Thompson center hawken 1"48

[nkbj]

How in the world did the Hawken brothers standard twist become such an industry standard a century and a half later?

 

[NorthFork]

@Cody2306

The CVA Gamester/Bobcat and Traditions Deerhunter are all VERY similar rifles that were made by Ardesa in Spain. The Deerhunter is the only one still being made. Here are the cold hard facts as I see them-

Cons-
Cheaply made
Depending on when it was made you get cheap plastic sights
Not HC/PC by any stretch of the imagination
Short sight radius
Light overall weight can be punishing with heavy loads
Light overall weight can make offhand shooting more difficult

Pros-
Probably the most inexpensive new muzzleloader on the market today
Light weight makes it a joy to carry afield
There are several high quality replacement sight options available
Can be very accurate with a little load development
Traditions backs these rifles with a decent warranty and there are replacement parts everywhere
Surprisingly durable for the cost
Mine have been dead on, 100% reliable from day one

I think the best use of these rifles is deer hunting or hunting in general. You don't cry when you scratch them, short and light weight is a joy in the woods, can shoot either conicals or round balls accurately. My Gamester is a more traditional looking rifle with a wood stock and blued steel with primitive type iron sights. The Deerhunter has a synthetic camo stock and a dull nickle finished barrel. Most certainly NOT traditional looking but it is 'foul weather proof'. I've taken deer with both. Even though I have nicer rifles, these two have a place on the rack and will never be for sale.

 

[nkbj]

Cody, this isn't the regular way of developing a load for a TC but it's what I witnessed back in the 70's before I ever even had one so here goes.

The basic idea was to make a load that did what you wanted it to do, the case in point being a maxed out hunting load. What my brother did with his TC was go right up to bordering on maximum powder charge for round ball per the TC manual and then find out what it took for his rifle to shoot accurately with such a charge. He stuck with .01 under bore diameter round ball. He tried different patch thicknesses, various patch lubes and over powder paper, card or patch until it jelled. Then he was picking the heads off of little animals for practice until deer season rolled around.

Hope you enjoy your rifle. Have a blast!

 

[nkbj]

Deerhunters have the advantages of good rifling, accuracy potential, relative low cost and light weight handiness. And, if your vision is becoming a problem you can find octagonal shaped compression clamp mounts to put a pistol scope on the barrel just in front of the stock that don't interfere with the ram rod. I have one set up that way because I always wanted me one of those scary* black rifles.
*Those snow flakes are shooting their dinky little .223's but mines an honest fifty cal!

 

[Cody2306]

Northfork thanks for the detailed right up

 

[Grenadier1758]

How in the world did the Hawken brothers standard twist become such an industry standard a century and a half later?

The 1 in 48 twist works to stabilize round balls when the load is developed for the rifle. The Hawken brothers and many others used deep grooves for the patches to enter and minimize gas leakage and hold the ball properly tightly to the lands.

You had an accurate rifle using a modest powder charge and a good grip of the ball when using heavy charges.

Basically it became the standard because that twist rate worked very well.