gunsmithgreg
32 Cal
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The Hawken Shop is still producing genuine S. Hawken Classic Plains Rifles in kit form. Can't get closer than that. www.thehawkenshop.com
Last edited:
Most 'Authentic' Hawken
- Thread starter CrufflerSteve
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Your link does not work. Here it is.
https://www.thehawkenshop.com/
https://www.thehawkenshop.com/
gunsmithgreg
32 Cal
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Thank you. Correction made. My typing sucks.
You can blame it on auto-correct. I have to correct the “autocorrections” pretty often.
Notchy Bob
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FWIW, there is a Western Arms Santa Fe Hawken for sale on GunBroker.
CuNosecap
45 Cal.
Thanks for the comments, NotchyBob.
Other than my first builds in 1978-80, which were CVA, This Stith is my only percussion build.
It is very easy to shoot at the range due to its weight, but it would be a bear to lug in the field.
Other than my first builds in 1978-80, which were CVA, This Stith is my only percussion build.
It is very easy to shoot at the range due to its weight, but it would be a bear to lug in the field.
Kind of a funny story from the frontier… There was an Indian trader named Auguste Lacome in New Mexico and southern Colorado in the 1840s and 1850s, I think. He had a rifle which is believed to be an unmarked Hawken, originally fullstocked but cut back to half-stock at some point. This rifle, which is still in existence and currently in the Museum of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, is a beast, with a .58 caliber bore and weighing in at about 13 pounds. Lacome was out one time with a couple of helpers and some pack mules laden with trade goods when he was accosted by a party of Utes. They threatened to kill him, but then let him live. However, they relieved him of his trade goods, most of his animals, and his weapons. The funny part is that after a few minutes, they gave his Hawken back… They said it was too heavy!
Notchy Bob
Kinda late to the necro-thread, but....
Sometime in the late '70s I picked up a built Sharon Hawken kit. I think it was in .58 caliber. Previously I had bought a new T/C Hawken rifle. No complaints on the T/C....it was a great shooter and got me started in black powder. I also pulled the trigger on a Sharps Civil War rifle that took the nitrated paper cartridges. Beautiful, understated gun. Only problem was there were no nitrated papers or any info on how to load/shoot that gun. No problem 'they' said, load it from the muzzle and use Pyrodex. LOL....the bullet limped out of the barrel followed by a trail of 'molasses'. Sold the rifle, and always regretted it.
I was born & raised in St.Louis County. I probably drove by 'The Hawken Shop' growing up a few hundred times. I wasn't into black powder then and in my late 20's I finally went in to have a looksee. I'll NEVER forget that day! How many of you ever got to hold almost a dozen real Hawkens rifles? I'm not going to forget that in my lifetime! I had borrowed a new two-seater Mercedes to go there and the guys inside saw/mentioned the car and fell all over themselves to show me everything they had. Can't imagine the reception I would have gotten if I had rolled in there in old clothes and a pickup.
Anyway, I never followed through on anything with them. Later, I ordered a custom Sharps in .50-120 from that outfit in Montana. Just about the time they called me and said my gun was ready, I was in the middle of a horrible divorce. The gun went to someone else....who knows.
I know the 'The Hawken Shop' was bought and moved to CA as was mentioned. I don't know anything about the owners, their reputation, or their gun kits presently.
That Sharon I had was pure magic. I never even filed the front sight down....I just pointed it at anything around 100 yards & under and it hit exactly where I aimed. Other people tried and couldn't do it with the same gun. Call it synergy or whatever.....I call it a magic combination of gun and owner. Most everyone has had a rifle or handgun like that where you couldn't miss. It wound up in a pawnshop in northern Idaho.
I'm getting too old to wait years for another rifle to be made....I'd like to try again. I guess I'd hunt for another Sharon or try 'The Hawken Shop' CA.
Kevin
Sometime in the late '70s I picked up a built Sharon Hawken kit. I think it was in .58 caliber. Previously I had bought a new T/C Hawken rifle. No complaints on the T/C....it was a great shooter and got me started in black powder. I also pulled the trigger on a Sharps Civil War rifle that took the nitrated paper cartridges. Beautiful, understated gun. Only problem was there were no nitrated papers or any info on how to load/shoot that gun. No problem 'they' said, load it from the muzzle and use Pyrodex. LOL....the bullet limped out of the barrel followed by a trail of 'molasses'. Sold the rifle, and always regretted it.
I was born & raised in St.Louis County. I probably drove by 'The Hawken Shop' growing up a few hundred times. I wasn't into black powder then and in my late 20's I finally went in to have a looksee. I'll NEVER forget that day! How many of you ever got to hold almost a dozen real Hawkens rifles? I'm not going to forget that in my lifetime! I had borrowed a new two-seater Mercedes to go there and the guys inside saw/mentioned the car and fell all over themselves to show me everything they had. Can't imagine the reception I would have gotten if I had rolled in there in old clothes and a pickup.
Anyway, I never followed through on anything with them. Later, I ordered a custom Sharps in .50-120 from that outfit in Montana. Just about the time they called me and said my gun was ready, I was in the middle of a horrible divorce. The gun went to someone else....who knows.
I know the 'The Hawken Shop' was bought and moved to CA as was mentioned. I don't know anything about the owners, their reputation, or their gun kits presently.
That Sharon I had was pure magic. I never even filed the front sight down....I just pointed it at anything around 100 yards & under and it hit exactly where I aimed. Other people tried and couldn't do it with the same gun. Call it synergy or whatever.....I call it a magic combination of gun and owner. Most everyone has had a rifle or handgun like that where you couldn't miss. It wound up in a pawnshop in northern Idaho.
I'm getting too old to wait years for another rifle to be made....I'd like to try again. I guess I'd hunt for another Sharon or try 'The Hawken Shop' CA.
Kevin
Sorry, meant to say the new Hawken shop was moved to WA....Oak Harbor.
Kevin
Kevin
The Hawken Shop is in Oak Harbor, Washington,, not Cal. About an hour from me.
Do you have any experience with them and have you been to their shop?
I read through their long history preamble(unedited) of how they came to be. What matters is the quality of their kit today. I'm not sure I want to assemble a kit myself, although, over the decades of black powder, I've probably done as much in total.
Kevin
I have been to the shop but it was some time ago, but I have seen their products at local shows etc. They only sell kits now I believe, not sure. You can see on their website, in fact the owner is a member here and he posted above, gunsmithgreg.
Thanks for the info....I did go on their site. I'm sure they can recommend people to build their kits.....most kit proprietors do/did in the past. There is a vid of a guy who has put together the kits....pretty informative. Says he can do a kit in 1 1/2 days. His hands have tremors....probably not 1 1/2 days anymore. He also prefers not to brown but to color case harden. His work doesn't have the rich color in it you would expect for case hardening. I've color case hardened a few old LC Smith shotguns to look like factory originals. It's not a durable finish as it wears off over time/use.
I can't remember how those original Hawkens were finished, but they were all similar.
Kevin
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Mine as well! I do type in the dark but that is not an excuse. I can read what type and should correct it but I am to lazy! LOL!
Jim Kibler will have one ready soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Pretty sure they were browned by one means or another.
Lock plates, butt plates, trigger guards and hammers were color case hardened. Barrels were blued. Time and use may have turned them brown.
All of them? Just looking in my Hawken books and no mention of bluing, but browning on the barrels. As to color case hardening? I could find no mention of that.
Yeah, wished I had better recall of those authentic Hawkens, but it was the '80s after all......
Kevin
Kevin
