Tracks Flintlock Kit

I was a "fancy wood" person for 'bout 15 years, but now other folks own'em,... and I currantly only build rifles thet look like "they are ready to go to work"!! (guess I've come "full-circle", or, found appreciation for a "work'n-man's gun"!!!)

"Plain", or, "fancy",.... they'er ALL "purty"!!

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by tg:
Out of curiosity has anyone looked into what kind of wood was common or used/not used on the Hawken originals? I have never really looked into these guns very closely. Great question TG:

I started looking at places that have Hawken originals, like the Nebraska museum and Mountain Man museum, ect, this is what I found so far...

The stock was sturdy and some of the models favored extra wood where the forestock would rest on the pommel of a saddle.

Hawkens built between 1830 and 1840 were often stocked with walnut.

The Hawken Shop of Oak Harbor, Washington offers a plain maple stock with three wood upgrades in fancyness...

The Hawken rifle in the Museum of Westward Expansion was made in St. Louis. It is a .54 caliber weapon with a maple wood half-stock.

 

[Darkhorse]

I seriously considered the full stock Hawken and the barrel I decided on was the Green Mountain. Reasons being it would probably be more accurate than I can hold it, and I wasn't building a benchrest rifle.
Also, I like the slower twist in a hunting rifle. I believe it will shoot the heavier charges better. Some will disagree with that last statement but that is my feeling and I'm sticking to it.

 

[lonewolf5347]

TraderMike seem these guys here covered all the bases to your question.I sent you a PM on the PA forum

 

[Deadeye]

The only plain ones that I have are ones that someone else made. I like it when you show someone a gun you just built and they say "Holy Moley that's the most beautiful gun I ever saw."
as opposed to the plain one where they say" Hey, what's the weather going to be this weekend?"
Deadeye

 

[Haggis]

What IS the weather going to be this weekend?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Too darned cold.

"He found a place where a Cedar tree grew up near the cliff and said he was going to drop his rifle down on some Mountain Laurel and then climb down the Cedar tree; which he did."

That's why I carry 30 ft of hemp line and a leather tie-on gun sling in my haversack.

"I like it when you show someone a gun you just built and they say "Holy Moley that's the most beautiful gun I ever saw."

I usually get "You gonna hold that squaw-wood all day or toss it on the fire?" Or sometimes "What in tarnation is that and how big was the cat that gacked it up?" Or: "Hey look, it's got a hole in the one end just like a rifle."

I've got a shooting bag I put a lot of time and effort into to fancy it up. Last time I was at a shoot with it one of the segundos started whacking me on that side and yelling "HELP! A giant tarantula has this poor pilgrim by the neck!"

I take some comfort in that I don't think Dan'l Boone, Jedediah Smith (born just down the road) or Davey Crockett built their own pieces, so I'm being period correct by leaving that to them as can do.

Now If I could just keep the zipper on my breechclout from sticking up in this durned cold weather.

 

[Haggis]

I'm going to fess up to something here and I hope it don't scare folks off..., well, not too far off.

I've been to about three Rendezvous type meetings in my nearly forty year love affair with front stuffers; and I came as a tourist even then. Never been to Friendship, don't hang out with folks who frequent such places.

I've shot muzleloaders because it pleased me, and I shoot the guns that please me. My wife of 32 years is always on me to join something or another, but I never have. I've made my own buckskin clothing, built my own guns, learned to build fires with flint and steel, read every book that I could get my hands on about the history of muzzleloaders and their users.

But no Rendezvous where someone might have something to say about what I'm wearing or carrying. Maybe that has had some impact on making me durned independent about some stuff.

I love trapping, hunting, fishing, camping, swapping enhanced truths around a campfire, but never attended a Rendezvous as a participant.

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Haggis:
But no Rendezvous where someone might have something to say about what I'm wearing or carrying.I don't blame you one bit, I had a BAD experience at Friendship, (I since questioned the naming of the town) the people at the Rendezvous treated me and my wife like dirt...

They were rude and stuck their noses up in the air at us, this was in 1982 and I never went back...

But I don't need a special place to go to enjoy muzzleloading, I don't have to be P.C. or even try to be...

As long as I enjoy what effort I put into it, then I'm happy...

 

[TwoShadows]

Gosh fellows, I sure hate to hear you both had bad experiences at rendezvous. Once in a great while you run into an a...hole, but as a general rule folks are much like on here. I have made many good and lasting friendships camping with folks from all over the country. wandering and looking at all the foo-fer-aw for sale....nighttime fires and singing from a camp a few fires over....meeting friends from different place is a great time for me and Little Bit ( my bride of 41+).

