Hawken Advice

ChromeArty

ChromeArty

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I've been wanting to get an ol timey muzzle loader for some time now (years)... and after reading Crow Killer, it's gotta be a Hawken. I'm not fussy on caliber, I have lots of lead and can get a mould and pour my own.

But I don't want to wind up with a piece of junk.

Thompson and Mavi are the two makes I've found that don't cost a fortune... are they to be avoided? If so, what should I look for?

Thanks pilgrims ;)
 
Traditions and T/C are good options. Never owned a Lyman. Had a few real crappy Spanish no-name guns.

Started with a T/C and eventually ended up with a T/C after trying others. Had no issues with the Traditions I had other than the tang was too short to mount a peep sight. I liked the nipple bbl access screw on the Traditions that my current T/C doesn't have.

Something to consider is that the T/C Hawkens are no longer supported, so parts and accessories are a bit of a crap shoot.

M
 
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Browning Mountain Rifle has very nice set trigger on it.
Be forewarned though it's discontinued. When it's mainspring broke, L&R lock company had a tremendous turnaround and delivery of three weeks in December.
That's got to be some kind of record.
Info.
 
ChromeArty said:
There is a Great Plains Lyman in the EE... but the guy is asking 1700 for it! I'm not sure what they got for... but that's ridiculous! You can buy a Chevy Tracker for that much!
Click to expand...

I bought a very nice Great Plains with peep sight off of the EE less than a year ago for I think $450.00.

Hawkens made by Investarms are well built guns. They make rifles for Lyman and Cabelas as well as a few others. You will generally find an Investarms branded gun cheaper than the Lyman.
 
gnmontey said:
Traditions and T/C are good options. Never owned a Lyman. Had a few real crappy Spanish no-name guns.

Started with a T/C and eventually ended up with a T/C after trying others. Had no issues with the Traditions I had other than the tang was too short to mount a peep sight. I liked the nipple bbl access screw on the Traditions that my current T/C doesn't have.

Something to consider is that the T/C Hawkens are no longer supported, so parts and accessories are a bit of a crap shoot.

M
Click to expand...

Sorry for my ignorance, but is a T/C a Thompson?
 
My brother has been shooting a Traditions Hawkens 50 cal. flintlock for over ten years. Never an issue with the gun. It looks good. It is fairly well built. I would say go for a similar one.

Kevin
 
If you are looking for a true ( Hawken Style ) rifle the Lyman Great Plains, & Pedersoli Hawken qualify.
Most rifles called ( Hawken ) are more ( Leman Style ) like the T/C Hawken etc.
Just some thing to keep in mind if you want a rifle like Jeremiah carried.
 
Lyman Great Plains rifle or T/C Hawken, T/C Renegade will both serve well, as has been said already. Note that the GPR has a 1:60 slow twist barrel for round ball, while the Thompson Center Hawken and Renegade came with a compromise 1:48 twist that shoots roundball and short bullets well. That means you can shoot sabot pistol bullets like the Hornady 240 grain XTP for hunting. The longer sabot bullets will not stabilize in a 1:48 twist.
While T/C Hawken is out of production there are lots of them out there, and aftermarket barrels and stocks are also available.
I shot a Whitetail deer again this year, with my 25 year old T/C Hawken.
 
The Lyman rifles are real good. I used a .50 Lyman Deerstalker for 20 years, and then a Lyman trade rifle in .54 for a few years, and filled my tags every year. Patched round balls worked best, and the .54 really hits a whitetail hard. I would still be using the .54 if my eyes hadn't got to the point of needing a scope. I now use a scoped inline.
 
Build ONE!! :)

Get a copy of the plan before hand - https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/822/1/PLAN-HAWKEN?PageSize=100

A couple of excellent books to get you started:

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/821/2/BOOK-RAL

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/821/1/BOOK-GGC

Things to think about if you are looking at a kit. That $400USD "extra fancy" maple stock may not be as fancy as you have in your head... I recently bought a slab of curly maple for about $400 CAD that is enough material for at least 4 long rifles, 6 hawken ...

If you put a parts list together yourself you might not be much further ahead than the kit. But a lot of that stuff you can make or source domestically (stock for example) - also Rice barrels come with a fitted breech plug, so that's a big job you don't have to worry about.

Here's some build pics of my Jaeger 'inspired' rifle - either get you excited about your own build or scare you away completely.
(I hope you like filing, grinding and polishing ... cause there is a lot of it!!)


Some early progress. That is some of the curly maple I bought - it's 100% tight curl end to end ... which you don't see a lot in kit guns.
jager-10-14-18-001.jpg


The list I made for the finishing bits... still working on that.
jager-10-14-18-004.jpg


Making my own node cap.
jager-10-14-18-003.jpg


In hindsight, I probably would have been better off buying one, it was a lot of work and not a great deal of fun. (brass is expensive!!)
jager-10-14-18-007.jpg


But it turned out pretty good in the end.
jager-10-14-18-006.jpg


An R.E Davis double set trigger. Can't tell you how much I am impressed with the quality. This showed up as a rough casting, it has been filed, polished and flame blued at this point.
jager-10-14-18-005.jpg


An early test fit, temporary pins holding in the trigger guard.
jager-10-14-18-008.jpg


The lock is also an R.E. Davis lock, it also shows up as a rough casting that needs to be filed & polished, but it was already set up and tuned. This also got flame blued.
jager-10-14-18-010.jpg


Same lock.
jager-10-14-18-011.jpg



The other nice thing about building your own is that if you don't like the results, either sell it ~or~ scrap the stock and start again! Parts are still recoverable :)

(and if you make your own gun, you get a gold star on your man card)
 
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