58 cal Hawken

[dgdyer]

Just picked up an Investarms Hawken 15/16"x29" 58 cal. barrel. Not marked Cabela's. I know it's an older gun as they no longer offer the 58 in that barrel size. There is no engraving or scroll work on the lock plate like the Investarms newer rifles have and the rifling appears to be 1:60 or 1:66. Any ideas as to the date of manufacture? I may have the barrel altered to drop in a Lyman Great Plains Rifle. Anyone know someone that can mount the new lugs on the barrel for the 2 wedge pins on the LGPR?

 

[GaCop]

Is the barrel already dovetailed for them? If so, they're very easy to install if you have a set of Swiss needle files and brass drifts.

Tom

 

[BrownBear]

I have one of those, but no clue about the age or how to find out. I'm guessing no later than sometime in the mid-80's while more likely in the late 70's or so. But that's a wild guess.

Never thought of pulling the barrel and mounting it on a GPR, though I don't see why not- perhaps with slight mods such as GaCop describes.

I'd be curious to hear if you can confirm that twist rate. Mine is definitely a 1:48.

BTW- Mine is happiest with a fairly tight patch/ball combo- specifically .018 ticking, grease lube and a .575 ball. But it takes a bit of a thump on the starter to get the ball going down the bore. I've settled on .570 ball with the same patch and lube for a little easier seating in the field, but at a small cost in accuracy. I'm shooting deer and not paper, and I'd certainly go for the larger ball if paper was my game.

 

[redneck]

barrel is .950 across flats not 15/16th. gpr are 1 in arcoss flats as i easure mine

 

[BrownBear]

barrel is .950 across flats not 15/16th. gpr are 1 in arcoss flats as i easure mine

Boy, something is out of whack. My GPRs are all 15/16". That translates into .9375".

Remeasure time for all of us! :wink:

 

[bubba.50]

I bought a 58cal investarm barrel with the intent of puttin' it on a t/c stock. it wouldn't fit so I got my calipers out & checked it. as the o.p. says it was .950 across the flats. an extra bit of "beef" for the caliber I guess.

 

[larry wv]

Mine is 1 in 48 also. Larry

 

[dgdyer]

My barrel mics out at .940 pretty close to the .9375 which is 15/16". I have seen on line where others have done this alteration to fit their GPR. All the Lyman adds show 15/16" barrels. They don't even offer rifles with 1" barrels as far as I know. I can imagine that some stocks may be tighter but probably easily opened up. I just watched a GPR with four barrels that sold on gunbroker. It had 2- 54 cal barrels @ 32" and 28" and a 50 cal GPH @ 32" and a 45 cal @ 28". The two 28" barrels had the lugs altered to fit the GPR. I contacted Track of the Wolf they say this an easy conversion. The existing barrel lug is spot welded and can be removed by a hammer blow at right angles. Then two new lugs must be welded to fit the GPR stock. They are so busy that they cannot take on any custom work at this time and they say that any competent custom builder can make this alteration. As to the twist rate, the rifling turns less than half but more than a quarter in the 29" barrel so it's somewhere around 60 and 66. I have read that some of the old GPH rifles had 1:66 twist and since Investarms makes the GPH I think I may have one of the older rifle. Further more all the Investarms rifles I've seen have scroll work or engraving on the lock plate but mine does not have that. It is just case hardened. So it seems a little unusual.

 

[dgdyer]

Evidently they are spot welded.

 

[dgdyer]

thanks for the load info.

 

[dgdyer]

mine mics out at .940, pretty close to the .9375

 

[D Sanders]

Metric... 24 mm

 

[dgdyer]

Brown Bear, what powder and charge do you use in your 58 for hunting?

 

[GaCop]

Ya learn something every day! :grin:

Tom

 

[BrownBear]

Brown Bear, what powder and charge do you use in your 58 for hunting?

Depends on which 58 I'm using! :rotf: I'm kinda overstuffed with 58's right now, having 6 of the blooming things in the house at the moment.

If I can use the term, my "standard" load is 100 or 110 grains of 2f Goex with most of them. I have a shorty (24" barrel) that prefers 80 grains of 3f, and a longy (GRRW Hawken with a 36" barrel) that really comes into its own with around 140 grains of 2f.

My Investarms 58 is comparatively light and gets a bit snappish with charges over 100 grains. I dropped back to 80 grains of 2f and the accuracy was fine but the trajectory was getting a little loopy for my taste (had to be almost 2" high at 50 to be dead on at 75, but still around 4-5 low at 100). This summer one of my projects is to dink around with 3f to see if I can't find a better crossover between recoil and trajectory.

Note that until recoil becomes a factor, most of my choices are about what the gun likes rather than any real feeling that the 58 needs giant clouds of smoke to do its job within my personal 100 yard limit.

Long answer for a short question. Sorry bout that, but I figured the background would be useful to you.

 

[majg1234]

in my 58 Investarms I use 562 ball,120 grn Ffg Goex,felt OP wad 20ga size and .018 ticking, loads easily and is very accurate.Makes a lot of smoke and noise :grin:

 

[dgdyer]

Brown Bear, thanks for the info. Shoot straight.

 

[M. De Land]

Where in Alaska are you BB? MD

 

[dgdyer]

My mistake, I should have wrote that the older GPR barrels were 1:66 and since the GPR's are made by Investarms then I may have one of the older rifles.