Carolina gun front sight

[Lassiter]

I've seen lots of photos of Carolina guns here and other places on the web (like Mike Brooks beautiful guns) but never a good photo of the front sight. What would the proper front sight be for a Carolina gun? Turtle or spider like a NW Trade gun? Thanks in advance for your input

[Levy]

The barrels of Carolina Guns that I have worked on that were recovered out of the rivers in FL had a small brass sight that was chiseled into the barrel at the muzzle (not a turtle or a spider).  The back sights are relatively close to the breech (4 or 5").  The earlier backsights that I have seen were an open V-shape and the later ones were blocky with a deep saw cut for a notch.  Hope this helps some.  James Levy

[Lassiter]

Thanks, James. It does help some. Now if I can figure out how to do it...

[Greg Pennell]

Try this... http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=19313.0

Greg

[Lassiter]

Thanks, Greg! Pictures really help me understand how to do it. Now to practice on some scrap...

[Frank]

https://www.claysmithguns.com/west_muzzle.jpg

[Lassiter]

That would be a lot easier! Thanks, Frank

[Mike Brooks]

The originals I have seen have a small square base with a small blade on top. It's pretty ugly. I just soft solder a brass blade on, I don't cut a notch for it, Original barrels are incredibly thin at the muzzle, it wouldn't take much to dent the bore. None of my blades have ever came off, that I know of.
 I have never seen an original with a dove tailed front sight, there just isn't enough barrel wall to do it. Barrel wall is something less than 1/16".

[Levy]

I agree with Mike about the appearance of the front sight.  It has a small brass base and a small barleycorn blade that is part of the base and not a separate piece.  The front sights that I saw were set in with a sharp chisel cutting a very shallow dovetail at 90 degrees to the barrel (usually slightly humped in the middle).  As Mike said, I don't know how they did this without denting the barrel unless they inserted something into the barrel to support it while they did it.  The sights were then pinched/staked into the dovetail.  I hope to be able to bring the remains of Carolina Gun to the Cumberland/Mel Hankla Show for folks to look at.  It was complete from the wrist to just beyond the first rr pipe.  It was recovered from the bottom of the Suwannee River in 2005 and the makers name on the lock is Williams.  I think he appeared as a Hudson Bay provider in around 1715 and his name disappears around 1745.  James Levy

[Lassiter]

Thanks guys. Mike I'm not confident enough in my soldering ability to try to do what you do. I think I'll try to put one in a notch. I've got some short pieces of barrel to practice on and try to improve my soldering. Your Carolina guns have got me wanting to try and make one.