Saturday, I received my copy of The Hawken Rifle, It’s Evolution from 1820 – 1870, by Bob Woodfill.

[Patched]

More pics please....I love it.

Don

Here’s the cheekrest side and a Golcher lock from REDavis.

Here’s the second to last gun I made…haven’t shot it yet …has a Getz barrel…

These are from scratch guns…I’ve been the luckiest ramrod hole driller that has ever lived…I sweat bullets when I drill a ramrod hole.

 

[Mulebrain]

I think you did a great job replicating the latest iteration of a S Hawken halfstock….stock furniture and overall architecture look like what I’ve seen on Sam made guns…. I read your commentary on your stock finish on another thread … apparently you already know.

I’ve observed (from viewing, handling and pictures) that “no two guns are alike”. The “Sam” pattern, like yours, held a style and set of furniture that repeated on a lot of the surviving rifles…thus the ”classic“ Hawken look.

But the early J. Hawken and J&S Hawken rifles vary widely in stock style, furniture and degrees of repair and upgrades….and (subjectively) varying degrees of artistry and graceful execution of a particular rifle.

So if your’e replicating a Hawken, there is enormous room for some personal preferences in stockwood, stock design, trigger guard style, straight breech, slant breech etc….View attachment 203975my lastest attempt …it has the only two piece brass brazed butt plate I could ever find…I wish I had bought 10 when they were available.

That sure is a purty looking rifle, and really like that patch box! Where is it from?

I have learned as well, grade of stock has a great deal to do with the finished gun

 

[Patched]

Muzzleloader Builders Supply has these patch boxes in brass and German silver but no longer catalogues an iron one. I am finding that the variety of available parts is shrinking fast…Track of the Wolf and Jedadiah Starr also has parts…

I have a replica of this patch box on the “Moses White” Hawken pictured below…I may have to make another rifle just to use this patchbox…

 

[Nazgul58]

Here’s the cheekrest side and a Golcher lock from REDavis.View attachment 204114View attachment 204116Here’s the second to last gun I made…haven’t shot it yet …has a Getz barrel…View attachment 204117These are from scratch guns…I’ve been the luckiest ramrod hole driller that has ever lived…I sweat bullets when I drill a ramrod hole.

Thanks. Very nice work. My favorite style of rifle.

Don

 

[Patched]

Thanks. Very nice work. My favorite style of rifle.

Don

Thank you for kind comments.
My favorite style too…. I admire the slender rococo carved long rifles of early eastern young America ….but the no-nonsense stout looks of an iron mounted halfstock meant for the less gentile pursuits of the west has my gun lusting heart.

 

[Dobegrant]

Well my copy just arrived, quick glance I like all the pictures

 

[fred fellows]

BOB WOODFILL IS A FRIEND OF MINE AND I LOVE THAT BOOK...BET WITH YOUR ART BACKGROUND YOU LIKE THAT PAINTING IN THE BOOK OF THE KEEL BOAT COMING DOWN THE MISSOURIE I SEE YOUR IN IDAHO...MY FIRST STUDIO WAS ON LAKE PONDERAY IN IDAHO AT HOPE...THEN A CABIN ON BULL RIVER AT NOXON MONTANA THEN 40 YEARS ON NORTH END OF FLATHEAD LAKE AT BIGFORK....LOVE TO SEE YOUR RIFLE WHEN YOU GET IT DONE AND LOVE YOUR POST...FRED

 

[64Springer]

There are these things.....called lower case letters.

They work really well when placed after the capital letter that's used at the beginning of each sentence.

There's NO NEED TO SHOUT in all of your posts.

 

[Nazgul58]

Be careful, the grammar police are on duty.....

Don

 

[Tenring]

Was thinking of getting a Full Stock Hawken Flint kit from Jedediah Star , I have never personally ordered from them before so I can not attest to there service.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Hawkens we’re based on British platforms.

 

[fred fellows]

I feel that what floats your boat is all that matters, if one finds satisfaction in any endeavor, in the 21st century, and some relaxation,pride in going it your way a hearty here here for you and me. I am hunter MT just give us a small widow of opportunity to extend my time trekking around the mountains, and a friend give me a great deal to get back into BP it was meant to be. I don't over think anything anymore, the last 4 plus years in the medical field. Has changed our life's forever. Enjoy smell the smoke, look at a sky so bright it hurts your eyes,get the pride of hitting your mark, take with you what makes you Happy! The dear lord made the earth round so we couldn't see to far ahead, he knew we wanted want to go there.


Mtman725

like your thinking...40 years at bigfork montana on flathead lake...now in arizona on the border...not a light at nite...

 

[Wireforhire]

There are these things.....called lower case letters.

They work really well when placed after the capital letter that's used at the beginning of each sentence.

There's NO NEED TO SHOUT in all of your posts.

Maybe to Fred's eyes those letters aren't really that large. After 78 years I find that "shouting" either in writing or in the spoken word isn't really that loud. However, what I am waiting for and what will really piss me off, even worse, is when some twenty-something-year-old tells me he/or she can't read what I wrote because it's in cursive. WZ

 

[Mactechnic]

I would like to order Bob Woodfill’s book on the Hawken Rifle, but I find it is out of stock. Does anyone know if it will be restocked or reprinted, please?

 

[springfield art]

It's published by the NMLRA; check their website if you haven't already; caution: when I got my copy, someone had "hi-jacked" the site and offered the book at twice the normal price. (100 vs. 50). The graphics looked all OK, but it was fake. Be cautious. It's a great book by probably the most knowledgeable guy.

 

[reddogge]

I'm late to the Hawken party. In the late 70s I was Hawken crazy. I built a TC Hawken kit and it was a great shooter. I then bought and built in 1977 the kit from Ithaca and that turned out nice too. It was much more authentic than the first gun but the kit was short lived. It is bugging me that the lock panels are much too wide and not shaped correctly and I want to redo them. This would involve reshaping, restaining, and refinishing the lock areas on both sides of the gun. I'm not sure I want to get into this but I just did this very thing on a rifle I built last winter and it turned out pretty nice.

 

[springfield art]

Ahh! If only I could go back to the 1970's and buy a couple GRRW's!

 

[reddogge]

I also noted in Mr. Woodfill's Utube video he puts a sharp point on the front of the lock moldings and states that all Hawkens had this. I've seen a lot of photos of original S. Hawken rifles and none of them have this sharp point.

 

[ArmorerRoy]

"I watched a video by Ethan of “I love muzzleloading.” He talked about the number one obstacle to the growth of muzzleloading for the beginner. To summarize, he boiled it down to too many in the muzzleloading community being a jerk."

When I started learning about muzzle loading I went to the library and checked out books. That is where I learned, there was no www.

Folks can still do that by getting Ned Roberts book, Eric Bye's book, Walter Cline's book, etc. These author's are well respected in their fields. Unfortunately folks come here wanting instant gratification, they do not want to put forth the effort to learn.

I see it all the time here, folks ask where can I buy this or that, how do I do this, etc. They want someone else to tell them versus putting forth the effort themselves to solve their problems.

Jeremiah Johnson was an entertainment movie, not a documentary, accept it for what it was made for.

Muzzleloading people are not as bad as the HAM radio crowd. Those guys are insufferable

 

[springfield art]

I also noted in Mr. Woodfill's Utube video he puts a sharp point on the front of the lock moldings and states that all Hawkens had this. I've seen a lot of photos of original S. Hawken rifles and none of them have this sharp point.

I have no opinion at all, but Woodfill is kind of the national expert on these things so it would be interesting to see who is correct? (Again, I have no fish in this pond.) Not questioning you at all. It's good people are looking at details anymore in general.