TC Hawken differences?

[MountainDevil]

Guys, I took on a refinish job for a friend and his then .45cal TC Hawken kit rifle. He bought another kit gun with a cracked stock but it had a like new .40cal GM barrel and so we put that on the good Hawken stock.

Question, the cracked stock hawken had that "burl" like pattern in the walnut, its butt plate is much longer and shaped differently than the hawken with the good stock. The bad stocks patch box also looks like same yet does not fix into the other stock, its thicker and so it sticks out more. The bad stock also has a MUCH thicker "bushing" that the lock screw goes though. Triggers and lock are also different.

I'd assume due to the "burl" like pattern in the cracked stock, it's quite  a bit older than the current good stock? Anyone have a clue when TC changed so much on these rifles?

I've already got the .40cal barrel mounted into the freshly finished stock along with the trimming. I plan on selling off the parts on an auction later down the load, I just want to figure out what exactly the difference between these 2 kit guns are.

[greyhunter]

The early TC's were made in New Hampshire by the company of that name. These were finely made and many had fine figured walnut stocks.  Until recently, they were owned by Smith and Wesson I believe, and as a result suffered inferior wood/workmanship and overall quality. The Hawkens are no longer made, or any trad style muzzies, only inlines now by TC. Hang on to the old, the new no longer shines!

[MountainDevil]

Well another deal, the cracked stocks trigger guard looks the same, yet is shorter than the other hawken's trigger guard! Its killing me not knowing what the hecks going on lol.

[Bigsmoke]

I think the big turning point with the T/C's was when there was a huge fire at their plant.  Thousands of potential gun stocks went up in smoke.
I think the company lost its heart with that, and the bean counters took control and that was that.  
Then they started doing business with the devil (Mal-Wart).
Then they sold out to S & W.
As to your question about the different parts dimensions, I don't have a clue about that.  But it would stand to reason that after the thousands of rifles they made the tooling would start to wear, and with the bean counters in control, putting less material into a part would effect the P & L.
As least they didn't off shore them to China.
John