Question about CVA Hawken rear sight

[Darren Haverstick]

My dad has been talking about getting a custom made caplock rifle but he keeps putting it off so I'm secretly having one made for him. He really likes the CVA Hawken rifle he has and wants to get something similar. I found a guy in Kentucky who will make a 30" barrel but I don't know where to place the dovetails for the sights. Can someone tell me the distance between the sights on the CVA Hawken and/or the distance between the breech end of the barrel and the rear sight? Thanks in advance!

Darren

[Ohio Joe]

My dad has been talking about getting a custom made caplock rifle but he keeps putting it off so I'm secretly having one made for him. He really likes the CVA Hawken rifle he has and wants to get something similar. I found a guy in Kentucky who will make a 30" barrel but I don't know where to place the dovetails for the sights. Can someone tell me the distance between the sights on the CVA Hawken and/or the distance between the breech end of the barrel and the rear sight? Thanks in advance!

Darren

Darren, If I recall I believe that dovetail is about 7 to 7-1/2 inches from the end of the breech.  Now I don't know how old your dad is and how his eyesight is, but for me (I'll be 60 at the end of March - and I'm far-sighted) so 9-1/2" to 10-1/2" from the end of the breech plug is pretty much the minimum on my eyesight, and that's with a wide notch rear sight and thick front brass blade.

It really depends on his eyesight.

[Darren Haverstick]

Thanks, Joe! Dad will be 75 this June. He shot a buck with his Hawken last fall at 164 yards so his eyesight is still pretty good. He can out shoot me any day of the week!

Darren

[Ohio Joe]

Darren, anyway you could just measure off your dad's rifle he uses now?

[Darren Haverstick]

Darren, anyway you could just measure off your dad's rifle he uses now?

No. He lives about 2 1/2 hours from me and I won't see him until the end of March. There's a 90 day lead time on the barrel I'm ordering for him so I don't want to delay.

[Hank in WV]

Darren, can you find a picture on the net of the gun you want to build? If so, shouldn't be too hard to scale it to the dimensions you want. Good luck.

[hawkthrower]

Darren, My CVA Hawken rear site dove tail center is 7" from the end of the breech plug -

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The end of the rear sight is 5 3/8" from the plug....

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the placement for those of us with "old" eyes (Me!) this is a bit too close - it works ok just a bit blurry. Moving it farther out by .75 to an inch would help me. Everyone's eyes are a bit different so your mileage will vary!
 

[Winter Hawk]

If you are going to use CVA sights, remember that they are a metric dovetail, which I believe is smaller than the standard 3/8" used in the USA.  Contact Deer Creek (Deer Creek Products - Home) if you need the real CVA sights.  

I have a Mountain Rifle and Captchee installed a Colerain barrel on it for me after I had problems with the CVA vent liner.  He used a regular breech plug and I am tickled pink with it.  He put a blade front sight and fixed rear sight rather than using the adjustable CVA sight and it works great.

~WH~

[Ohio Joe]

IMHO, fixed sights is the way to go, always. I'm not just saying that because of our TMA sight rules we use here, they simply make more sense IMHO.  I can not recall ever adjusting a rear adjustable sight once I had it zeroed for 50 yards (which is my preferred distance), and eventually I drifted completely away from any adjustable hunting and target adjustable sights and strictly use fixed.

Darren, your situation maybe completely different - but what Winter Hawk points out / suggest, is something to certainly look into.  It should be easy enough to duplicate the rear sight notch and front blade thickness for fixed sights.

Just food for thought.

[Winter Hawk]

I can not recall ever adjusting a rear adjustable sight once I had it zeroed

+1 on that.  In fact, I took the adjustable sight off my T-C Pennsylvania Hunter and replaced it with a fixed sight.  Since T-C mounts their sights with screws, I filed the dovetail off the sight and drilled for the screw.

The T-C sight is 7" from the face of the tang.  The CVA (really a Deer Creek kit from CVA parts) has the rear sight mounted 8" from the rear of the barrel/face of the tang.

~WH~

[Uncle Russ]

My dad has been talking about getting a custom made caplock rifle but he keeps putting it off so I'm secretly having one made for him. He really likes the CVA Hawken rifle he has and wants to get something similar. I found a guy in Kentucky who will make a 30" barrel but I don't know where to place the dovetails for the sights. Can someone tell me the distance between the sights on the CVA Hawken and/or the distance between the breech end of the barrel and the rear sight? Thanks in advance!

Darren

Darren, I would like to compliment you on thinking of your Dad.
In my own humble way of thinking, it simply does not get any better than that!
I'm sure your dad will be tickled pink.

Whatever you decide on, which sight and or where it's located, I betcha your Dad will certainly appreciate the gesture.

You're a good man!
 

Uncle Russ...

[hawkthrower]

Repeat on Russ's thought! Also echo Winter Hawk and Ohio Joe - The only time besides getting things set up that I have adjusted the rear sights, is after a crash in the woods to re zero! Humm - Seems I have a crash a bit more often in the woods these days....