OLD Thompson Hawken .45 help? (with pics)

Hi everyone! I want to start off by apologizing for being so green

I was left a Thompson flintlock rifle and I don't know much about it other than it is accurate, and is fun to shoot. Doing some digging around, I believe it is a Hawken. It is pre-warning stamp on the barrel, and has what appears to be a low low low serial number. On the stock, under the barrel are some pretty cool markings. A heart, and star, and a clover.

Can anyone tell me the story behind this gun? I'm excited to learn more about it. I did fire it three times with 50 grains of powder. Works well! This is my first black powder gun, so please be easy on me!

Thanks!
Matt

What a nice gift to receive. It looks to be in nice shape for the age. I can't help you with the markings on the barrel, but the serial number suggests to me that it was a factory assemble gun and not a kit as the kits had a "k" prefix to the serial number. I would suggest it was made in the early to mid 1970s. TC has a fire years ago and all records were lost, so there is no absolute way to date it.

You have a real gem. Enjoy it and welcome.

Nice rifle, you will enjoy. The Thompson-Center a/k/a TC model you have was called a 'hawken'. But those who study the old rifles know it is not a good replica of the real Hawken. That doesn't prevent it from being a keeper or a shooter. Do clean well after use and if you have more questions come on back and ask.

Thats a 6th year 1976 manufature

Thanks everyone!

@anaconda44 , Would this be the 480th gun made in 1976? And where did you find this info?
@Rifleman1776 , What is a real Hawken? The T/C website has a manual for a Hawken. I'm confused.
Thanks @Kansas Jake !

Not Not said:

Thanks everyone!
@Rifleman1776 , What is a real Hawken? The T/C website has a manual for a Hawken. I'm confused.
Thanks @Kansas Jake !

Click to expand...

Google "Hawken Shop, St. Louis..... These are "Hawken" Rifles



Hope this helps......

The plains rifles built in St. Louis, Missouri by Sam and Jake Hawken were typically iron mounted, sturdy rifles of a nominal 54 caliber bore with a rate of twist of 1 in 48". The 31 to 33" barrels were tapered from about 1 1/8" at the breech to 1" at the muzzle. None are known to have been flintlock. (This can get me into the controversy over some rifles that seem to have lock plates that appear to be conversions from flint to percussion. The barrels appear to have always been percussion.) While the rifle weighed from 10 to 12 pounds the weight was suitable for carry by men on horseback.

On a second note, the Hawken brothers and other makers made smaller, lighter, guns for the Missouri and Illinois local trade with brass hardware. Some makers, notably Dimmick, built rifles very similar to the T/C.

Do down load the Hawken manual from T/C.

I would agree with Grenadier that some of the "local use" guns hold some resemblance to some light Hawken guns, however, the ones we generally refer to as Hawken rifles are the heavy built models. I believe have handled all of the guns in this picture:



It should be noted that gun #5 is a Hawken Shop Reproduction of an original.....

Kansas Jake said:

What a nice gift to receive. It looks to be in nice shape for the age. I can't help you with the markings on the barrel, but the serial number suggests to me that it was a factory assemble gun and not a kit as the kits had a "k" prefix to the serial number. I would suggest it was made in the early to mid 1970s. TC has a fire years ago and all records were lost, so there is no absolute way to date it.

You have a real gem. Enjoy it and welcome.

Click to expand...

And is that a newer and improved T/C lock on a 70's

First black powder gun? Are you up on cleaning these rifles? Did you shoot black powder or pyrodex?
If you are not up on meticulous cleaning of these guns your barrel will be toast in a few weeks.

jbazzano said:

And is that a newer and improved T/C lock on a 70's

Click to expand...

No. That is the old style lock.

+ 1 on Eric's warning. CLEAN IT! Way too cool to let corrosion eat any of it up!

I have a newer one in percussion. Its as hawken as a production gun gets so enjoy as a Hawkin. When I win the lottery look me up (likely be found above 7K feet in a small town in ID or MT sitting in my new gas station enjoying jawing with folks) and maybe I buy you a original hawkin.

Welcome, All of us were green once, yer lucky to land here. You'll gain wisdom way faster than us old guys that did it ourselves every wrong way we could think of LOL.

I got my T/C .50 cal. flintlock in 1975, it is serial #10xxx. On the stock under the barrel is a "F", nothing so fancy as your clover and heart. Have no idea what the significance of either marking is. My brother worked there in the early 80's, I will ask him if he has any idea what they mean.

@No Deer Thank you! I'm excited to hear what your brother thinks. There is also a star, in the last pic, hard to make out.

@Eric Krewson .. I will clean her up. I shot with old school black powder that was also given to me. Any tips?

