Regardless of the P.C. of Flint on the Hawk. If I cant Ronnyvoo that way, then ill either not Ronnyvoo as a Hawken totin mountainman, or do another gun further down the road for "period correctness".
Some notes from the AMM email list..at these dates the Hawkens would more than likely have been flint - that's based on looking at a ton of other invoices for the period and by far the greatest amount of guns going west were still flintlock
Hawkens may not have been the most common rifle, but it can be positively documented that many of them did go to rendezvous!
Invoice for the 1836 rendezvous. Here
are some line items from that list:
4 pairs pistols Iron barrels
2 Am Rifle @$17.50
7 " " @$11.00
8 Hawkins " from $20 to $26
84 N. W. Guns @$4.50
2 Rifles Hawkins @$24
The invoice for the 1837 rendezvous (the one painted by A. J. Miller)includes these:
36 N. W. Guns best quality @$4.50
5 Am. Rifles steel mounted @$19
10 Hawkens Rifles @$24
12 N W Guns @$4.5
These invoices are in the American Fur Co. Papers, Missouri Historical Society (Y8, Z13-15, Z158, Z298).
For at least these two years, the majority of rifles sent to rendezvous were in fact Hawkens. So if the mid 1830's or later is your period of interest, then carry a Hawken proudly, but you're going to have to have the above facts handy when you go to rendezvous, because a lot of
people have bought into the myth that they aren't authentic.
Of course to make it "simpler" any of the trade rifles available at the time - Henry being the most common - were definitely made in flint............
