Robert Egler
50 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
- Messages
- 1,319
- Reaction score
- 26
I have received my Green Mountain 54 caliber smoothbore barrel to use on my Traditions Hawken. (Thanks again to Round Ball for letting me know of the sale! :hatsoff: )
I know that several other people on the forum were wondering if the Green Mountain replacement barrel would work on the Traditions, so here’s my information.
I have a Traditions “Hawken”, and these replacement barrels are intended for T/C Hawkens, but as far as I know no one makes replacement smoothbore barrels for Traditions guns.
First, the people at Green Mountain were very helpful on the phone, and the barrel looks to be excellently made. :thumbsup:
Both Traditions and T/C have hooked breaches, but the hooks are not quite identical. In order to get the GM barrel to fit my Traditions it was necessary to slightly modify the hook. (NOT the breach plug itself, before anyone has a tizzy fit about that. :wink: )
The Traditions hook is flat on the bottom, hitting the breach plug about 1/8 inch or so up from the bottom, while the GM hook continues all the way straight to the bottom of the breach plug. I filed the bottom of the GM hook to make it fit, was a trivial job, only took a couple minutes.
It was also necessary to take about 1/16 of an inch of wood off under the back of the tang, since the GM hook is very slightly longer. Again a couple minutes work with a fine chisel, no biggy.
A bigger issue is that the under barrel lug that holds the barrel onto the stock is not in the same location on the GM as on the Traditions. So you have two choices, you can either cut a new set of slots for a new retaining pin, or you can move the under barrel lug to where it fits the Traditions stock. The lug is held to the barrel by two small screws, not a dovetail like the Traditions, so it should be easier to move. I haven’t made up my mind yet which way I’m going. I’d like to move the lug, but that requires drilling and tapping 2 holes in the barrel bottom only 3/16 inch deep. Drilling the holes is no problem, but I’m not sure how to get threads into a hole that shallow. :hmm: I’m still thinking about that, have a couple ideas that I’ll try on some scrap metal first. Any suggestions from those with more metal working experience than me would be welcome!
Cutting another set of slots would be a lot easier, and then you have what appears to be 2 barrel retaining pins rather than one, which is common on guns of the era this is intended to represent. But then you will always have 1 non-functional pin, depending on which barrel you use, the Traditions barrel or the GM.
Another bigger issue is that the touch hole on the GM barrel does not align exactly with the position of the touch hole on the Traditions barrel. The GM touch hole is about 3/32 of an inch farther forward. This places it at the very front of the pan rather than in the center. I’ll have to wait until I can shoot the gun to find out if that has any significant effect on the prime igniting the main charge. Hopefully it won’t, it’s only 3/32 of an inch, but I’ll have to see.
A purely cosmetic issue is that the underbarrel rib stops 1/2 inch short of the forestock, leaving a very noticeable gap that looks a bit odd. I’m still working on that one. :hmm:
A very minor issue is that the front sight has a small brass bead on the back of the top. Some folks may like this, but I don’t. That’s getting filed flat and painted black.
The tubes for the ramrod are painted black. I don’t know what they’re made from, I’ll look at that tonight. As far as I’m concerned if they are steel or brass under the paint I’ll strip them and go with the bare metal, but if they’re aluminum I’ll leave them painted.
As someone else mentioned in a different post, the ramrod is too long. It doesn’t matter to me, because I made a replacement ramrod out of brass tubing with solid brass rods in the ends anyway.
And lastly, the GM barrel is 4 inches longer than the Traditions barrel, so depending on your guncase you may have to get another one. Mine is made of tooling leather and when I made it I made it extra long, luckily just long enough to fit the new barrel on the gun!
So what’s my final opinion? I like the barrel, and while it requires some work to fit it to the Traditions stock I think I’ll be happy with it in the end. I’ll know for sure when I start patterning it this weekend! :thumbsup:
Oh Yeah! I should also mention that making modifictaions to the barrel voids the GM warrenty, but if you are going to use the barrel on a Traditions gun you're going to have to modify either the stock or the barrel. Just be aware of this before you start any work.
