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Should I jump on this Hawken.

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Hello! I'm new to the forum. At one of my local pawn shop. I found a .54 cal T/C percussion Hawken. After a little inspection it has been abused. A good amount of surface rust on outside of the barrel. I didn't have a bore scope but using my cell phone light. I could see the first couple inches of the inside of the barrel. It has a pretty good amount of rust and what appeared to be salt on the inside of the bore. I am new to muzzleloading and got 2 little girls and not a whole lot of extra cash laying around. After talking the owner down I could get it out the door for $120. Should I or should I not? I love the feel of the rifle. I was thinking about restoring it.
 
Likely if you jump on it you will have to buy it. I don't know though, TCs are pretty tough.

What you see is powder residue. Pyrodex....it could be bad. Even rusty pitted barrels are capable of good accuracy they are just a pain to reload as they foul like mad. Bore could be toast....it's a gamble.

100 bucks is as high as I would go. But I'm not interested in a TC and it's real easy for me to spend your money. But 20 bucks is a burger and a shake for two so.... :hmm: your call.
 
A T/C stock and lock with out a barrel are selling on eBay for over $150 and sometimes a bit more.

He could buy the rifle, refurbish the stock and sell the stock and lock at a profit. The fact he also gets a roached out barrel for his $120 is just a bit of a bonus.
 
Yep I've seen that too but....
This could be a kit gun miserably assembled.
The stock could be as neglected as the bore.
Fair price I know...... another but....

Some 65 Ford pickups are worth 30 grand others are not worth the gas to haul them to the scrap yard so....condition is everything.
 
Carolinawoodsman said:
The stock is in great shape. It's the barrel I'm worried about.
And you should be...
You might clean the barrel and it could shoot great. It could also be useful only as a pry-bar. No way to know until you clean and shoot the rifle. For my money, I'd walk away and find one in better condition. A new/replacement barrel will be as much or more than the current price of the gun.
 
buy it and do what needs to be done. B hoyt can refresh or rebore to new.
 
My cousin's BIL bought a Renegade flint and had it dropped at my place for checkin' out. They don't fit me worth a hoot, and I didn't appreciate someone droppin' their project off for me to take care of without asking, so it sat for most of a year....needing cleaning with "salts" in the bore. I was expecting a corroded mess, but it was unharmed. I'm thinking it was dry BP fouling, but the key is it was DRY.

$120 for a TC Hawken is a bargain because they can be parted out for more $. I've seen their locks bring more $.
 
I had Mr Hoyt rebore a TC .50 to .54 the total cost was $145.

I recently put together a TC hawken kit and put together a Renegade from random parts. Some people love TCs, I owned a bunch in my early days but having worked on the two lately I found a lot of inconsistencies in the parts used to build them. I am not a fan anymore but I have moved on to guns with Rice barrels and Chambers locks.

If you buy the gun consider it a purchase less the barrel because you will never be completely satisfied with a roached out barrel even if it shoots OK.
 
I'm thinking about pulling the trigger tomorrow and picking up the rifle. If I have to get the barrel redone could they change the twist rate from 1:48 to say 1:60? The pawn shop also has a .50 cal for same price on better shape. :doh:
 
I had Mr Hoyt bore the Renegade barrel to .54 with deeper rifling and a 1 in 48 twist.

I had this done for a friend who brought his roached out barrel by to see if I could make it better.

He had never shot patched round balls, only maxi bullets. I recommended he shoot patched balls and gave his gun with the new barrel a test firing. The first thing I put in it was a .530 ball patched with .015 ticking lubed with mink oil pushed by 75 gr of 2F. The rifle shot a cloverleaf at 50 yards so I stopped right there. I outfitted him with the right components and sent him on his way.

He killed three deer with the rifle last year was really impressed with a round ball for making a lethal shot.

Here is what my friends barrel looked like;

XqjBINw.jpg
 
You can tell if it was a factory finished gun or a kit gun by the serial number. If the serial number begins with the letter K, then it is a kit gun. Without the K, it was factory finished. Usually a factory gun is worth more than a kit. I've seen a number of the kits where the finish work was not the best.
 
Get it. Like pointed out it is worth more in parts than the price asked even if we take the barrel out of the picture.
A re-bore to a .58 would be easy for Mr. Hoyt to do and at a reasonable price.
 
I have a .32, that has a pitted barrel. I was going to have it rebored, but I cleaned it good and started using Black MZ powder, which does not fowl as much, and the rifle shoots fine.

If you buy it, give it a good working over, with bore lapping compound or scrub pads, before giving up on it. The proof is in the pudding.
 
hadden west said:
...give it a good working over, with bore lapping compound or scrub pads, before giving up on it. The proof is in the pudding.

Very good advice. Last year I picked up an older TC Hawken 50 cal that was real purty on the outside, but approaching sewer pipe in the important place.

I only paid $100 for it and figured to have it rebored to something more interesting. But before doing so I gave the bore a good workover with green scrub pad and shot it. My mistake!

It shoots so well I'll probably have to come up with another barrel to rebore to something oddball and interesting. The bore still doesn't look like it should shoot, but the proof is in the pudding. And on the paper.
 
If the 50 is better, get that one.

I hunt with 54s, but have harvested just fine with a 45 once. 50 will be fine.

Some think a 40 is good enough.

The 54 will just use more lead and powder, but won't feel as much like your shooting much more.

Also 54 balls are hard to find in general gun shops.
 
take my advice.


go buy the gun.


if the bore really is a mess, you can part it out for more than you paid, or, you can send it to Bobby Hoyt and he will rebore and re-rifle it for a very reasonable fee.

it's a fantastic deal either way.

:grin:


p.s. take good care of this rifle and you can pass it down to your girls who, if you are lucky and live a good life, will fight over it.


oops - my bad ... didn't notice that it was a .54 ... if Mr. Hoyt recuts the bore, you will probably have to go to a .56 or .58, which is something of an oddball caliber, and you'll need a specialty mold for it. he can cut to a .62 cal / 20 gauge smooth or, i suppose, could rifle the .62.


either way, i'd buy the rifle ... barrels can be had on any one of a number of gunsites (including this one)
 
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