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- Mar 20, 2018
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Looking for opinions from the forum on what to do with my old Cabela's Sporterized Hawken in 54cal. This was my first muzzleloader and a gift from my father when I was 12 or 13. So it has some (but not a lot) of sentimental value and is a little over 20 years old. It's one of the models that was made with a black synthetic stock rather than wood so it isn't especially pretty IMO. I had been keeping this rifle because my brother-in-law had been using it for elk hunting, and I thought it could be a good rifle to pass to my son. Now my brother-in-law has, in his words, "upgraded" to an unmentionable and I don't actually think it's a very good rifle for a kid. It has a short barrel and fast rate of twist so the most accurate loads are big charges of 3F pushing lead conicals. Combined with the light weight of the rifle, the recoil is pretty substantial.
So, what should I do with this thing? I don't consider myself a gun collector so everything I own needs a defined purpose. Options I'm considering are below but also curious to hear of other ideas.
1) Sell it and use the funds to buy something I "need." In particular, I am looking for something to use as a dedicated turkey gun.
2) Have it bored out for shot and make it into said turkey gun. The shorter barrel makes it pretty handy and I wouldn't be worried about beating it up in the woods. Hoping it could bored out to 20ga, but I remember an old thread (maybe a response from necchi) about the threads for the rear sight as being a potential issue. If memory serves, this was maybe specific to TC rifles though.
So, what should I do with this thing? I don't consider myself a gun collector so everything I own needs a defined purpose. Options I'm considering are below but also curious to hear of other ideas.
1) Sell it and use the funds to buy something I "need." In particular, I am looking for something to use as a dedicated turkey gun.
2) Have it bored out for shot and make it into said turkey gun. The shorter barrel makes it pretty handy and I wouldn't be worried about beating it up in the woods. Hoping it could bored out to 20ga, but I remember an old thread (maybe a response from necchi) about the threads for the rear sight as being a potential issue. If memory serves, this was maybe specific to TC rifles though.