I know that several other people on the forum were wondering if the Green Mountain replacement barrel would work on the Traditions, so here’s my information.
I have a Traditions “Hawken”, and these replacement barrels are intended for T/C Hawkens, but as far as I know no one makes replacement smoothbore barrels for Traditions guns.
First, the people at Green Mountain were very helpful on the phone, and the barrel looks to be excellently made. :thumbsup:
Both Traditions and T/C have hooked breaches, but the hooks are not quite identical. In order to get the GM barrel to fit my Traditions it was necessary to slightly modify the hook. (NOT the breach plug itself, before anyone has a tizzy fit about that. :wink: )
The Traditions hook is flat on the bottom, hitting the breach plug about 1/8 inch or so up from the bottom, while the GM hook continues all the way straight to the bottom of the breach plug. I filed the bottom of the GM hook to make it fit, was a trivial job, only took a couple minutes.
It was also necessary to take about 1/16 of an inch of wood off under the back of the tang, since the GM hook is very slightly longer. Again a couple minutes work with a fine chisel, no biggy.
A bigger issue is that the under barrel lug that holds the barrel onto the stock is not in the same location on the GM as on the Traditions. So you have two choices, you can either cut a new set of slots for a new retaining pin, or you can move the under barrel lug to where it fits the Traditions stock. The lug is held to the barrel by two small screws, not a dovetail like the Traditions, so it should be easier to move. I haven’t made up my mind yet which way I’m going. I’d like to move the lug, but that requires drilling and tapping 2 holes in the barrel bottom only 3/16 inch deep. Drilling the holes is no problem, but I’m not sure how to get threads into a hole that shallow. :hmm: I’m still thinking about that, have a couple ideas that I’ll try on some scrap metal first. Any suggestions from those with more metal working experience than me would be welcome!
Cutting another set of slots would be a lot easier, and then you have what appears to be 2 barrel retaining pins rather than one, which is common on guns of the era this is intended to represent. But then you will always have 1 non-functional pin, depending on which barrel you use, the Traditions barrel or the GM.
Another bigger issue is that the touch hole on the GM barrel does not align exactly with the position of the touch hole on the Traditions barrel. The GM touch hole is about 3/32 of an inch farther forward. This places it at the very front of the pan rather than in the center. I’ll have to wait until I can shoot the gun to find out if that has any significant effect on the prime igniting the main charge. Hopefully it won’t, it’s only 3/32 of an inch, but I’ll have to see.
A purely cosmetic issue is that the underbarrel rib stops 1/2 inch short of the forestock, leaving a very noticeable gap that looks a bit odd. I’m still working on that one. :hmm:
A very minor issue is that the front sight has a small brass bead on the back of the top. Some folks may like this, but I don’t. That’s getting filed flat and painted black.
The tubes for the ramrod are painted black. I don’t know what they’re made from, I’ll look at that tonight. As far as I’m concerned if they are steel or brass under the paint I’ll strip them and go with the bare metal, but if they’re aluminum I’ll leave them painted.
As someone else mentioned in a different post, the ramrod is too long. It doesn’t matter to me, because I made a replacement ramrod out of brass tubing with solid brass rods in the ends anyway.
And lastly, the GM barrel is 4 inches longer than the Traditions barrel, so depending on your guncase you may have to get another one. Mine is made of tooling leather and when I made it I made it extra long, luckily just long enough to fit the new barrel on the gun!
So what’s my final opinion? I like the barrel, and while it requires some work to fit it to the Traditions stock I think I’ll be happy with it in the end. I’ll know for sure when I start patterning it this weekend! :thumbsup:
Oh Yeah! I should also mention that making modifictaions to the barrel voids the GM warrenty, but if you are going to use the barrel on a Traditions gun you're going to have to modify either the stock or the barrel. Just be aware of this before you start any work.
