• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

My new love

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Thunder14

32 Cal.
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
322
Reaction score
131
Location
N.E. Pennsylvania
dateposted-public
 
paste this code into your post, you shouldn't have to use the img tags

Edit: looks like you've got it, that's pretty clean for a TC.

Untitled by joshua bird, on Flickr
 
Thank you. She was a mess when i got it looked like a real junker but i took a good look and it seemed to be just neglected no physical damage just needed a good cleaning and a going over.
 
Nice looking gun. You will have many years of fun and good service from it. I have had mine over 40 years and still works great.
 
Nice looking TC Hawken. :)

It has the "old" flintlock on it so it may tend to bash flints a bit. Some do and some don't.

TC redesigned the cock to improve the angle the flint has with the frizzen but since TC was bought out by Smith & Wesson, they no longer offer the repair.

Hopefully your's will be one of the locks that aren't as hard on flints.
 
Thunderduck said:
I give up i have done everything possible to upload a picture and still nothing

Don't be embarrassed. After years of posting thousands if pic on this and other forums I have run into a wall. A member is currently trying to coach me on how to post pics to this forum and I'm still not getting it. :doh: :redface:
 
Very nice!! I gotta say that my T\C Hawken was a kit gun that I put together in 1980. After many years of carrying it in the woods of Pa., it doesn't look anywhere near as clean 'n nice as yours does.

Mine looks like it's seen a lot of fun!!!
 
I put one of the L&R replacement locks in a TC Renegade, it took all the gun building skills I possessed and then some to get that lock functioning in the gun.

The bottom line is they just don't fit, nothing lines up and you will have to do a bunch of work to make them fit.
 
As Eric has hands on experience with the L&R replacement lock and I don't I'll go with his comments.

The only real difference between the L&R lock and TC lock I know about is, the L&R uses a leaf mainspring while the TC uses a coil spring.

Because the leaf mainspring needs space to exist in, the lock mortise must be made much deeper and this requires a bit of chiseling.
 
Zonie said:
As Eric has hands on experience with the L&R replacement lock and I don't I'll go with his comments.

The only real difference between the L&R lock and TC lock I know about is, the L&R uses a leaf mainspring while the TC uses a coil spring.

Because the leaf mainspring needs space to exist in, the lock mortise must be made much deeper and this requires a bit of chiseling.


Does the L&R replacement come with those instructions? If not, should.
 
I comes with vague instructions, nothing about what you actually have to do to make it fit.

Now I have to confess I put a flintlock in percussion stock with a new TC flint barrel.

Still, the lock plate inlet was too big, the TC lock bolt was way off and wouldn't hit the blind threaded fixture on the bridal and it took a complete reinletting for the L&R internals. I also had to move the TC barrel back a bit to line up the touch hole withe L&R pan.

Here is a picture of how far the lock bolt was off and the back of the hooked breech that I had to grind off to accommodate the new bolt position.

TbT7r9M.jpg


I had a big gap at the back of the lock plate because the TC inlet was too big for the L&R lock. I shimed it and was able to cover the shim up with finish so it didn't show much.

c8Dn5F0.jpg
 
My friend has an L&R "Drop-in" lock that, like Eric's...was made to work, but was far from "drop-in".
On a brighter note...the vent liner Eric is showing is Thompson Center #7327 "Flintlock Touchhole Bushing". I'm a big fan of Jim Chamber's "White Lightnin'" vent liners, but Jim doesn't offer them in 1/4 x 28. That T/C product is the next best thing I've found. :thumbsup:
 
Little confused here, you say the T/C uses a coil spring and the L&R uses a leaf why does my T/C have a leaf then? Maybe I’m not looking at the correct spring.you do mean the main spring on the outside of the lock or do you mean an internal spring that I cant see.Im new to these flintlocks and just trying to learn as I go by no means am I questioning your knowledge.
 
The main spring on the inside is a coil, whereas the main spring on a L&R is a V spring.
The spring on the TC is not really a problem other than not being historical correct.
The L&R is much better in feel, better in spark, and over all better.
Most of like the style and character of traditional muzzle loaders, with their problems, and their overall feel.
I'm sure some mechanical wizard could make a lock that would give us spark, using batteries or depleated ( spelling?)uranium but that is not in our picture.
Fred
 
Here is the finished lock installed, it looks good and sparks like crazy. I sold the rifle unshot to a friend who will never shoot it, he added it to his vast collection.

I polished the lock and greyed it.

I should add the lock L&R lockplate was too short but also wider than the TC inlet so what you see is a complete reinletting for the lock plate. The L&R internals were much larger and deeper than the TC internals, I got into the tang bolt hole to have enough room for the L&R tumbler.

ArUafkT.jpg
 
Another thing; some people who commented on my initial L&R RPL lock thread said they had the same problems I did, some said their swap wasn't so involved.

I have only built two TC guns and worked on a few more, I found that TC guns are not the cookie cutter mass produced copies we would expect, each one is a little different depending on who assembled it from the factory.
 
Back
Top