Hawken Rifles, What's All The Hoopla?!

[Dispatch]

I've never owned or even fired one for that matter, but have noticed them around a lot and are extremely well-known in the black powder community, more so than any other model I've ever notice before.

What is it that makes it such a standard?

 

[rchas]

I always thought of them as an 1800's reimagining of a jaeger rifle.... In any case, everything having to do with muzzleloading got very popular in the 1970's due to interest in the Bicentennial. The hawken style rifle rode the extra wave of the movies "Jeremiah Johnson" 1972 (very good and very popular), and "The Mountain Men" 1980 which romanticized the western fur trade. Heavy marketing by Thompson-Center also helped.

In practical terms they are no better; and no worse; than a long rifle. It all depends on whether you like the style.

 

[rich pierce]

Many of the most famous men in the fur trade owned Hawken rifles. They were higher quality than common trade rifles and cost about twice as much. In the early 1900s Horace Kephart found one in find shooting condition and shot it and wrote about how impressed he was. When the rondy culture was revving up in the 1970s and 1980s John Baird was over the moon for Hawken rifles and wrote books and articles. Companies making lightweight short percussion rifles (very different from original Hawken rifles) capitalized on the Hawken name for marketing purposes and sold tens of thousands of so called Hawken rifles.

 

[OldMaineWoodsman]

The history (perhaps inflated), nostalgia, ties to the fur trade and westward expansion. Most importantly, they are rugged, dependable, accurate, and attractive rifles.

 

[cynthialee]

Hawken and Hawkenesque rifles are good shooters, handle well and fit most average size shooters.

The shorter barrel (compared to a long rifle) and the half stock, cut down on weight making it a relatively easy rifle to tote around on a hunt.

With most modern versions having the 1:48 twist they work well with roundball and conical.

They have an iconic look that even the wannabe and knock off versions impress the rubes.

What is not to love here?

 

[holzwurm]

Well, the Hawken is a distinctly original American invention made to fill a need of the unknown rugged conditions west of the "River". The history of knowing many of the well known trappers and warriors who owned one also added to the popularity. Before the Hawken, firearms were more or less variations of rifle styles which originated in England and europe, some with a distinct regional flair (think such and such school). They work -

 

[Polecat_Tom]

I think that they were made ideally for the Western expansion. They were shorter than the long rifles had a big bore and a heaver wrist area which were ideal for horseback travel, larger game, and the rugged use that they would endure. True, the fact that it was showcased in the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" didn't hurt its popularity in the 70"s.

 

[Dispatch]

Yet, on the other side of the coin, they are NOT accepted in the Civil War reenacting community for some reason.

I've been to many a CW event that had big signs that say "No Hawken's", right as you come up to sign in at the registry tents...

 

[The Appalachian]

Don't care a thing about Hawkens, but I want that old anvil in the picture........

 

[akroguy]

Shorter, sturdier, hooked breech (sometimes) tenon keys vs pins, all good. I just don't like the crescent butt plate that is common with them (and often long rifles). No matter how I shoulder them (or upper bicep) just beats hell outta me. My GPR is a great rifle for sure, but not the one I enjoy shooting very much. My CW repro's and the Kibler are the ones near and dear to me.

 

[Ceannt]

What I find amusing, is that many of the "Hawken" reproductions look a whole lot more like a Dimick rifle, than those of his major competitor, the Hawken brothers. Both were in St. Louis, and were after the same market.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I find @Ceannt's observation interesting. The Hawken Brothers and the shop built several styles of rifles other than the commonly envisioned large bored Plains Rifle. They built rifles for the local hunting and sporting needs as well as shotguns. Some of the smaller calibers did have brass hardware and looked like the shared the same brass trigger guard supplier, barrel maker, locks and triggers as the Dimick and Creamer smaller caliber rifles. I have always wondered if the T/C design was based on these smaller caliber Hawken Rifles and not one the Plains Rifles.

 

[springfield art]

I've never owned or even fired one for that matter, but have noticed them around a lot and are extremely well-known in the black powder community, more so than any other model I've ever notice before.

What is it that makes it such a standard? View attachment 160713
View attachment 160715

It's just one of those things; like the Colt SAA or the 1911, or Steve McQueen's Mustang, it's an iconic item recalling the Fur Trade days of early American history and exploration. I recently got one of the NMLRA's Hawken book by Bob Woodfill, a knowledgeable historian of these rifles. Your photos is a Lyman (or Pedersoli) Great Plains rifle, not a perfect copy of the originals but a good modern shooter unto itself. The book is said to be in short supply and I predict that it will be very sought after later if there's not a 2nd ed. (At $50 it's a good buy for the Hawken fan.)