Since you are new to muzzleloading, you may not be aware of the need for meticulous cleaning of your rifle after shooting it. Whether you shoot real black powder or one of the substitutes you must clean your barrel with soap and water. Nothing else will get it clean and if it is not clean it will rust.

Here is my cleaning method: Make up a bucket of warm water with some dish soap just as if you were going to wash dishes. Remove the barrel from the stock and put the breach in the bucket of water. Wet a patch with some of the soapy water and use it on your cleaning rod to pump the soapy water in and out of your barrel several times. Change the patch when it becomes dirty. When you are getting clean looking patches, remove your barrel from the soapy water and rinse with clean water to remove all traces of the soapy water. Dry the bore with several dry patches. I like to spray some WD-40 down the dry bore to remove the last traces of moisture. Wipe out all of the WD-40 with more dry patches and swab your bore with a patch with a good gun oil. Be sure to clean your lock and oil it, too. You can give your stock a good cleaning and I like to use a light coat of Johnson's paste wax on the outside of the barrel and on the stock to keep them in good shape. When it comes to muzzleloading rifles, it is like the old saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

OH, BTW, welcome to the forum. Glad to have you aboard.

Because of the way a TC breech is built, you will have a 22 cal sized flash chamber about 1" long from the back of your barrel to where your percussion cap sits. If you notice your cleaning rod stops a bit ahead of the nipple that is why.

Be sure to take the nipple out before you dunk your barrel in a bucket as mentioned. You will get more water flow and be able to clean and dry the threads of your nipple before you reinstall it. It is a good idea to clean your nipple with a pipe cleaner and put some anti seize compound or gun grease on the threads before you install it.

I use an air compressor and an air nozzle to blow as much of the water out of the barrel, out of the sights and out from under the under rib before I oil everything up and put it away. Compressed air is especially good at getting any moisture out of the nipple hole and flash chamber.

Some like WD40 to absorb moisture some don't, I never had a problem with it but use denatured alcohol to suck up moisture now, followed by a gun oil and finally a swab of Barricade.

After you clean your rifle, store it muzzle down on a paper towel for a few days to let any oil in the flash chamber drain out of the barrel. It is a good idea to give your barel another swab with a lightly oiled patch a few days after you clean it to make sure you didn't miss some crud and there is no rust happening.

Put a cleaning patch down the barrel on your ramrod and pop a couple of caps before you load for the first time on a day. The patch will catch any oil that has accumulated and keep it out of your powder when you load your rifle. Too many guns go "pop" instead of bang because of improper cleaning procedures that leave oil in the breech.

No Deer said:

I got my T/C .50 cal. flintlock in 1975, it is serial #10xxx. On the stock under the barrel is a "F", nothing so fancy as your clover and heart. Have no idea what the significance of either marking is. My brother worked there in the early 80's, I will ask him if he has any idea what they mean.

Click to expand...

And my T/C .50cal flintlock is numbered 12xxx and has a B on the stock under the barrel. So I assume '76 or '77?

Not Not said:

Hi everyone! I want to start off by apologizing for being so green

I was left a Thompson flintlock rifle and I don't know much about it other than it is accurate, and is fun to shoot. Doing some digging around, I believe it is a Hawken. It is pre-warning stamp on the barrel, and has what appears to be a low low low serial number. On the stock, under the barrel are some pretty cool markings. A heart, and star, and a clover.

Can anyone tell me the story behind this gun? I'm excited to learn more about it. I did fire it three times with 50 grains of powder. Works well! This is my first black powder gun, so please be easy on me!

Thanks!
Matt

View attachment 1215 View attachment 1216 View attachment 1217 View attachment 1218 View attachment 1219 View attachment 1220 View attachment 1221

Click to expand...

From info I’ve gleaned over the years doodlin’ around on the interwebs, the T/C Hawken was introduced in 1970 startin’ at serial# 1000 so, assumin’ this to be accurate, yer gun woulda been number 5489 off the line. Probably in ‘71 or ‘72. For the first year of production they had case-colored iron or steel triggerguards. Highest number I’ve personally seen for those was in the low 4000’s. Of concern to me is your gun has the later large brass lock bolt escutcheon. With a full length picture I could tell ya a bit more about early features to look for or if ya have them. Any way ya look at it your have a nice’un so, take care of it & enjoy the heck outta shootin’ it.

OOPs, senior moment, I missed that is is a flintlock, the cleaning is just the same, you don't have to take out the touchole liner to clean the gun, it is better if you don't, too much liner removal can wallow out the threads. I would take it out one time and put anti seize on the threads and leave it in from that point.