T/C Hawken Stock Lock Mortice

[kencolamarino]

I've got a stock from a T/C Hawken cap lock rifle. If I get a current T/C flint lock, will the lock fit the lock mortice and be in the correct position for the liner on a flintlock barrel?

 

[Pittsburghunter]

Yep. The tang should match up as well. just make sure the barrel is the same size on the flats.

 

[roundball]

I've got a stock from a T/C Hawken cap lock rifle. If I get a current T/C flint lock, will the lock fit the lock mortice and be in the correct position for the liner on a flintlock barrel?

You asked two questions...I've converted several caplock Hawken stocks to Flint...and some I could not, so I'll explain:

1) Depending on the age of the caplock stock that you have, you may need to do some additional tweaking inside the lock mortise to get the Flintlock assembly to 'drop-in' to a caplock mortise. After a certain point in time it seems TC went from two separate lock motise inletting operations to a single generic one, and in those stocks both locks just drop in interchangably.

2) The vent hole on a flint barrel may or may not line up correctly with the pan...you just have to see...on the ones that I converted no two of them are in exactly the same place...and two I simply could not do as the vent hole was way too far back of the pan (out of tolerance tang location).

In my personal experience TC has had a lot of manufacturing tolerance variations in its Hawken stocks over the years that causes these problems...same thing trying to "drop-in" a GM "drop-in" barrel...on some Hawken stocks they will drop right in, but other stocks have to be fiddled with to accept the barrel.

Best thing to do is mount a flint barrel in the stock then hold a lock in place to see where the vent lines up and you'll know.

 

[Pittsburghunter]

1) Depending on the age of the caplock stock that you have, you may need to do some additional tweaking inside the lock mortise to get the Flintlock assembly to 'drop-in' to a caplock mortise. After a certain point in time it seems TC went from two separate lock motise inletting operations to a single generic one, and in those stocks both locks just drop in interchangably.

2) The vent hole on a flint barrel may or may not line up correctly with the pan...you just have to see...on the ones that I converted no two of them are in exactly the same place...and two I simply could not do as the vent hole was way too far back of the pan (out of tolerance tang location).

That is good to know I have not had that problem but I have only messed around with a couple and they went together fine.

Was the flash pan too big or was it something internal on the lock you had to carve out for?

 

[roundball]

If a mortise had to be dealt with, there seemed to be three common areas involved:

1) Because a caplock had to be aligned with the nippple which was outboard of the mortise, TCs fitting/alignment priorities never really had to be too concerned with internal fittings against the breech, so the over all most common problem is that the caplock mortise wouldn't let the Flint lock assemblies come in deep enough to mate/seal tight against the side of the breechplug/barrel to prevent powder from getting down into the internals of the lock...I've had to remove a good 1/16" of the wood 'ledge' all around the perimeter of the lock mortise to get the lock in deeper;

2) Then I've found that the inside edge of the fence would barely hit against the leading edge of the wood that tapers down from the top of the tang area and had to cut/shave/dremel off 1/16" - 1/8" of the wood's leading edge so the fence would slide all the way in against the side of the breech plug.

3) And there is a small shaped 'pillar' of wood I call it, that sits just forward of where the bridle plate and screws slide down into the mortise and it sometimes interferes...won't let the lock settle in far enough to seal against the side of the breech/barrel...I've had to reduce around this circumference of this pillar with a dremel tool to get clearance to let the lock slide in;

Most all the stocks I had to work on were those distinctive shaped early style stocks from the 70s & early 80s, leading me to conclude that they had two distinctively different inletting operations, one caplock & one flintlock...then in later years the locks seem to drop in OK so it seems they went to a genric or more spacious inletting operation to accommodate both.