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How do you tell if they're real?

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Until you take them apart it’s hard to be sure. There’s money in restocking a total wreck or making one gun of 2 wrecks. I saw an “original” that looked 100% rode hard and put away wet out west that clearly had the new inlets for barrel, lock, triggers and buttplate doctored to look old. Not convinced. It’s fine if the buyer/owner knows what they are getting but once it changes hands all bets are off.
 
So has anyone put together a list of museums, or other locations where a guy could stop and look at real historical rifles if they found themselves in the neighborhood?

Or planned a vacation around it?
 
In Nebraska the State Historical Society Museum in Lincoln had an original Hawken on display. I assume it is still there because I haven’t been there in years. The Museum of the Fur Trade in Nebraska has many on display.

I’ve often been surprised by finding originals in smaller local museums.
 
The G.M. Davis museum at Claremore, OK is incredible. Worth a trip. There is an original Hawken at the Ralph Foster museum in College of the Ozarks at Point Lookout, MO (near Branson). Rest of the museum and gun collection is very good also.
 
I tip my hat (if I be wearing one) at the "originals" (note the quotes) and keep moving.

The only "original" (note quotes) I ever bought was cheap, at a yard sale, of all places. Allegedly it was a "Confederate Issue" (note quotes) .69 caliber Smooth Bore.
The stock looked like it was (poorly) carved out of a 2x4.
However, I was doing Civil war Reenactments at the time (Confederate because it was no less than 5 grand cheaper for equipment than being union) so I had a use for it.
Guy I bought it from used it for duck hunting for several years, so I knew it was shootable.
I think it cost me something like $150 or $175 in 1988. I found a (reproduction) Brown Bess bayonet that fit the barrel.

It was more "authentic" than the CVA "Kentucky" rifle I had been using at the Reenactments.
(Many of the Confederates were never issued a rifle, and used what they brought from home, so my "Kentucky" rifle passed muster.)
 
In the world of "collecting", there is a LOT of money involved. I think more than that, though, is prestige. And none of them ever want to have someone come along and tell them that they got suckered. That they were wrong. So, mis-attributed, mis-interpreted guns and outright fakes continue to be passed along, and no one may question...
 
The rifle in first image, third from top, does appear to be pictured in R. L. Wilson's "The Peacemakers," p. 51. The caption states it bears "S. Hawken" and "St. Louis" markings, describing it as ".54 caliber, with silver patchbox, T. Gibbon lock." This text is one of my favorite drool books.

Wasn't R.L. Wilson convicted of fraud and spent time in prison? I heard for enough money he would authenticate your weapon. Saw it on Google.
 
Well I've started a list.


Every rabbit hole on the internet that mentions an Original Hawken somewhere I'm writing it down, and will try to keep it on my phone somewhere.

If the list gets big an ponderous I'll put it on here, maybe help other beginners.
 
It would seem, by now, that any authenticated Hawken rifle in existence is known about by collectors and enthusiasts. So I can imagine any new "discovery" would be viewed as suspicious.
I was happy just to hold and shoulder an original. LOL

Rick
 
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