DGW Hawken flint kit assembly

[RobD]

well, the DGW Hawken caplock was a fun exercise, but caplocks have proven not to be my choice for an ml so i sold it off to a good home in california.  ordered and received the .50 flint version yesterday morning and spent a few hours rasping and sanding down the stock to meet the brass furniture i screwed into it.  i don't spend any particular time on the brass, just clean up the flashing if any, and if it gets in the way of files and abrasives it'll get buffed around a bit.  after both coarse and fine rasping, i got at the wood with 60, 150 and 220 grit, followed by a 0000 steel wool buffing.  'tween sandings i raised the grain with a paper towel saturated in naphtha (lighter fluid).  i buffed, stained and clear coated the ramrod, now the walnut stock's ready for staining with a first coat of LMF lancaster maple, then deepening with LMF walnut.  whilst the stain will be curing, i'll see about pulling off the patent breech plug, cleaning it all out and then screwing it back in with anti-seize lube.  

you can also see in the pic below that i've once again replaced the notch 'n' blade sights with the GPR peep set.

i don't like patent breech plugs, wish they'd not do that, just a pain to deal with for cleaning out fouling whilst shooting and then the final clean up.

[Keb]

A good thing about this gun is you can easily remove the barrel after shooting and stick the breech end in a bucket of hot water. Then pump out that nasty crud with a good swab on the end of your stainless range rod. That pretty much makes the only bad point with the patented breech is getting it dry before shooting. It has been an effective system for years, IMHO.

[RobD]

yep, the beauty of half stocks with barrel wedges is fast removal.  i'm getting to really like that.  i wish there were better commercial choices for a good half stock with a longer barrel than the investarms offerings.  

anyhoo, back to the assembly.  after putting a witness mark across the barrel and patent breech, i pulled the breech plug.  it was relatively easy - nothing like an 18" rcorp reed flat jawed wrench for pulling breach plugs - and *mandatory* for me with new guns.  look at all that crap in the chamber and breech tunnel, yikes!  cleaned it all out with WD40 and and patches - with the plug out, swabbing can be done safely from the barrel's rear.  put 'er all back together with anti-seize on the breech and flash hole sleeve.  gave the stock a good coat of LMF "walnut" stain (which has a pleasing amount of red in it) and then it's first coat of wipe-on clear.  

[RobD]

all done, that was relatively easy.  finished up with a rubbed in coat of johnson's paste wax.  feels good in the hand.  ready to rumble.

[Riley/MN]

[greyhunter]

Nicely done.

[RobD]

fwiw, i intentionally did not flare in the lock plate relief found on both sides of the wrist.  i just like that beefy kinda look.

had problems with the hammer steel sparking - adjusted the super sharp english flint to no avail.  thought i had polished the hammer's face well, but went at it again and brought it up to a near mirror gloss ... wow, what a difference!  literally a shower of sparks.  i'm liking this rifle even mo' bettah now!

[RobD]

click image below for flintlock firing sequence.

each frame lasts 2 seconds, total video time is 28 seconds.

total real time is just about one second.

look at the lock, then when the smoke clears look at the muzzle, then look what emanates out the barrel.  

[rollingb]

Cool video!!!!!!!!  

[Bigsmoke]

That's what the breech looked like on a new gun? Must be really humid over Italy way I reckon.

yup, brandy new and fulla crud.  whooda thunk.  THIS is why i won't have an ml that i can't pull the breech plug.  :rotf  :rotf    

[Roaddog]

Thanks for sharing that with us. Ya did a nice job and a dang good lookn rifle ta boot.

[Hanshi]

Awesome video.  

[ridjrunr]

Neat video! Thanks for showing