I bought that book as soon as it was available. There are no eye-popping revelations in it, but it is a good compilation of Hawken lore. I think of it as a sequel or update for the books by Baird and Hanson, but it doesn't replace them. I think the Woodfill book would be a good general reference on Hawkens to round out someone's personal muzzleloading reference library, or a good "starter" book for a person beginning to take a serious interest in original Hawkens. I can't rave about it, but I'm glad to have it and would say it is well worth $50. It is also a showcase for the author's formidable talents as a rifle builder.
There is a chapter in Mr. Woodfill's book devoted to the Ashley "Super Rifle." Mr. Woodfill freely admitted that there are very few known facts about this rifle, and he employed a great deal of speculation. He built a replica, employing features he believed would have been on the original. The result looks a lot like an early 19th century Virginia longrifle but with a giant, .69 caliber bore, a relatively flat buttplate, and a "big bow" J&S style triggerguard. He elected to use set triggers with a long bar or plate, with the trigger guard attached to the trigger plate. In my opinion, a short trigger plate may have been more authentic. Other very early J&S rifles like the Guns International fullstock (re post #116) and the Peterson Hawken have short trigger plates. I thought his justification for a .69 caliber barrel shooting a .678" ball was a bit convoluted, but he may very well be correct. The other thing that struck me as odd was that he purposely built this super rifle to weigh "only" ten and a half pounds, so he could more comfortably carry it hunting. Longrifles of that period typically weighed 12-13 pounds, and Francis Parkman's Hoffman & Campbell rifle, described in The Oregon Trail, weighed fourteen. Beaver Tom, the alcoholic buffalo hunter in Tough Trip Through Paradise, carried a sixteen-pound Sharps everywhere he went. One would think if you would go to the trouble and expense of building a replica of a legendary rifle, you would try to get it as close as you could to the original.
As for the actual Ashley Hawken, in a short paragraph at the end of the chapter, Mr. Woodfill reiterated the same rumor we have all heard, in that "The fate of the Ashley Hawken is unknown, although a reliable source indicates that it was restored by Keith Neubauer at The Hawken Shop, and is now owned by a wealthy family in St. Louis" (p. 12).
So, amateurs like myself may nitpick a few details with Mr. Woodfill's Hawken book, but in my opinion an updated reference was needed to supplement the works of Baird and Hanson, and the Woodfill book fills that need very handily. The author did his homework and compiled a very detailed, well-illustrated, and readable reference. I would recommend it.
Notchy Bob
