Here is a tutorial I wrote a few years ago. If you have questions ask.
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This is a tutorial on making a Hot Rod Renegade or Hawken.
The first part of the process is to acquire a good donor rifle to get your parts from. A guy can order parts from a company like “track of the wolf” but ny the time you get all of that together you are into it a great deal of money. I start out like I said by finding a good donor rifle. I like the double set triggers but The Renegades with the single trigger were called the Renegade Hunter. They are also a great rifle but they just don’t have the adjustable trigger.
The Renegades are a 1” across the flats. The Hawkens are 15/16 for rifles up to 50 cal. Past 50 cal the Hawkens are all 1” across the flats. When buying your Green Mountain barrel you will need to figure out which barrel you need. I like the fast twist barrels for shooting conicals. So for a Renegade you would order a 1-28 twist 1” across the flats.
The Green Mountain barrel is not a true drop in barrel. Most of the time the under rib will make solid contact with the end on the stock. A couple of things can be done to correct this. You can cut a short piece off the under rib or you can use a file and remove a small amount of wood off the tip. I chose to remove the wood.
After that the barrel should fit on the stock. The next thing that might give a guy a bit of problem is the hammer. The hammer must strike the nipple square. If it doesn’t the caps will not go off as well as they should. Misfires will happen because the cap is not hit right. The hammer should look like this. I used a torch to heat this one up to make it strike correctly.
If a guy wants to install a set of Lyman Peep sights bending the thumb part of the hammer is a good idea since it allows for more room to cock the gun.
If a guy wants to add a Uncle mikes Swivel to the under rib to allow for a sling a couple of things need to be done. The Uncle mikes has a screw that goes through the under rib and into the barrel of a TC rifle. The Green Mountain only has threads in the under rib. So what you need to do is use the Green Mountain screw but you need to drill the end of the swivel stud open just enough to allow for a small screw driver. Use care when drilling this it is easy to mess this up. also like I said before use the smallest drill that you can and only drill through the top part.
Now the whole thing fits together, and it all looks great. Now take it all apart again remove EVERY screw from the under rib and clean it with mineral spirits. Also take the screws out of the lug that the wedge pin goes into and clean them as well. After they are all clean reinstall with either nail polish on the threads or light duty lock tight.
Now to install the sights. First remove the old sights.
Putting a Lyman 57 SML peep on a TC has two options. One is some of them were already drilled and tapped for the sight, I have seen several. Option #2 is drilling the tang your self. I have done four now and if I can do it anyone can.
What I wanted to do was give you the idiots view of how to install the Lyman 57 SML sight. I took one of the plastic cases I got with one of my Lyman sights and made it a sight installation kit.
It has a # 29 S drill bit, S stands for short in the Brownells catalog.
Also the kit has an 8-32 tap.
And it has a small Tap Wrench.
On The TC’s, and the Cabelas Hawken the sight base is too thick where it meets up with the wood next to the tang. I have seen this problem solved two ways. I have seen guys remove the wood and the way I do it. I remove some of the aluminum from the base so it will sit down all the way without touching the wood. I take the slider out of the base and gently sit the base in a vise and tighten it down. I use an Angle grinder to remove the metal. You can also use rat-tail files and bastard files. After I am done taking the metal away it looks like this.
Now to put the base on.
I start out by removing the rear screw and I set the sight base on the tang and then I put the screw back in but not tight. I line the sight up, and use a small punch to go through the front screw hole in the sight base to make a dent in the tang to start the hole to be drilled.
You can also put masking tape on the tang and draw a line through the holes. This will give you your strait line to make sure that the hole is drilled in a strait line with the other two holes in the tang. Then put the base on like I said above and mark the spot to be drilled.
Then I take the tang off the stock and lock the tang into a vise. Make sure you are drilling straight down. Then I use the tap to make the threads. Make sure you have the tap lined up like you just did the drill bit. Start the tap in, go a little ways and back it up. Then go forward again and back it up. Do this several times until the threads are cut. You MUST back up once and a while or you will break the tap. Also make sure you apply lube to help the tap cut.
After I thread the screw hole in the tang I install the tang on the stock. I put the rear screw into the sight base, but not tight. Then I use a small shim to raise the front of the sight base. I used galvanized metal that was .0035 “ thick and a little narrower than the sight base. I didn’t like the way the sight tended to “lean forward” on the tang. After the shim the sight to me tends to move more vertical. After I got the shim under the screw I lined the hole, added lock tight to the screw and installed the 8-32 screw to the front of the sight base. Here is what the sight base looks like installed.
A picture with the slider installed. Notice I added white paint to the 0 to make it stand out. Also I took the scale off the slider and used a drill bit to increase the length to give me a little more range.
Sorry about this picture being a little cockeyed.
OK, What happens if I screw up and drill the hole in the wrong place?
Well several things can happen.
1— If the hole is drilled left or right of the centerline the windage will not move at the right angle.
2— if the hole is not drilled with the right amount of distance between the holes it will not sit down right. Even to the point of not being able to install with this hole.
If you drill in the wrong place DON’T WORRY!!!! Anything can be fixed.
First if you have a welder weld the hole closed. If you don’t have a welder most towns have a place that can do this. After it is closed smooth down the weld with a grinder and a file. Round two. Really watch what you are doing on round two. Check everything several times and drill again. After the hole is drilled in the right place and the metal is filed or grinded down. Apply cold blue to cover up the repair.
I have messed up plenty of times. In the end it is not that hard to install these sights.. Make sure to check everything and don’t get in a rush. I know I have probably forgotten something. If you are going to try this for your self and have any questions feel free to ask. These last pictures are my latest rifle. I used a spacer under this sight to give me some extra yardage. Ron
