A Thompson Center Hawken in .45 caliber

I also have a 45cal Sennaca rifle which I love to shoot. Usually around 70 grains of 3F in it does the job quite nicely.

Bledfor.....I figured that was the case, on both points (my SE and importing into Canada).

When I lay hands on the rifle (tomorrow?) I'll try and get some pics.

MN284 said:

@tom in nc, tell me about your DART Kentucky rifle. I have one that is a total, total POS with a horrible flintlock. How is yours?

Tom

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MN284, My Dart rifle is .45 cal. percussion. It's in great shape and shoots good. I bought it at the local flea market a couple years ago for $50 along with some round balls, patches, and caps. Everything I needed to shoot except powder.
The only thing I would change is the trigger. I would like to have double, set triggers.

tom in nc said:

I think my fondness is for T/C halfstock rifles, with Hawkens being my favorites. In my desire to complete my collection of T/C calibers in caplock and flint I probably should broaden my search to include Renegades and others. Am I right in believing that the difference is the lack of brass and not having a cheek rest on the non-Hawken models. Is the quality of the locks, stocks, and barrels the same? Are there other differences I should know about? Thanks.

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You are correct about Renegades. No brass. 2" shorter barrel than a Hawken. Normally the same 1:48 twist and shallow rifling, same locks and triggers I think. The earlier models have the high spur hammer and no warnings on the barrel. Some of the really early ones have a longer rear sight screw pattern. Mine is a non kit model with serial # 52xxx, high spur, no warnings, shorter rear sight pattern, purchased around 1977-1978 (per the original owner's memory).
I found conical accuracy really easily, took some playing around to get good RB accuracy. Some of the RB accuracy struggles were definitely due to my learning curve.

tom in nc said:

MN284, My Dart rifle is .45 cal. percussion. It's in great shape and shoots good. I bought it at the local flea market a couple years ago for $50 along with some round balls, patches, and caps. Everything I needed to shoot except powder.View attachment 36455View attachment 36456
The only thing I would change is the trigger. I would like to have double, set triggers.

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Hi Tom, glad you got a good one. Mine is a flintlock, and has a very weak mainspring, so it might spark, but it doesn't kick the frizzen open to ignite the prime. Every once in a while I work on one aspect or another, but no success yet. (And, I think I paid too much for it...) Tom in Minnesota

MN284 said:

Hi Tom, glad you got a good one. Mine is a flintlock, and has a very weak mainspring, so it might spark, but it doesn't kick the frizzen open to ignite the prime. Every once in a while I work on one aspect or another, but no success yet. (And, I think I paid too much for it...) Tom in Minnesota

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I hope you can get it working as it should. I have only shot mine 8 or 10 times I guess. It seems when I reach for something to shoot I go for one of the T/C half-stocks because they're so easy to clean afterwards. I went to the flea market early on the morning the day I bought mine and I think the seller had just laid it on the table. I might have been the first one to spot it. I bought it and carried it around the rest of the flea market and had several people ask if it was for sale. I would buy a dozen more for $50 each!

Sorry, drive to get the rifle has been scrubbed. Might have to get the thing shipped over.

I shot my"new" .45 T/C today and my .50 cal T/C and my .44 Remington c&b too. The new .45 shoots fine. I was consistently hitting a coffee can from about 40 yards, standing, off-hand. I was shooting patched r.b. with 50g of FFFg.
It's cleaned & oiled and back in my bedroom.

Hitting a coffee can, standing, off-hand, at that range, is great. During a hunt, you won't shoot much father where I live anyway and a coffee can is smaller than the heart/liver/lung complex on a deer.

Good job! Hopefully I can duplicate those results soon myself.

And I don't even hunt deer. I haven't hunted any game in several years. I might try for a wild pig or a turkey next season though. I'll probably take the .50 cal if I go after a pig. I will kill a coyote if I get a chance too.

their is one thing about the thompson 45 hawken in a 1/48 twist that most shooters dont know. it shoots a 250 grain paperpatched bullet very fast and accurate. ive remade 250 grain lead 45 cal pistol bullets over in my swageing dies of the same siz to hollow based and smooth sided bullets. then wrapped 2 wraps of number nine paper around them tucking the extra into the hollow base. useing 100 grains of powder and a 60 thousands fiber wad between powder and the base of the bullet i kept a 1 inch group at 100 yards from a rest. very powerful and very accurate and very easy to load. turns it into a real shooter and hunting gun.

Motivating stuff! When my TC .45 flinter gets here (assuming it does) I hope to try her out. I need to set aside a day and just make it happen.

A 45 is a very nice calibur to shoot. I will be shooting mine to-morrow morning at the club. I already know it will be fun to shoot and deadly accurite.