Smokin'.50, thanks for your confidence. I regret to tell you it is misplaced. I ain't as smart as I am handsome, so you see how I struggle through life. No one knows the answer to your questions. In "The Hawken Rifle, Its Place in History", Charles E. Hanson, Jr. (available from the Museum of the Fur Trade at Chadron, NE, where I visited again in October, and from Track of the Wolf), on page 25 he writes: 'In summary, our research indicates there were no J&S Hawken rifles before 1825 and does not conclusively document any rifle before 1831. It further suggests a minimum production of flintlock rifles. Brigade leaders were favorable toward the new percussion rifles in the very early 1830's but frontier sales reached their peak at the very end of the mountain man period, 1837-1842. Much of the production 1849-50 went in the Gold Rush but this demand was followed by high popularity in the West until 1855. After that time the demand continued to fade gradually for the next ten years. Production figures can only be a wild guess but even a guess is better than a fairy tale. We will hazard a figure of 2,000 J&S guns of all types and 500 S. Hawken guns through 1854. How many more were made after that with the "S.Hawken" stamp is anyone's guess. One thing appears to be fairly conclusive. Hawkens did not make a strong showing in the mountains until relatively late in the game and the visions we all had of hundreds of flint Hawkens is a "will of the wisp." The advertisements and the few surviving shop bills suggest that a very important segment of the Hawken business was with the local people of Missouri and Illinois; not only repairs but also light rifles, shotguns and some of the heavy rifles as well. Even Pierre Chouteau, Jr. bought a fancy rifle for his young son in 1839.'
Likely some rifles were made to order, and the customer might specify what sights he wanted. There are contributors to this panel that know a great deal about the Hawken rifles, far more than I do. I hope they will add to this thread.
Now a couple of comments on sights. I saw in the National Park Service museum in St. Louis, probably the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, about 10 years ago a Hawken rifle in a glass case. It had a closed buckhorn rear sight. It looked as if the horns had been replaced by a 1/4" diameter flat washer. There is no way to know if this was made that way or changed later. That offers some of the ease of sighting of a peep sight, but is not a peep sight. Doctor Gary White of the old Green River Rifle Works in Roosevelt, UT told me he shoots this kind of sight in competitions and had never been challenged on it. Track of the Wolf sells a sight like this, a "fixed sight with peep" and I have used them. Some clubs may specify a distance between the "horns" of a buckhorn sight, thus not allowing this.
About the big peep hole, if that is what you were referencing- I once shot a Model 94 Winchester .30-30 commemorative model of some kind, with an 18" barrel and a tang sight that I could see half of Uintah coutry through. At 100 yards I was able to put 10 shots into 1.75" from rest. So one can shoot well with a large aperature peep sight, or closed buckhorn sight.
You might like to contact James D. Gordon, who published the three volume set "Great Gunmakers for the Early West", for his opininon. He owns original Hawkens and has photographed those at the Museum of the Fur Trade and Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY. Address is 808 Paseo de la Cuma, Sante Fe, NM 87501, phone (505)982-9667.
Again, I ask anyone who knows to pitch in on this.
