Fitting a Lyman 57SML on a TC New Englander

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For anyone interested in mounting a Lyman 57SML on a TC New Englander. The New Eglander Tang is quite a bit different than a Hawken, or Renegade. The Lyman 57SML will NOT sit flat on the New Englander tang due to the tang having quite a bit more 'Sweep' in it than a Hawken, or Renegade. You will have to shim between the tang and underside of the 57SML, you will also need to grind away the bottom corner of the 57SML or remove wood from the stock, i chose to remove excess material from the sight base instead of messing with my stock. Idahoron has a tutorial showing how to remove this material. I use a dremel with a medium grit sanding wheel, it works like a dream! The Lyman 57 is aluminum and cuts easily. Once this is done i use little stainless washers between the sight base and tang, (play with different combinations of the little washers from front to rear until the fit is perfect) and the Lyman 57 is running level with your barrel, to do this i remove the slider from the housing and lay a long straight edge on top of the flat surface of the sight base, then shim according to the 'lean' of the straight edge. This is what the sight base looks like after the material is removed. Not a tough job to do!!

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[54bore]

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The picture with the level is upside down for whatever reason? Anyway you get the point of what i am talking about by running a straight edge on the sight base with the slider removed, i play with different shims to get the straight edge running as close to parallel with the barrel as i can get it, not sure how critical this is but figure it cant hurt anything. On a Hawken or Renegade you will likely find that the Lyman 57 will lean a bit forward without shimming, The New Englander would be the opposite if it would lay flat on the Tang, but it will NOT, another way to describe this is if you were to put the rear screw through the rear sight base hole and screw it down tight on the tang the front end of the sight base would be about a 1/4" high due to the different 'Sweep' in the Tang, you have no choice but to shim it, and even shimmed you will stil need to remove that material under the sight base like i did with my dremel sanding wheel, The New Englander stock is similiar in thickness to the Renegade, as where the Hawken is a bit thinner, with a Hawken it is possible that you might not need to remove the material under the sight base, it might fit with a shim or 2 only. In the other picture you can see the little washers i use between the sight base and Tang, i used a combination of brass and stainless washers due to the tiny amount of thickness difference allowing me to swap them around in different combinations until i got the fit i wanted. Also the New Englander Hammer will NOT clear the peep bridge, i heated and bent mine so it would clear. The New Englander is Not quite as simple as a Renegade or Hawken but to me was well worth the effort!

[54bore]

Also, if one is planning on using the Lyman 17 Globe front sight on the New Englander i would HIGHLY advise you go with the 17AML, On my Renegades i personally prefer the 17AHB due to its lower profile it allows me to keep my peep bridge LOWER in the sight base, the AHB is the lowest 17 Globe Lyman makes, BUT with the New Englander and the 'odd sweep in the tang' even after shimming the Lyman 57 stil sits LOWER than on my Renegades, i stil got away with using the 17AHB, to get me on at 100 yards the peep bridge is almost bottomed out on the sight base, I got lucky and it worked out perfectly for me. But to be on the safe side i recommend you use the Lyman 17AML