About six weeks.............
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89071501472&seq=63Wages at the time for skilled work was around $1 per day.
Historical gold:
https://nma.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/historic_gold_prices_1833_pres.pdf
So a person would have to work around 20 days to buy one ounce of gold. The gold standard works out pretty good for comparison.
Today a person making $20 per hour grosses about $140 after with holding . 2000 / 140 = 15 Days. So, not far off from my original estimate.
Be very careful with government inflation figures. They changed how the CPI was calculated in 1980. The figures given today grossly underestimate inflation. They do this to keep people from understating what is happening to their savings.
https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
Oh yes, Hawken rifle prices? A couple months wages back then. That is a lot of money. A person could do well with a smoothbore for a lot less money.