Free TC Hawken.

[Rat]

Ha ha, no I'm not giving it away, I got it for free. Got your attention. I was going to fix her up, and let my son use it to encourage him to hunt with me more often, but the bore is pretty bad.

I was thinking, no problem, send it to Hoyt for a re-bore to .54", but I'm seeing that some won't take a 13/16" barrel out to .54? Is that right??

I've also been reading about how the dovetails, and screw holes are what make an over bored barrel too thin, but I also know that breech pressure drops rapidly and substantially as the projectile moves down the barrel. Certainly the rear sights are far enough from the breech, I would think, to not cause any pressure concerns. I really don't see how the screw holes for the under lug could be a weak point. Saying the front sight dove tail is a concern would be just plain silly. Just my opinion.

My question is: is it true that most barrel-smiths won't bore a .50" TC barrel out to .54"??

Thank in advance.

 

[Walkingeagle]

Can’t answer regarding what most gunsmiths will or will not do, but I do believe TC Hawken barrels are 15/16”. At least all I seen were.
Walk

 

[Boomerang]

but I do believe TC Hawken barrels are 15/16”. At least all I seen were.

That's what I thought too. Are you sure it's 13/16"? Bobby Hoyt should do a .54 cal in a 15/16".

 

[Bad Karma]

The Hawken .50’s are 15/16” and I have one that Mr Hoyt bored to .54... this makes a really nice combination.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Agreed, the TC Hawken in .50 came in 15/16th and 1" width barrels.
The tapping for the sights won't cause a problem in a 15/16th barrel bored out to .54
IF it bothers you then have it bored to .525... just enough to remove the rifling and give you a fresh bore....not an uncommon caliber in the old plains rifles, btw. Folks have their .50's bored out to .54 for convenience, not because it must be done that way.
LEE makes a double cavity round ball mold for .500 round ball. https://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-ball-500.html . AND when using shot, you'd have a pretty good small game gun too.

LD

 

[Grenadier1758]

Ha ha, no I'm not giving it away, I got it for free. Got your attention. I was going to fix her up, and let my son use it to encourage him to hunt with me more often, but the bore is pretty bad.

I was thinking, no problem, send it to Hoyt for a re-bore to .54", but I'm seeing that some won't take a 13/16" barrel out to .54? Is that right??

I've also been reading about how the dovetails, and screw holes are what make an over bored barrel too thin, but I also know that breech pressure drops rapidly and substantially as the projectile moves down the barrel. Certainly the rear sights are far enough from the breech, I would think, to not cause any pressure concerns. I really don't see how the screw holes for the under lug could be a weak point. Saying the front sight dove tail is a concern would be just plain silly. Just my opinion.

My question is: is it true that most barrel-smiths won't bore a .50" TC barrel out to .54"??

Thank in advance.

Or did you get a T/C Seneca which looks like a scaled down T/C Hawken and the Seneca has a 13/16" barrel?

 

[Rat]

Hey thanks for the quick responses. I was confused as I was under the impression that the 15/16's barrel was safe to .54", but I did some quick reading of old threads saying no....but I was probably seeing something about 13/16" barrels.

Anyhow, this is just your average 15/16" standard TC Hawken .50", with who knows what happened to the bore. Not a Senaca, unfortunately. The rest of the rifle is in pretty nice shape, or average shape for a used TC.

Now personally, I'd love to take it out to .58", but I suppose that's not normally done.

Thanks again. I'll contact Mr.Hoyt and see how far he'll go.

 

[Zonie]

Most barrel makers want to see a minimum wall thickness of .200 on a barrel. For a .54 that adds up to .540 + .200 + .200 = .940.
Since 15/16 of an inch equals .938", it will be close enough to .940 to work.

A .58 caliber barrel should be at least .580 + .200 + .200 = .980 so a 1 inch across the flats barrel would be needed.

 

[SDSmlf]

Most barrel makers want to see a minimum wall thickness of .200 on a barrel. For a .54 that adds up to .540 + .200 + .200 = .940.
Since 15/16 of an inch equals .938", it will be close enough to .940 to work.

A .58 caliber barrel should be at least .580 + .200 + .200 = .980 so a 1 inch across the flats barrel would be needed.

When I have spoken with Bobby Hoyt in the past, he told me that as long as there were no screw holes drilled too deep, a 1” across the flats TC barrel could go to 58 caliber rifled, or 60 caliber smooth bore.