Thompson Center Arms Hawken 45 calibre

[bubba_50]

the beautiful Thompson-Center 45cal in your pix is a Seneca which as a general rule here in the states goes for quite a bit more coin than does the Hawken.

[PetahW]

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FYI - The early versions of both the T/C Hawken & the T/C Seneca were unmarked (barrel roll-stamping) as to which model they were, so the best way to determine exactly what rifle's on hand would be to measure the rifle.

T/C Hawken's were made in .45, .50 & .54 caliber, all had 28" barrels (measured from the muzzle to the forward end of the patent breech - look for the joint just ahead of the ignition)  that measure either 15/16" or 1" across-the-flats.
Hawken's had heavy barrels, full-size locks & full-sized stocks that look identical to Seneca parts, but will measure differently, and are not interchangeable.
Some Hawken parts are available from T/C & aftermarket vendors.

T/C Seneca's were made (only) in .32, .36, & .45 caliber, all with 27" barrels that measure 13/16" across-the-flats.
Seneca's had lighter/slimmer barrels & smaller/slimmer locks & stocks (compared to a Hawken model).
Almost no Seneca parts are available, since the separate T/C buildings that made the guns (Cherokee, Partiot, Seneca) burnt to the ground, leaving no parts, design plans, or special machinery use for those downsized guns.


Below are my two Seneca rifles (a .36 & a .45)







I hope everybody had a safe & happy 4th of July !  .  



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[Mike in Oz]

the beautiful Thompson-Center 45cal in your pix is a Seneca which as a general rule here in the states goes for quite a bit more coin than does the Hawken.

Hey bubba,

Do you mean my Hawken?

[bubba_50]

call it what you will but, the gun in the picture at the top of this post is a T/C Seneca. and looks to be a nice one at that. if you look carefully at PetahW's pix you can see it's exactly the same. your barrel will be 13/16ths by 27 inches whereas the Hawken barrel is 15/16ths by 28 inches the Hawken patchbox, triggerguard, and nosecap are also different from the gun pictured. easy to tell the difference once you've seen them side-by-side.

and again, at least here in the states, a Seneca will command quite a bit better price than a Hawken on average.

[Mike in Oz]

call it what you will but, the gun in the picture at the top of this post is a T/C Seneca. and looks to be a nice one at that. if you look carefully at PetahW's pix you can see it's exactly the same. your barrel will be 13/16ths by 27 inches whereas the Hawken barrel is 15/16ths by 28 inches the Hawken patchbox, triggerguard, and nosecap are also different from the gun pictured. easy to tell the difference once you've seen them side-by-side.

and again, at least here in the states, a Seneca will command quite a bit better price than a Hawken on average.

Cool!

I'll have to get my calculator out to go from imperial to metric but thats really quite interesting!

So what does a Seneca like mine go for in the US? And apart from being a little lighter and shorter was there any other significant differences?

[Mike in Oz]

Yep 27" exactly.

Unfortunately I don't have an old imperial measure (all mine are metric) so I'll take it as read that it's 13/16ths...

Also as an update to this thread, I got my paperwork through and have been banging away like a champion!

Now I've hit an ammo shortage drama where the entire state has run out of black powder.... Stupid .gov "helping" again....

So a mate is going to teach me how to grind my supply of 1F powder into 3F powder.

Should be all sorts of exciting.

[Mike in Oz]

Well grinding 1F powder to something approximating 3F was all sorts of nerve racking..... 0.0

It consisted of an old hand cranked coffee grinder and about an hour of sweaty palms and twitching!

But we got there in the end.

I'll update the thread later after i've had a chance to try it out.

(FYI shooting 1F powder out of a .45 rifle sucks. the fouling is just insane and the fouling itself is a total pain in the arse to clean out).

[PetahW]

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A .45 Seneca, since it was the most common Seneca bore, will usually trade hands in the $500USD range, in excellent condition.

The smaller bore Seneca's come somewhat more dearly - like +50% (+/-)


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