These are great rifles and give a decent hawken appearance. I have had the privilege of seeing, holding, even disassembling authenticated rifles made by the Hawken Shop. There are differences, mostly arising from the fact that these are mass produced and everything is interchangeable with no fitting, something one does not see on hand made items.
They were made by Aldo Uberti as noted in the article posted by
@kelvinator and
@jimairwin above.
The Jedidiah Smith Rifle was a promotional series that they ran, as they did a couple of these for other products, I almost bought one but was turned back by the fact that the Serial numbers on the rifle and the series number of the Jed Smith Rifles didn't match. So I ordered a kit from my friend at the local gun store.
and was really pleased at what I got. The Serial number was 0198 and it was practically in the white requiring very little fitting. It runs at 32 balls to the pound, somewhere on the close order of .533 calibre.
I do not know if all of the rifles were sent to Western Arms as parts in the white and assembled in New Mexico or not. The gun club I was associated with bought a number of the kits that were assembled by the above store owner and myself and raffled off to raise money, none of the ones we purchased were at the same level of assembly. It was almost like when they got an order for a kit they just stopped working on whatever rifle was currently in production at the time and threw it in a box and mailed it out.
While it weighs a bit, it shoots really well. In fact today it shoots with more accuracy than I can with the eyes I have now. Just another one of those things that comes with advanced age and makes me
Mad Michael.