Building a new Hawken, advice?

[Captchee]

no problem jack . sometimes things can come across  in a bad way. no foul here  

[mark davidson]

Jack,  Certainly no problem and no foul for me. I appreciate the discussion. I even enjoy the heated debate at times cause it often leads to some real interest and real research and good information. I too have a lot of respect for the knowlegable folks here. Everyone seems to have something to contribute. As Charles said, things are hard to read in plain black and white when the kind face of the typist is not visible. Things get taken out of context. We all mean well, even me! :-)  We are just passionate about what we are playing with here. Without the intensity in discussion it would be boring.

[tg]

"I have never been to a rendezvous so I do not yet understand the concept of a new shooter being scolded for not being "correct enough."

I doubt that you will wander into that type of camp, the biggest threat of being "Jumped on" is when someone trys to make unfounded claims about theri gear, others gear or most anthing in general that is off base and being presented as kosher.Even then most will offer corrections with the references to back them up.Not trying to talk you out of a Hawken but there atre some early flintlocks that shoot very well in the larger bores below is my Chambers smoothrifle it weighs 9lb with a 42"barrel the IsaccHiane or any similar gun with a 38" barrel would be a bit less and they are made for the large bores with wide deep butstocks not far removed  in handling from the German Jaegars which had some influence in the developement odf the American longrifle I don't want to get into the oversimplified "the Jaeger evolved into the Kentucky longrifle "thing now that is another several pages of info and theory.

[tg]

Where did you find a tC Hawken in 1969? did it have a case colored irontrigger guard? just curious, all the old references I have list Dec. 1970 as the intorduction date for the TC Hawken?

[medbill]

Your building exactly what my next Hawken is going to be.  

I one just like you speak of but it was only a .54 cal but a beauty made by John Bergmann.

Right now Steve Zihn has a .62 half stock on his work bench with my name on it.  When it gets here I'll post lots of pics and along with a range report.

Probably won't get to having my dream fullstock hawken flint built for a year or two but its on the bucket list.

Good luck and have a rifle built the way you want it built and don't look back.

Billy

[mark davidson]

Actually, I am kinda "squirreling" back and forth between flintlock and percussion for my Hawken project.  It seems the flintlock would be in keeping with history to some greater or lesser degree depending on who it talking while the percussion Hawken seems to never be questioned. I already have a super cool custom rifle in flintlock. I do not have a sho-nuff bad-to-tha-bone percussion gun for a "go-to" hunting rifle. I do not think I will be disappointed either way really. I also got a serious hankering down the road for a pistol to compliment my hunting package. I am almost certainly going percussion on the pistol so I am kinda leaning toward percussion on the new rifle.  Decisions,decisions!!! :-)  My main focus is some serious hunting all through rifle season so I will lean more toward what I really want kinda regardless of the "history" aspect even though that is still important to me.

[tg]

Nothing wrong with caplocks on these guns, I don't think that the aroma of one who shoots a flintlocks breechclot residue is any more pleasantly fragrant than from one who shoots a caplock.

[SquirrelHeart]

The Buffalo Bill museum on Cody Wyoming has some nice photos of Hawkens to look at.  There is even one with a brass trigger guard, and at least one fullstock that looks like a flint conversion.
Follow the link and word search on "Hawken" or select Hawken as the manufacturer.
http://www.bbhc.org/collections/bbhc/in ... museum=CFM

I am currently building a halfstock Hawken with a flintlock.  May not be for sure PC, but it is for sure what I wanted to build!

[mark davidson]

Actually I have settled on making my Hawken project a flintlock.  PC or not, like Curtis said, it is just what I want to build and shoot; it is what speaks to me. After several kills with a flinter and seeing that I can actually do it that way, it is hard to go back to caplock if in fact that would be going "back." :-) Also, I actually like priming the pan and unloading by just blowing the powder away much better than fiddeling and fumbling with caps. I like both OK but the flinter will be my choice.

[jbullard1]

........................................................

I am currently building a halfstock Hawken with a flintlock.  May not be for sure PC, [size=150]but it is for sure what I wanted to build![/size]

And this is all that matters in my opinion