Right now we are doing the last minute gathering and loading of our gear to head out of the snow here to south central Florida to the Alafia Rendezvous. There we will camp and enjoy the company of friends from all over. Cotton from Northern Michigan...John/Alvin/Cheryl etc from Florida...Tip from Tennessee...folks from all over that I only get to see at Rendezvous.

I'm gonna look up Wick Ellerbe that posts here often...he has told me right where to look for his camp. It will be a treat to meet him.

I sympathize with the bad experiences, but it is worth it to me to wade through a few bad apples to find the really nice ones who can share so much experience and spend time around the fire with.

 

[Birddog6]

Well, it is very unfortuate that you had a bad experience at Friendship. I go at least once a year & try to make it twice a year if at all possible. People have always treated me real nice & I have gotten some great deal on parts there also.
I always enjoy a chat with Tip Curtis & Jim Chambers, Wayne Dunlap, & several regular venders that attend & really enjoy looking at all the guns & parts & etc. You can get a hands On look at the wares the venders have rather than a catalog look.
Also I usually meet up with a couple of friends from up north that I only get to see at Friendship, and we show each other our new toys & etc..
I think it is a wonderful place & look forward to going each year. I am sorry you had a bad experience there.

 

[Haggis]

I think I mentioned that I've never been to Friendship, as for the other times I've visited folks were always cordial. I've just always keep to myself. I play the bagpipes and belong to the Maison's but never joined our local pipe and drums. I don't go to the meetings either.

It's just that I keep to myself, it's been that way since I got out of the Army in '71. I do like to visit on-line in these forums; I've encountered some durn nice folks.

 

[Haggis]

Maison's? My French is showing; I ment to write Mason's.

 

[TwoShadows]

Hag, didja know that the Masonic Grand Lodge has approved a degree called the "Beaver Lodge" and is a sanctioned travelling lodge that meets at major Rendezvous? I usually attend the one held at the Alafia rendezvous in Florida every year...sat in one at Ft de Chartrez in Ilinois country last spring...good people.

 

[tg]

Most folks at events are ok but there are always a few with their noses in the air and these are the ones that I have found to have the least amount of knowledge about history in general,I had one guy ask rather rudely what I was wearing on my head once.. (a hat made by simply folding and triming and sewing with Elk sinew a Beaver kit pelt that was tawed".. he harumphed something about PC and how things were done in the past as he leaned on his NW gun with primo maple stock in .62 cal while wearing a factory made coyote
faced hat and wearing Tandy gold leathers from a period in time that I was totaly unfamiliar with.. (12th century Mongol maybe?) we chatted for a while about history and this and that and he left still muttering unpleasant comments under his breath.

 

[Birddog6]

Well, you know how it goes..... If ya didn't have an a$$hole around the rest of the gang wouldn't appear so great ! ha ha !
There is always one in every crowd & sometimes we get lucky & he can't attend ! ha ha !

 

[Haggis]

TwoShadows
Never heard of the Beaver Lodge but it sounds interesting. I don't think I ever met a Mason who wasn't good folks.

I got my son through the Blue Lodge a few years ago; it was a proud day for me.

 

[TraderMike]

I would like to thank you all for all the help and information regarding the Tracks kit I intend to build.
I think I will be useing the Green Mountain barrel in .50 cal. and the extra fancy tiger stripe maple for the stock.
I now only have to convince my wife of how important it is that I spend $650.00 for a rifle kit. Now the real work begins....
Thanks again.

 

[djnye]

to quote groucho marx; "i never wanted to join any club that would have me as a member."

musketman, i am very sorry to hear of your bad experience. i wish that had never happened and i wish it never does again because i also hope you might give them another chance.

i also started out on a bad note when i attended the spring shoot there last year. when i first arrived i didn't know where to go and one of the security officers told me that if i wasn't a member, or willing to pay the admission fee, i would be asked to leave. kicked out after driving 800 miles to get there. but he was just one person and after going to the main business office and finding an ear there, the folks treated me wonderfully--way more than i deserve. by the end of the day they had supplied me with my own key to the rear gate so i could come and go when i please!!!!!!!!!!

if you love the smell of black powder you have to love the place. i talked to two fellows who flew over the site in a small plane and they said they could smell the powder at 3500 ft.

anyway, i can't wait to go back. closest thing to something i would like to join since cub scouts.

take care, daniel

 

[musketman]

The bad part about it was that I was a member of the NMLRA at the time...

I only have to drive 320 miles, but that's not the point either...

I guess I should give it another chance, maybe this summer...