New Hawken

[MikeChapin]

I'm getting back into this business after 12-15 year hiatus. I ordered the parts for a full stock flint Hawken from TOTW. I have had the 36 inch-.58-1" across the flats Green Mtn. barrel for about twelve years. It has a 1 in 70 twist. The L&R Manton lock is about the same vintage. It was bought back in the days when you got both the gooseneck and double throat cocks with it.

I decided to weenie out and get Track's pre-inlet stock. They had a plain maple second that has ramrod channel runout that goes staight up into the barrel channel. Track recommends that you taper the end of the ramrod. I would rather try to fix it. What I was thinking of doing is open the top of the channel and deepen and straighten out the channel with a scaper. I've seen the open channel under the barrel with a lot of commercial kits so opening it up should not hurt.

Do you with more experience think that it is worth the trouble of doing this. I have a Tennessee that needs to have this done to the ramrod. It's a pain in the fanny but not too difficult and the only time I use the ramrod is when I'm shooting primative or hunting so I don't plan on a lot of breakage where I would have to make a lot of ramrods.

 

[khwils]

Mike, I'm working on a Southern rifle where I had the same problem of the ramrod hole running up into the barrel. I just chiseled the hole out to the proper depth. I didn't think it mattered since the hole was already into the barrel channel, I just made it a little longer. I made sure the sides of the opening were angled a little. I then made a wedge shaped plug to cover the opening which was about 6-8 inches long. I even rounded the bottom of the wedge to make a little more room for the RR. I made sure it didn't go too deep and left it standing about 1/4" proud of the opening. I glued it in and then chiseled off the excess wood in the barrel channel. It was really a lot easier to do than I thought it would be and didn't take very long. I just finally jumped in and did it after thinking about it too long. I finally decided if I screwed it up I could just chisel it all back out but it turned out good. My wood doesn't match because I don't have any curly maple sitting around but I don't care since you can't see it anyway. Kurt/IL

 

[Randy]

Mike,I saw the pictures of that stock on TOW's websight. I almost bought it but then it was gone. Glad to hear someone is going to make use of it. Kurt's idea for fixing the hole should work fine, and as he says the repair will be hidden while the barrel is in place. On a hawken fullstock if you are using a flintlock such as an Ashmore lock you also need to consider where the front lockbolt will go. you will need to chisle the ramrod hole deep enough to allow the lockbolt to pass between the barrel and ramrod. If you make a percussion style gun it wont be a problem.
I once made a little scraper out of a bicycle spoke. Flatened the end and bent about 1/8" of it back just past 90 degrees. then sharpened and hardened the end using Kasenit. after bending a small handle in the same direction as the scraping part I could pull it back and forth in the ramrod hole and make small adjustments. The handle points to the side of the hole you are enlarging and a radius ground on the cutter part keeps the hole rounded. you may have to experiment with a small bend in the spoke to get the right amount of pressure on the cutter but I was amazed at how well this little tool worked. Not meant for big changes but I once did a repair like Kurt described and found the rod hole too tight after gluing in the wood patch. Ten minutes with the bicycle spoke tool and the rod slid in nicely. Good luck!

 

[Zonie]

IMO, Kurt/IL's repair is a good one.
One of the suppliers of stocks intentionally mills out the ramrod groove starting about 2 inches behind the ramrod entry.

I think this weakens the stock in the forend so capping off this cut with a piece of Maple for a Maple stock, or Walnut for a Walnut stock makes a lot of sense to me.

If you taper the sides of the slot and the filler block, when your fitting the top piece, keep trying your ramrod in the channel to make sure it will fit after you glue the filler block in.

I would recommend using a good grade of carpenters white or yellow glue, and wet all glued surfaces with glue before putting it together.
Oh, don't leave the ramrod in the hole when you do the final glueing or you may have to drill it out of there. ::

 

[JOHN L. HINNANT]

Mike,

Would it be possible to plug the hole by gluing in a dowel rod and re- drilling.

I have had good success using this method on half stock rifle stocks.

Best regards, John L. Hinnant

 

[MikeChapin]

Thanks for the advice guys. I Think I will try to align the ramrod hole and cap it inside. I will have to take about eight inches off the forend. The stock will allow a 42 inch barrel but I'm only putting in a 36 inch. That should give me enough wood for the operation.

I'm using the Manton lock and only one bolt to hold the lock on, the same as I did on the Tennessee, so the second lock bolt will not be a consideration. The rear key will be going in that area so I want to have enough clearance for it and more wood for bearing surface on the key.

This ought to be interesting. The stock is pre-inlet for the Manton, the buttplate and the triggers. This is the first time, outside a kit, that I've worked with a pre-inletted stock. I won't have long to wait. UPS ground has delivery listed for next Thursday.

Horse Docton, Glad I jumped on it when I did. Looks like I wasn't a minute too soon.

 

[Randy]

Mike, I wish you well with your Hawken project. I'm sure there will be other stocks for me at TOW. I've bought several off that site that were slightly damaged and all turned into pretty nice guns. I'm ususlly the only one that knows where the repair is.
That bicycle spoke thing may be hard to visualize but I've found it sure is handy to remove a little wood from somewhere in a deep hole. You may need something like that to scrape out some glue after your repair. I guess running a drill down the hole would clean it out too.