2013 Peep Shoot with my Bridger Hawken

[Herb]

Jim held his annual Easter Peep Shoot Sunday, delayed due to weather. Here he is shooting. We had 12 shooters and 21 targets, last four were over 100 yards across a canyon at steel silhouette targets, I got all those. Brian at left was shooting my Green River .45 Leman. He got all those canyon shots, too.

Terry and Marjorie scoring Dave's peep targets. We had three of those.

A better view of those little marshmallow chick "peeps" sitting on top of that plank.

An old cabin Jim moved to his property.

Here I am with my Bridger Hawken I finished the day before. I have to file a larger rear sight notch, I only came in 5th out of 12 shooters at 21 targets with a score of 13. There were three 15s and Jim had a 14.

For blanket prizes, we have Easter baskets. I got a good bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I built this .54 Hawken to be a close copy of how Bridger's rifle looks now.

 

[wattlebuster]

Cool pics :thumbsup: . I like the hawken :hatsoff:

 

[dbutch]

Looking good Herb! Nice bunch of folks!
How do you like the new rifle?
Hope they put a couple of snicker bars in that basket to fatten you up!
Keep the pic's coming.....dan

 

[Herb]

I haven't weighed it yet, but it will be about 11 pounds. The barrel is a GRRW, 1 1/8 x 31", that length when I got it. Bridger's was 1 1/8" x 33 1/4" and weighed 11 pounds 4 ounces. I'm surprised that I can shoot it at all with that weight, but the short barrel makes the difference. With a wider rear sight notch I would hope to win next time. Should have won this time, but got careless and rushed a few shots. Here are photos of the Jim Bridger rifle when it was at the Green River Rifle Works in 1975. I handled it there in 1978.

In my picture of my rifle with the wine basket, the image is a bit distorted, it looks fatter in the butt than it really is.

 

[S.Kenton]

Thats some pretty fine shooting with a REALLY fine rifle! Forgive my ignorance..but is that a screw in the stock of the original? If so what purpose does it serve? Just curious.

 

[Herb]

The Hawken rifle is built with a flathead bolt from the tang to the trigger plate, countersunk into the end of the tang. It is not visible in profile. Bridger's rifle had this bolt replaced with a filister cylindrical head lock bolt, possible because the original bolt threads stripped or it was lost. He probably had trouble with the set triggers, and then you have to remove the two tang bolts to get the trigger out. But it is a replacement of the original. I built mine with this same bolt.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Herb, it looks like a good time was had by all!




Quote:

"Here I am with my Bridger Hawken I finished the day before. I have to file a larger rear sight notch, I only came in 5th out of 12 shooters at 21 targets with a score of 13. There were three 15s and Jim had a 14."

Sounds like your shootin is still up to par, congrats and love the new Bridger Hawken rifle.

I would love to see a set of pics of that new Bridger Hawken rifle. You know from all angles! :wink: I can't get enough of your work!

Last I talked to you about the Bridger Hawken rifle you were taking it too your friend from Green River Rifle Works, to let him have a look see! Appears to have been a winner, in more ways than one! :thumbsup: :bow:

 

[S.Kenton]

I thought that's what it was..but was unsure and didn't want to take a guess. How long did it take you to build your Jim Bridger? I have one very similar to yours.I would like to look at re-stocking it someday with a tiger maple stock...

 

[Herb]

I didn't log my time, but maybe 250 hours. Worked on it all winter. I had to determine the correct dimensions and spacing of all the parts from photos. Had a blank that a friend sawed my pattern for me and routed the barrel channel, which he got 1/4" too high at the breech, which I had to scrape down, then I had to enlarge the rod hole to a little over 1/2". Then the barrel I have is 31" instead of 33 1/4" like the original, so the rod pipes, forend length, nose cap and key locations changed. The barrel I started with had a previous owner who put on the rib, rod pipes, underlugs, fitted the breech plug and cut the sight slots. I had to fit a new breech plug and tang. Fit 1/2" ID rod pipes to replace the 7/16" pipes. Drilled out the entry pipe to 1/2". Cut the underrib a little shorter. Relocate the underlug staples. Fill the rear sight slot (with a piece of GRRW barrel I'd cut off another barrel) and locate the sight correctly toward the breech. File out a rear sight and make the front one from sterling silver with a nickle silver base. Make a 1/2" ramrod and pour a pewter tip. Figure out how to color the varnish, which didn't work so I stained the stock with Fiebing's dark brown leather dye, just the right color. Cold browned the barrel like the original and then heat blued the breech, tang, lock, trigger plate, trigger guard, toe plate, and butt plate. Pin the BP and toe plate together. And so it went. All this to have a copy as near exact to the original as my parts and photos allowed. But with that premium bore (as seen with a Hawkeye Borescope) and that short length of pull, 13 1/4", I am able to shoot it better than I expected. Will have to increase my 25 pushups each morning to maybe 50 for more upper body strength, but I am up to 30 now.

 

[50cal.cliff]

I am able to shoot it better than I expected. Will have to increase my 25 pushups each morning to maybe 50 for more upper body strength, but I am up to 30 now.

Herb, you are the man, :bow: 30 pushups every morning, you make me ashamed of myself!

I like how you did your copy as to the stain as well. I didn't originally catch the fact you had stripped it back on the comb of the stock to match the wear on the original! :thumbsup:

 

[S.Kenton]

You done a good job Herb! I like it! keep on staying active, the push ups are a great tool to keep the upper body strength in check!

 

[Herb]

My rifle weighs 10 3/4 pounds. S.Kenton, if you want to restock a rifle with the approximately correct Hawken parts, Track of the Wolf's Jim Bridger Hawken stock is patterned after the origiinal. They have it cut for a 1 1/8 straight and a 1 1/8 tapered barrel. The original is 1.175 at the breech and 1.125 at the muzzle, 33 1/4" barrel. That is not a tapered barrel. If yours is 1 1/8, this is the correct stock for you. Cut the LOP from 13 3/4 to 13 1/4 and use a different entry pipe (RP-Hawk-TE-7-I) and it will be very close to the original. If you have a 1" barrel, use the Kit Carson stock. It is a near twin to the Bridger. Cut that monstrous 14 1/4" LOP to 13 1/4 to fit the Bridger butt plate, BP-Hawk-JB-I instead of the late Hawken BP, Hawk-L-I, which they list in their parts. Their Plan-Kit Carson (full size print) shows a butt plate 4.9" tall, which has to be Bp-Hawk-SE-I. This is wrong, I think the Carson rifle has the same butt plate as the Bridger. They are nearly twins. Their Kit Carson plan has much useful information on it, but the dimensions are almost all wrong. They show a "full size" LOP of 14 5/8". Very few people can shoot that. I scaled out an enlarged photo of the Carson Hawken, and the stock length is 30.08", heel to nose cap. The plan shows 33.125". Hammer screw to nose cap on the Carson is 15.23", Track's plan is 17.375". I need to write them a letter about their plan, but it will take me half a day to do it. But the Jim Bridger rifle parts including the stock are correct should you want to restock your rifle.

 

[S.Kenton]

THANKS HERB!!!! I will save this for later use! THIS WAS EXACTLY the information I was looking for!

 

[izzyjoe]

Very nice rifle, I also like the 2nd picture. I like the look of well worn rifles, very good keep up the good work!