Well simply put , the plains rifle was basically a heavy barreled half stock rifle made by many different makers .
Leman , Henry , Derringer and countless others made such rifles .
The differences come in shaping and hardware and barrel choices .
At first glance they are all near the same and thus today most any half stock is called a Hawkens Rifle. But in fact they are not.
See Hawkens was a maker not a style of rifle .
As such they had their own distinct characteristics which can be seen in the trigger guards , butt plates , drop of the stock , lines of the stock as well as lock choices .
What set Hawkens guns above others was their reputation for quality .
However simply put what they were making was a Plains rifle also know a sporting rifle . A style not specifically unique to Hawkens.
How should I put this
?/”thinking “
See rifle design have a lineage that depicts a given set of characteristics.
That linage comes from the old schools . So while lets say a given rifle may be a Derrick , Isaac Haines , Bevin’s ….. even though those rifles are in ways unique to those makers . They are still classified by a school or area . IE Lancaster or one of the other schools which had their own traits that were distinctly their own .
So when we see a half stock rifle we aren’t necessarily see Hawkens because people were not copying or using a Hawkens style. What they were doing was they same thing Hawkens was doing IE using a sporting / plains rifle design with their one distinct twist and quality
here is a quick link that may help you understand what im struggling to get across .
as you look at all these rifles , Note that None are Hawkens guns . yet today , with very little acceptation , many folks would call them Hawkens , even though they are not .
simply put a person could place an actual Hawkens made rifle into this list and unless a person was reading the documentation or new the distinct and subtle characteristics that were common to Hawkens the maker , a person would not know the difference by looking at the photo.
So what we are left with is again Hawkens being a maker NOT a school of design
http://www.texasguntrade.com/texassportingrifles.htmso now the real question ; did the Hawkens brothers make a flintlock , half stock rifle in their shop ?
some say yes , others say no .
so it just depends on what side of the fence you fall on .
but if we realize that Hawkens wasn’t doing anything design wise that was truly and completely unique as far as style goes . Then the question is ; were there half stock plains and sporting rifles . To that question the answer is a clear Yes
