heavy lead conicals w/ heavy loads is they will lead up your barrels. The solution is after shooting a longer string of conicals at prairie dogs, etc. is to shoot 6-8 snapply patched round ball loads. That will take the leading out better than anything I've seen.

Again, strictly supplemental stuff in the FWIW department.

Regards
IR