#3 Hawken Full Stock

[sean30ber]

Not sure what one is supposed to weigh. I've been thinning and shaping and balancing. I've heard about 9 to 11 pounds. This one now weighs in at 8lb 10 oz with no finish and no rear sight. Im pretty happy with that. Didn't believe it so I checked it on two scales, one a fish scale. came up the same each time. For-end rounded out nicely and the balance point is beautiful. Just need to smooth out the for-end by the cap give her a few fine sandings, finish the steel up, scrape out the ramrod and tip it. So close, yet so far. Ill get the rear sight put in and probably bench it this weekend for the test fire before finishing it up.

 

[Herb]

I read a quote by Sam Hawken that it didn't matter what kind of sights he put on a rifle, the owner would change them to what he liked.

 

[sean30ber]

Here are pics of where Im at. Any comments or suggestions before I do the final shaping and finish sanding would be appreciated. The balance point is almost center between the rear pipe and the rear key. I notices on some original pics that the edges of the panels are rounded over, especially on the top edge along the barrel and breech. Instead of having crisp lines and angles. I know that from this point, final shaping and easing will play a huge role in the final look so I want to get it as eye appealing as possible. Thanks guys.

 

[galamb]

That is looking really good Sean.

You say it's about 8 lbs 10 oz.

Memory is gone here - it's a 1" tapered to 7/8" barrel, 36" x 54 cal??

If so, then a 1 1/8" tapering to 1" (which would have been more typical for the finished weight you note of an original) would have added another 1 lb 12 oz (or there abouts) which would have put the weight in the 10 1/2 lb range.

So sound correct if I'm remembering your barrel correctly.

(if so, sounds like you have taken enough wood off)

 

[Razor62]

Lookin' great Sean! You'll be very happy with the lesser weight if you plan on carrying her around the woods for any length of time. Rust bluing looks super nice too.
Gettin' down to the final stretch...

 

[galamb]

You notice how clean the bench is - I mean no sawdust, no wood chips, nada.

Starting to think he is farming out the work :hmm:

 

[Razor62]

Hmmmm, You may be onto something Graham. He says the delays are do to having to build his man cave but???

 

[gunmaker43]

Frizzen's a tad short ????? All else is lookin great... Tom

 

[sean30ber]

Funny guys :haha: Here she is roughed and ready for a test firing tomorrow. Daughter wants to shoot the AR so well make a daddy daughter date of it. Ill post picks of how she shoot, the Hawken that is.



Rear sight still needs a little tweaking but the dove is tight and the slide is nice and tight. Bend the front down a hair.

 

[galamb]

Sean, can you post up a better picture of the fore-end. It looks "wrong".

This is the area I'm talking about

Here is a couple of originals. There is a little more/longer taper from the RR channel area up to the muzzle cap.

Shouldn't be much of an issue just to take a bit from the fore-end and it would look sooooo much better.

 

[sean30ber]

Ya its been bugging me too. The key and front pipe should have been at least another inch back. Rookie mistake. Ive been looking at it and trying to figure how to make it work. I crowded the fore-end.
Ill get a good pic here in a bit and post it. Maybe you can see something that would make it look a bit better. Unfortunately everything is inlet. Cant really move them back now, but i agree it looks wrong. Ive been shaping out a rod for it for the last few hours. I need to make a scraper. 80 grit and a block take a while. The pipes he gave me taper wide at the front down to small at the entry pipe. Finally finished it but I have to small a rod tip for it. Have to order a large one or make one.

 

[sean30ber]

OK here is the ugliness. I see bulldog nose

 

[sean30ber]

Quick morning at the range for test fire. Very happy. This is just test firing. Still need to work up a load and sight it. I think this DeHass barrel will be sweet. Only 25 yards though.

 

[galamb]

Sean, looks like she is going to shoot just fine when you get your load settled.

Been looking and thinking about that nose.

If you can live with it maybe leaving it alone is your best bet unless you are willing to do a bit more work here.

I know it would bug the snot out of me, and I had a similar issue - ramrod channel was too shallow behind the nose cap and the forward pipe was too far forward.

The more I looked at it the more it got under my skin so I finally removed the pipe, deepened the channel and moved the pipe back.

The hole left by the pin being moved was easily filled/hidden when it was finished - had to know it was there to see it.

I'm glad I did it - don't regret "fixing" it now even though I was looking for any excuse not to in the first place.

SO - IF this was my rifle I most certain would move that pipe back, minimally so that the forward end of that pipe is about where the rear of it currently is.

I would then taper the underside of the fore-end similar to the pics of the originals I posted up.

Doing so should not interfere with the key - which I would leave put for the moment until I got a look at the reshaped fore-end.

(maybe get ahold of Taylor and get an opinion - he might have a better idea)

 

[galamb]

Sean, here's a photoshop that kinda shows what I was suggesting.

 

[sean30ber]

Ya, Im afraid ill mes it up at this point, ill smooth it out a bit. Its not to bad and its mine anyway. Ill probably build another one down the road and will apply the lessons learned. I still don't think its to bad for the third. Looks like it will be a shooter too. I've been sanding finer and finer and here she is wet. I know Hawkens were not typically fancy maple like this but this thing is going to be gorgeous if I do as nice a job as my last aqua-fortis job,

 

[galamb]

Yes, that is a very nice piece of wood.

Staining? Aquafortis?

 

[sean30ber]

AQUA FORTIS GREEN yuk :barf:


AQUA FORTIS FIRST BLUSH. :grin:




What ya think, wet wool and another blush coat, Or leave it. She glows when wet now, but im almost thinking I can go a tad darker.

 

[galamb]

That's personal taste.

I like my stocks either 1) really dark or 2) really red (violin finish).

The tiger is really comin' out though - looking fine..

 

[sean30ber]

Did something a bit different from what I normally do. I went with a second blush coat, darkened way up, then wet brillo rubbed it. You can see the color really well and rub it back a to taste. When it dried there was no curl. Then I hit it with the first coat of BLO. NICE!!!!!!

Sorry for the bad pics. My camera wouldnt focus for some reason. Its night and bad light.