Fowler front sight install

[Maurice]

The blade on the brass turtle sight for my fowler is wider at one end than the other. What is correct? Narrow end forward or wider end forward? Or doesn’t matter?

How far back from the muzzle end did you install your fowler sight? Recommendations and things to consider (like, is the sight in the way when loading). The barrel is 41’ long. Have “old eyes” if that makes a difference.

Finally, the sight does rock side to side somewhat on the barrel. Best solution from your experience? I am considering a mortice in the barrel matching the sight base profile. However, the barrel is .055 thick at the muzzle end which is pretty thin. Or is it better to continue to file the underside of the sight and let solder fill the gaps?

[Eric Krewson]

I will take a stab at it, people more knowledgeable than I am can correct me. fowler sights are almost always soldered on.

You mark a centerline on the top of your barrel first, I assume you have an octagon to round barrel. On a flat surface, place the top flat of your breech on the surface, place a tri-corner file in the area where you want your sight and drag the barrel backwards over the file lightly. This will leave a faint centerline mark.

This is an underlug on a fowler but the process is the same, you can see the faint centerline. You can also see how well the lug conforms to the barrel curvature.



You need to match the underside curvature of your sight to the barrel. To do this, wrap a piece of 220 grit sand paper around the top of the barrel where your sight will be and slide the sight back and forth on the sand paper until you have a perfect fit sight to barrel.

At this point you line the sight up with the centerline on the barrel and solder it on, tall end facing the breech. I like solder paste, quick, strong and easy.

My fowler sight is centered 2 1/2" back from the muzzle. The front sight position is not changed for old eyes, the rear sight is. I looked a bunch of fowlers in the Flintlock Fowler book and found them all placed like mine or slightly further back.

Here is the sight on my fowler, I filed a lot of the base away so it wouldn't be a lump out at the end of the barrel. My fowler was hitting very low with round balls (I have a rear sight) so I filed the sight height down quite a bit to get on target. The sight is the only thing on my fowler that is brass, I have an iron sight but haven't taken the time to install it yet. 

[Daryl]

The blade on the brass turtle sight for my fowler is wider at one end than the other. What is correct? Narrow end forward or wider end forward? Or doesn’t matter?

As you can see with Eric's sight, the narrow end of the front sight, goes to the front, as with all guns having tapered front sights.
This 1853 era Joseph Lang rifle also shows this trait.

[Long Ears]

Wrap sandpaper around the barrel, now lap the bottom of the sight to the contour of the barrel. Use a sharpie pen and color the bottom of the sight and keep lapping until it makes full contact on the full surface. Any voids can cause failure. Tin both surfaces, re-apply flux between the tinned surfaces. clamp sight and slowly heat until the tinned solder turns shiny then just dab your solder at the seam and it will suck the applied solder into the joint. If it's too hot it will run on the floor. if this happens start over! I install fowler sights 2 to 2.5" from the muzzle. Bob

[kutter]

With a very thin sight base such as these Fowler type and being brass, To get them to conform to the bbl profile I usually clamp the sight in position by the top of the 'blade'.
Then carefully punch the thin base down onto the bbl for a fit.
It also helps to first anneal the brass sight to soften it. A few seconds in a torch flame or over the stove flame does it.

I use a hardwood dowel for the punch and it doesn't leave any appreciable marks on the base that can't be easily cleaned up during the normal after-soldering clean up duty.

Sweat solder the sight onto the bbl
Tin the sight base, let it cool and then re-flux it.
Clamp it back down in position on the clean bbl in it's final position.

Before heating to make the solder run, take a soft common lead pencil and scribble the bbl and the sight itself with the graphite all around.
The graphite will prevent any excess solder that may run out from sticking to the metal. It'll just run off. Helps make clean up easier.

Heat the bbl only from below or on top but if the latter stay way away from the joint with the flame so you don't over heat and burn out the flux before the solder flows. Don't heat the sight directly.

Once it flows you can tweek the clamp a hair tighter if you wish and/or add a touch of extra solder to the joint at the seam . If the latter isn't needed it'll just run back out.
I hammer the solder wire paper thin for this adding-in process to avoid glob-soldering.

With a good fit, it really doesn't take much solder.
Soft solder has very little strength as a gap filler.

[Maurice]

Thanks for the all the suggestions on sight positioning and the sandpaper, graphite scribble and paper thin solder techniques. Thought for sure I would have to do the solder job at least twice but got great results on the first go around. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.