Navy Arms “Hawken Hunter” .58 Cal

[Idaholewis]

Anyone have one of these .58 Cal Hawken Hunter’s made by Navy Arms? I bought this rifle last year in a Pawn shop, it belonged to the owners friend whom had passed away, the Rifle was Brand new unfired. It is a 3 Groove 1:60 Twist, I need to get this Gun out and Try Some Patched Roundball in it, and pick up a Minie Mold for it. This is a BEEFY/Heavy rifle, 1-1/8” Across the Flats. I wish it had a Set Trigger in it instead of the Single, i don’t like the Trigger pull at all, Way to heavy for my Liking. A good friend and Gunsmith has offered to lighten the Trigger pull for me, I just need to get it to him.
This Rifle has quite the History, From what I’ve read it was kind of a Pet Project of Val Forgett’s, the Owner of Navy Arms, He took this Rifle to Africa and killed all of the Big Critters that Walk there. He shot a 610 Grain Lyman Minie in front of 200 Grains of FFFG! But eventually settled on a Load of 180 Grains FFFG with 100 yard Groups measuring 4-1/2” There is a good Write up on this Rifle in 1 of the Lyman Load handbooks. I am Not sure how Many of these were made?


Here it is in front, beside 1 of my .54 Cal TC Hawken’s

As you can see it is a 3 Groove

Solid Stainless Ramrod with Brass end, (at least it appears to be Stainless?) The Barrel under Rib is Solid Brass

 

[Idaholewis]

It takes a Large 5/16-24 Nipple, it came with a Musket Nipple. I ended up buying a few spares for it, made By Treso, Both Musket, and No. 11 Nipples

Beside a 1/4-28

 

[Idaholewis]

Lyman book describes Val Forgett, owner of Navy Arms as shooting 180gr of 3FFF behind the 610 gr minnie (Lyman 577611) They got consistent 4.5" groups at 100 yards. See page 20 in this book for the entire six page story. They got elephants, hippos, wildebeest, sable, cape buffalo, lions, antelope, zebra, wildebeast, hartebeeste, bushbuck, duiker, impalla and others with the 58 cal big rifle. Navy Arms proofed it for 200gr of FFFg behind a Lyman 577611 cast from soft lead.

 

[BrownBear]

One of my hunting pards has that rifle and it's the prize of his whole gun safe. He's shot just about everything with it but brown bear. Best I recall his pet load is 110 grains of 3f under a .575 round ball and self-lubed ticking patch cut at the muzzle and #11 caps. Awfully tight to load, but he whacks away at a short starter with his hand anyway, just cuzz he likes the results. Pretty stout load, but with the extra weight of the barrel recoil is moderate. He settled on that load because it's what his rifle shoots best.

 

[Stony Broke]

Very interesting rifle. I've never seen one of these before, and they seem to have some great history that occurred during our lifetimes.

 

[Saxtonyoung]

A couple of days ago I did a little bit of internet research on Val Forgett and found out that when he took the Big 5, it had been 100 years since the last person to do so with a muzzleloader.

 

[Prairieofthedog]

Anyone have one of these .58 Cal Hawken Hunter’s made by Navy Arms? I bought this rifle last year in a Pawn shop, it belonged to the owners friend whom had passed away, the Rifle was Brand new unfired. It is a 3 Groove 1:60 Twist, I need to get this Gun out and Try Some Patched Roundball in it, and pick up a Minie Mold for it. This is a BEEFY/Heavy rifle, 1-1/8” Across the Flats. I wish it had a Set Trigger in it instead of the Single, i don’t like the Trigger pull at all, Way to heavy for my Liking. A good friend and Gunsmith has offered to lighten the Trigger pull for me, I just need to get it to him.
This Rifle has quite the History, From what I’ve read it was kind of a Pet Project of Val Forgett’s, the Owner of Navy Arms, He took this Rifle to Africa and killed all of the Big Critters that Walk there. He shot a 610 Grain Lyman Minie in front of 200 Grains of FFFG! But eventually settled on a Load of 180 Grains FFFG with 100 yard Groups measuring 4-1/2” There is a good Write up on this Rifle in 1 of the Lyman Load handbooks. I am Not sure how Many of these were made?
Are you sure thats the rifle Val took to Africa? I read that article in the past and don't think that was the same rifle.Just asking? Course I cant find the article now.Off to Google.

Here it is in front, beside 1 of my .54 Cal TC Hawken’s

As you can see it is a 3 Groove

Solid Stainless Ramrod with Brass end, (at least it appears to be Stainless?) The Barrel under Rib is Solid Brass

 

[Prairieofthedog]

Apparently he used a couple of rifles. One was the "Buffalo Hunter".Don't know which one he killed the Top Five with.

 

[will5a1]

I bought one a few years back and it is my regular deer rifle, my hunting load is a 130 grains of 2F under a PRB with a wonderwad over the powder, it is more accurate with heavier charges but my shoulder can only stand so much. I switched the nipple over to a 11 (cheaper, easier to get caps), and have not had any ignition issues since the switch. For grins, when I first got the rifle, I tried a heavy load, once, 180 grains of 3F pushing a minie, shooting offhand, recoil was stout with that combination, too stout for me on a regular basis. I think the bore has some choke to it, and mine shoots well with PRB, even with the shallow rifling geared more for conicals. Enjoy yours, they are neat rifles.

Here is a thread from 2015 when I first bought my rifle:

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/new-to-me-navy-arms-58-hawken-hunter.99142/

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I have the 58 caliber half stock that Val had built by Zoli. it is basically a sporterized Zouave musket I believe that was called the Buffalo Hunter. Same barrel as the Zouave without the bayonet lug but with an underrib.

 

[Eddie2002]

I picked up a Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter in .58 caliber at a pawn shop last year. The action, trigger and brass trim is the same as the Zouave musket but the barrel is a bit heavier at the breach. They had a Zouave musket on the shelf also but I didn't have the loose change to buy both. Looking back I should of gotten both. I mainly shoot .50 caliber but the Buffalo Hunter was so nice looking I had to get it, the price was right at under $150.00.

 

[Rat]

That rifling would be the same standard rifling as the minie' ball rifles. Very interesting to see that in an octo-barrel.

 

[Ronnman]

Idaholewis - I built one the 58 cal Navy Arms Hawken Hunter from a kit back in the late 70s. This gun is a cannon. I was shooting a 625 grain semi-wadcutter called a Stake Buster made by Shiloh, with 200 grains of 3F. Also, see another thread on this forum: https://w[URL]https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/navy-arms-58-cal-hawken-hunter.107131/#post-1435403[/URL]

Ron

 

[Ronnman]

Also, the ramrod which came with the kit, was a fiberglass rod shaped very similar to the one in you picture. I also worked on the trigger pull and was able to reduce the pull by polishing moving parts of the lock. The gun came with a very hollowed out musket nipple which blew the hammer back with light powder loads. I replace it with a #11 size “Uncle Mikes” nipple. Hammer pushback gone.
Ron

 

[Ronnman]

Idaholewis - Look at the pics of my rifle which I built from the Navy Arms kit. There is no name or caliber stamped into the barrel like yours. Also, my kit was provided with a Williams rear sight from Navy Arms. Note the fiberglass ramrod. I remember paying $125 for the kit, which I thought was a little high compared to other kits at that time.
Ron

 

[Ronnman]

The Minie weighs in at 634 grains. The Shiloh mold stamped 577D.
Ron