Okay, I finally made some time to respond properly to rio grande and his posting at
http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,116588.0.html
As I mentioned, the sight in the picture of my Topper with the BC stocks is a Williams WGRS receiver sight, though it is NOT the one made specifically for Handis. It is one I found in my miscellaneous box, and I have no idea what it was for or how long I have had it. I sanded it down by putting various grades of sandpaper on the receiver and sanding away at the sight (it is aluminum, so it ain't a real big deal) until it matched the profile of the barrel - and made it lower than a normal sight. I have not yet shot it with the factory front sights, but just looking through it, I'm guessing the front sight
will have to be replaced by a taller one. Using a proper WGRS sight pretty much does require a taller front sight.
In the meantime I scoped the Topper with a 1.5x4 T/C shotgun scope. This opened a can of worms I should have remembered from my earlier Topper experience!
First off, the hammer extension needed to be modified with the dremel tool to make the shaft more rounded. The unmodified extension (as seen on the top frame) is flat on 4 sides with rounded corners. The modified extension is rounded across the bottom (on the lower, Topper frame). You will notice that the shape of the hammer on the Topper is somewhat different than the shape of a modern Handi hammer. Because the Topper hammer is lower and more swept back (which is useful at the top of the firing sequence when the hammer is close to the scope) when an unmodified extension is added it actually prevents the hammer from being fully cocked.
In addition the extension, if it protrudes out to the right, as shown, has to be positioned 'just so' to prevent it from interfering with the barrel release. On my original Topper, I ground off an area so that the extension slipped past the release without touching it. Before I did that I would often have a failure to fire due to the extension actually catching on the release and holding the hammer in a midway position between full cock and fire! But even then, it would very ocassionally catch so I just flipped it to the left side of the hammer and cocked it by slipping my thumb under the scope, and had no problems after that. I may end up doing the same on this one. I didn't illustrate this in a pic, but trust me, it needs to be dealt with.
And, while we are on the subject of slippage; on this Topper, as I was testing the set up, I realized the extension was actually slipping up the hammer each time the hammer hit the firing pin (I had a dummy round in the chamber). After two or three impacts, it had slipped forward so much it caught on the barrel release and held the hammer back! No matter how much I tightened the (teeny) little hex screw inside the extension, it would not keep it from slipping forward after a couple of shots. The picture below shows the small 'locking' screw I added to engage the ridges in the top of the hammer. That worked... at least so far while dry firing! And you can see how close the extension comes to the barrel release in this picture.
So there is the saga of scoping a Topper. I still haven't managed to get to the range with it, but from my experience 20 years ago with my first Topper it is worth the hassle. It was a light-weight, accurate and pleasurable rifle to carry. The pictured Topper weighs about one pound less than my modern 30/30 Handi with a basic (non-laminated) wood stock and the same T/C scope. As to which is more accurate - I don't know yet, having not yet fired either of them.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Kerry
