I have one of his Hawkens, a .50 percussion halfstock. I found this rifle on Gunbroker several years ago. I'm not sure if Bob Ritchey moved to Big Timber after I met him in Lewistown. In 1978 I was a young fellow of 22 years working on the Minuteman Program. I met Bob Ritchey through an Air Force Quality Assurance guy who had a very nice Leman that had been built by him. I visited with Bob fairly regularly when I could find him in his shop. I got the impression he was a hobbyist builder. If I recall correctly he had first built guns for himself and a hunting buddy who had since passed from complications of diabetes, something Ritchey also suffer from. The two of them had used these guns to hunt deer, there was no muzzleloader season in Montana until about three years ago. I wanted badly to have Bob build me a Leman and I believe he would have but I didn't have the funds. So, when I ran into my Ritchey Hawken on line I snapped it up.
