The Thompson Center Hawkens, in my opinion, is not really suitable for true "reenactments" earlier than the 1850's and even then there will be many who say it is just a modern gun. Actually, the TC Hawken is fairly close to some of the guns that were made in California following the gold rush.
Now, if we are talking about going to a somewhat casual rendezvous or get together, many of them are more tolerant and would be happy to have someone new in their camp, even if they were carrying a TC Hawken.
The early TC Hawkens sometimes had problems with their flintlocks. After a number of years of producing them, they redesigned the cock (hammer) and the frizzen to improve them.
The old cock had a notable S bend to it with a cutout area like the one in this picture.
View attachment 19258
The lower area of the new design cock doesn't have the cutout area in the S shape and looks like this.
View attachment 19259
At one time, TC would replace the old lock with a new lock for free but now that they have been bought out by Smith & Wesson, they don't offer that deal any more. In fact, they don't carry many Hawken parts any more but since TC sold thousands of these rifles there isn't any problem with getting replacement parts on the web.