 

[hanshi]

I just never could particularly like the "Hawkens" plains rifles; in fact I didn't much care for halfstock rifles period. The fur trade era never interested me like the colonial/early American period did. I simply love most everything about longrifles as long as they use flint. The Hawkens plains rifles were heavy and many westerners preferred the Leman or other makes because of this. Many longrifles were carried west as they were quite common, relatively speaking.

 

[ohio ramrod]

The main reason is both "media advertising" such as the movie Jeremia Johnson. Combined with the fact that when people started getting into reproductions in the late 60 to 70's T>C>'s Hawken was the best quality for the money and was heavily advertised. If You don't think advertising matters , there are 14 peaks in Colorado high than Pike's Peak. How many can you name ?!

 

[52Bore]

America’s most recognizable name in Muzzleloading.
Jake & Sam’s father and uncles were gunsmith’s (longrifles). Some 15 Hawken gunmakers total.
Jake & Sam worked at Harpers Ferry.
They evolved their 1/2 stock rifle some 4 decades after the British makers 1/2 stocked rifles. Their early hardware was iron mounted, because of their blacksmith skills - it evolved with brass as our countries logistics improved.
Percussion was the new technology.
Others have stated those who carried them.
Jeremiah Johnson movie helped.
History books, Baird, Hanson, now Woodfill.
Now the HawkenClassic to see, learn and shoot. At the classic - no two were identical.

 

[Magungo1066]

Lots of similar rifles were made, many of them "Hawken Copies". The way I think of it (and I am nooo expert) is that they were akin to one of the great flintlock builders of our time. Very prolific gunsmiths who set a gold standard that gave their rifles a serious name, and a quality and fame that other gunsmiths/shops at the time wanted to copy. I think fewer people today want a reproduction styled as a "copy" of famous rifles built by an iconic and prolific family of gunsmiths and their legendary craftsmanship. I think this thinking carried on through time, and is the result of the "Hawken fever" that we see.

 

[Snakebite]

I started getting interested in muzzle loaders in the mid-1970s. At that time about the only production guns were T/C Hawkens and CVA Mountain Rifles. I was in the Army in Georgia and was about to get out and return to Texas. A new Soldier came into our unit from Alaska who was big into muzzleloaders, he had identical halfstock rifles except one was percussion and the other flint. For a newbie, I thought the T/C Hawken was it but he recommended I do a little more research on Hawken rifles and when I got home to Austin TX to see if anyone around there built rifles. I did and was introduced to a guy named Davy Boultinghouse who built guns and knives. I contracted with Davy to build me a "Hawken", accurate reproduction, .54cal, Ron Long lock and triggers and a Douglas XX barrel, for $500. And he gave me 9 months to pay it off. My interest was the fur trade and Texas Independence/early statehood which the Hawken fit into. Also, for me, there is something pretty cool about a Hawken rifle, the simpleness of it. The pistol in the picture was built on a 10" piece of the barrel, the rifle barrel was originally 44" which was too long for a halfstock so Davy cut off 10" and breeched it up for me.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The rifles built by Creamer, Dimick, Henry, Tryon, Leman and others were probably just as effective for most purposes as the Hawken rifles. The English sporting rifles may have been every bit as high a quality if not of higher quality but not at all as common or affordable.

I think the Hawken rifle has one of the best architecture for a heavy, powerful, and accurate rifles. Does the Hawken rifle as built by the Hawken Brothers deserve all the acclaim? Probably not, but they sure got the positive reviews. Certainly, the modern rifles that are called "Hawkens" don't deserve the hoopla. They function well and are reasonably accurate on target, but they certainly don't deserve to be called a "Hawken".

 

[JohnnieT]

Historically, Hawken rifles gained notoriety first for the quality of their manufacture and then more so because of some of the legendary names associated with them.

In our modern shooting hobby, Hawken replicas dominated the field for a long time. They were heavily advertised, readily available, reasonably affordable, and fairly accurate. Until Knight popped out their early in-lines in the ‘80’s, Hawken replicas dominated the deer woods for muzzleloader seasons. As previously stated, the Bicentennial and Jeremiah Johnson didn’t hurt.

What’s very interesting to me is that there were so many different replica makers and variations that now there are many people (myself included) who have made a hobby of collecting the various replicas. Even though they are a far cry from the original Hawken rifles, the replicas have become desirable in their own right.