Help needed, thinking through options

[Wayne Smith]

I have a 40 caliber flintlock that shoots 8" high at 50 yards - this is with a load of 60 gr FFFG and a patched round ball. I have filed the front sight as much as I dare and dropped the hitting point about 2 inches. I am still 8" high.

What are my options? I assume I am looking at a higher rear sight. I have a sight radius of 30 inches. I have not looked to see what is available for higher rear sights.

Why so high? I am guessing damage in shipping might have slightly bent the barrel, but do not know.

[G W Wade]

I hate to bring this up but I believe you need to raise the front sight to lower your POI GW

[BadgerShooter]

A taller front sight will drop your point of impact. If you shortened your front sight, your gun should shoot higher. Raising the rear sight raises your point of impact, shortening your front sight also raises your point of impact and vice versa.

[country gent]

Looks like you will need around .133 lower If the front sight is on the low side I would go .150-.175. Here it might be advisable to raise both some and start at the close dimensions for each. The rear sight is the same as you want to move impact front sight is opposite of impact direction.

A taller rear sight is going to have you hitting higher still. You need to raise the front or lower the rear sight to lower point of impact.

Error X sight radius / distance in inches. 8" X 30" / 1800" = .13333.

If this is a fixed sight then a new one wouldnt be hard to make up for it.

It might be good to try it at 100 yds on a tall target maybe even 200 yds.

[stubshaft]

See if you can order a higher front sight from TOTW, install and rezero.

[Wayne Smith]

See if you can order a higher front sight from TOTW, install and rezero.

Have one in my order box. Thanks, guys. Being ADHD brings added problems, including reversals and the inability to reverse something. Dad got really frustrated trying to teach me to back six wheels! Still can't do it at 70.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

I always remember FORS.

Front Opposite, Rear Same.

[Gtrubicon]

I’m gonna write that on my shooting box.

[BadgerShooter]

I would wager that more than one of us has made that mistake in the dim and distant past.

[Boerrancher]

Don’t feel bad Wayne, I’ve ruined a few sets of sights in my days trying to figure that out. Dyslexia sucks. I still sometimes can’t figure out my left and right at times, even after 20 years in the Army. Whenever I go to order something online and have to type in credit card numbers I have to do it 2-3 times before I get it correct because I will swap positions of numbers and not know it and in my mind it looks exactly like it is on the card. Go figure.

[Wayne Smith]

Don’t feel bad Wayne, I’ve ruined a few sets of sights in my days trying to figure that out. Dyslexia sucks. I still sometimes can’t figure out my left and right at times, even after 20 years in the Army. Whenever I go to order something online and have to type in credit card numbers I have to do it 2-3 times before I get it correct because I will swap positions of numbers and not know it and in my mind it looks exactly like it is on the card. Go figure.

I have to consciously attend to the ordinal position of each numeral to accomplish that. Ditto phone numbers, especially now that we have to put them all in around here.

[Boerrancher]

I have to consciously attend to the ordinal position of each numeral to accomplish that. Ditto phone numbers, especially now that we have to put them all in around here.

Thanks to your misfortune, on Friday when I zeroed my Pennsylvania 32, I didn’t make the same mistake, but it was shooting a foot low at 25 yds. There was a lot of filing going on on that front sight. Heck it was so tall it kinda looked like the Empire State Building there on the end of my barrel. I kept jacking up the powder charge and it was still way low. 60 grains didn’t even come close and the groups were horrible. I backed it down to 20 grains and a foot low but all under a quarter and most under a dime. Once I got the windage right, I started filling and shooting.

[DaleT]

I was adjusting the sights on a newly made Chambers 54 Lancaster a few years back and had a blank moment where I kept filing and kept hitting low, then it dawned on me. A new front blade was in the mail by sundown.

[hc18flyer]

At times I have had to raise my fingers up and sight thru them, so I get it right. This Fall I put a taller sight on my TC New Englander, because the rear Fire Sight was bottomed out, and I was still shooting high. I typically make more costly mistakes, than just getting a new front sight!
hc18flyer

[CastingFool]

I was told to always move the rear sight on the direction you want the shot group to go. Never failed me yet.

[Boerrancher]

I was told to always move the rear sight on the direction you want the shot group to go. Never failed me yet.

Oh to not be dyslexic and for the world to be that simple. I spent 20 years in the Army and still can’t get my left and right figured out half the time. Don’t bother telling me about holding up my thumb and finger to make a capital L with the left hand and it being backwards with the right because after 50 years of writing I still write letters backwards. Just like I don’t really have a dominant hand, my left hand writes all the letters backwards just as easily as my right hand writes them correctly 95% of the time. For me the greatest invention was the word processor. I can’t explain why my mind sees and does things bass ackwards at times, but it does.

[dondiego]

I was told to always move the rear sight on the direction you want the shot group to go. Never failed me yet.

That works fine on the rear sight but not on the front sight which he was dealing with.

[Wayne Smith]

I have the sight. Tried to remove my existing front sight - no such luck. What is the possibility that it is soldered in? Tennesse Valley Muzzleloaders made this one. I hesitate to use significant heat that close to the wood stock. Have not taken the barrel off this one - it is pinned.

[indian joe]

I have the sight. Tried to remove my existing front sight - no such luck. What is the possibility that it is soldered in? Tennesse Valley Muzzleloaders made this one. I hesitate to use significant heat that close to the wood stock. Have not taken the barrel off this one - it is pinned.

if you decide to take this apart be really careful driving the pins out - needs a mandrel of some sort (hard wood best) with a hole same size as the pins so you can drive them without chipping the wood

[Wayne Smith]

Yes, Joe. I am very aware of that. It's why I have not tried such yet. They are very fine pins.