Who makes a nice Hawken kit?

[Sniperdoc]

7-8 lbs, and you couldn't keep up with the orders

 

[Grenadier1758]

A Hawken rifle of 7 - 8 pounds would be one of the "Squirrel" rifles of 40 or 45 caliber, not a Plains rifle as many would expect.

I have seen a Gemmer rifle of 45 caliber which has the slimmed down architecture of a Plains rifle that would do very nicely.

As stated above, the Hawken is a very complex rifle that looks oh, so simple.

 

[Frontstuffer070]

The Lyman GPR is what 10lbs? But, woo doggie, I was surgical with that thing off hand. Lord have mercy, I don't know why I let it get away. So what's another pound or so? Kibler Hawken you say? I'm in, where's that waiting list. I MUCH prefer easily removing the barrel for cleaning. So I'm a huge fan wedges and hooked breech. And I too would much rather buy from US! Anyone ever ask how much of his kits are U.S. supplied / produced? I'm sure it's 100%, but curious nonetheless.

 

[ord sgt]

Hawken Shop or Track of the Wolf, both are good. I bought mine from ToW. A winter project. I use my version to introduce ladies to the wonder world of black powder firearms.

 

[VA Hawken]

Well, having more than a few Hawken replicas myself, I'm looking forward to seeing what the folks at Kibler come up with.

 

[wiscoaster]

Either of those would be better then Traditions!

Pretty much anything would be better than Traditions.

Kibler is in the process of bringing out a Hawken. Start saving up!

Yes, that's worth waiting for.

 

[olskool]

I have a Lyman GPR in 54, that is unfired, I had it for sale on here but no takers. yesterday I stripped it to the bone. I am going to reshape the stock to look like a real Hawkin. I stripped all the black/paint or whatever that was on the steal. I draw filed the barrel and also took off the ugly radicicols warning writing and such. I grey blued the parts today and will do the barrel tomorrow. I am basically doing a copy of what Bob Woodfill did in his video to the same gun a few months ago. I will start on the wood tomorrow. when I am done, I will sell it on this forum. so, stay tuned,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Frontstuffer070]

I have a Lyman GPR in 54, that is unfired, I had it for sale on here but no takers. yesterday I stripped it to the bone. I am going to reshape the stock to look like a real Hawkin. I stripped all the black/paint or whatever that was on the steal. I draw filed the barrel and also took off the ugly radicicols warning writing and such. I grey blued the parts today and will do the barrel tomorrow. I am basically doing a copy of what Bob Woodfill did in his video to the same gun a few months ago. I will start on the wood tomorrow. when I am done, I will sell it on this forum. so, stay tuned,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Dang it OLSKOOL!! REALLY?? Dangle the carrot much? I will be anxiously awaiting the pics of that beauty.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Some of my thoughts based on the display of Hawken rifles and other contemporary makers led to some observations.

I have often railed at T/C for their rendering of a "Hawken" rifle. There was no resemblance to the deceptively simple architecture of the Plains rifles with their large calibers and iron hardware. After three years of participating in the Hawken Classic events in St. Charles Missouri and looking at the displays of Hawken rifles and contemporary makers, I have come to realize that the Hawken Brothers and their successors at the Hawken Shop in St. Louis made a diverse offering of rifles. In fact, many of the Hawken "squirrel" rifles have a similar look with the half stock, single barrel wedge and brass hardware to the T/C Hawken rifle. Dimmick small caliber rifles and Gemmer (sometimes marked Hawken) rifles have similar brass hardware to the T/C rifle. I am coming to speculate that the rifle that was used by T/C to design their "Hawken" rifle was one of the Hawken squirrel rifles built for economical modern manufacturing and since the metal for barrel steel was more able to support a 45 or 50 caliber bore for modern deer hunting. At the same time T/C and Lyman collaborated on the design of the Maxi-Ball (as everybody just knew that round balls weren't effective hunting bullets). The 36 and 32 caliber Hawken rifles still had large across the flats tapered barrels for target and short hunting trips. T/C used straight barrels and used 45 and 50 caliber barrels along with the 1 in 48 twist used originally by the Hawken brothers and most other rifle makers. That twist was also a reasonable twist for the Maxi-Ball to engrave in the shallow button rifling. The shallow rifling didn't help round ball performance but would work at an acceptable level of performance.

I would hope that when T/C starts up the traditional line of muzzleloaders that they keep to a traditional rifle. One with iron hardware similar to the iron hardware used in the modern Hawken Shop iron hardware upgrade kit would be nice. While this still won't be a truly authentic Hawken Plains rifle, it should still be welcome.

There were also a couple of rifles, I think by Gemmer and perhaps Dimmick that other than the caliber (36 and 32?) would have passed as a CVA Mountain rifle. The barrels were longer and they used a snailed chambered breech rather than a drum and nipple.

So modern manufacturers could make a traditional rifle based on existing examples.