This thread has a long history. But, like a lot of history, things can go full circle.
The rifles pictured are what we ("we" meaning wife and I and hauling our kids with us) call our 'half breed poor man's target rifles'. We used to live near Friendship and often traveled to other local clubs to compete. For a lot of matches good sights and good barrels were necessary to compete successfully. We could never afford any of the fine custom rifles we saw, like Clark Frazier, and others. So, I came up with this idea of cobbling together something we could afford and use those. My rifle, the larger one on top in the pic, is easily recognizable as a TC 'hawken'. Only it has a 37" Douglas premium barrel instead of the factory one. My wife's is a TC Seneca with a 32" Douglas premium barrel. Both are .45 cal. and 1:66" twist. For the hawken I use .457" rb and ticking patching. The Seneca likes .445 balls and the same patch cloth. On both are mounted Redfield Olympic peep sights. Both also have fixed sights for open sight matches and my wife used to use hers for hunting. Kilt two deer with it. For light bench and Buffalo 'X' stick matches I used to clamp on two or three 1# lead ingots for extra weight.
Now, the full circle part. I haven't used mine for quite a few years as I became a flintlock addict. About two years ago I tore up the rotator in my left shoulder and haven't shot in that period of time. I'm partially restored now but still cannot lift all rifles like my Jaeger flinter. Just too heavy. And I can't lift the hawken half-breed either. So, I am now going to be using my wife's Seneca half-breed for competition since it is light enough for me to lift
[/img] . My club allows peepers so that is where it will get the most use. We have had these since about 1970 and they have seen much use and have given us much pleasure. My wife has stacks of medals won in competition, including Friendship. Interestingly, those Redfield Olympic sights are worth more today than the rifles.
The rifles pictured are what we ("we" meaning wife and I and hauling our kids with us) call our 'half breed poor man's target rifles'. We used to live near Friendship and often traveled to other local clubs to compete. For a lot of matches good sights and good barrels were necessary to compete successfully. We could never afford any of the fine custom rifles we saw, like Clark Frazier, and others. So, I came up with this idea of cobbling together something we could afford and use those. My rifle, the larger one on top in the pic, is easily recognizable as a TC 'hawken'. Only it has a 37" Douglas premium barrel instead of the factory one. My wife's is a TC Seneca with a 32" Douglas premium barrel. Both are .45 cal. and 1:66" twist. For the hawken I use .457" rb and ticking patching. The Seneca likes .445 balls and the same patch cloth. On both are mounted Redfield Olympic peep sights. Both also have fixed sights for open sight matches and my wife used to use hers for hunting. Kilt two deer with it. For light bench and Buffalo 'X' stick matches I used to clamp on two or three 1# lead ingots for extra weight.
Now, the full circle part. I haven't used mine for quite a few years as I became a flintlock addict. About two years ago I tore up the rotator in my left shoulder and haven't shot in that period of time. I'm partially restored now but still cannot lift all rifles like my Jaeger flinter. Just too heavy. And I can't lift the hawken half-breed either. So, I am now going to be using my wife's Seneca half-breed for competition since it is light enough for me to lift
