Hawken Rifles, What's All The Hoopla?!

BigD63 said:

Everyone wants to be Jeremiah Johnson...I know I do!

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Yep, your pretty much right on that.

LOL, hard to admit, but yup!

Joemolf said:

Nice! Your enthusiasm for a Hawken is wearing on me. I hate to go to Jim’s sight because I know what will happen. Is the Kimbler Hawken rifle in work or rumor?

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IIRC(if I recall correctly), Jim mentioned it in one of his YouTube videos. Didn't bookmark it, so I don't have a cite on it.

springfield art said:

OMG; if Kibler offers a Hawken, all "heck" will break loose! The demand will be equal to 20 cent cheeseburgers. Why is there no "cent" symbol on the modern keyboards?

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The cent sign was deliberately left off essentially as archaic. It can be done by this maJIXical incantation that must be done in this order.
1) By pressing & holding the LEFT ALT key down with the LEFT HAND. Make sure you don't release it until you're told to do so.
2) While holding that ALT key down with the LEFT HAND, use the RIGHT HAND to type out the following four numbers on the numeric keypad on the right side '0162'.
3) then release the LEFT ALT key.

The ¢ sign will then appear.

springfield art said:

They're the ultimate in percussion muzzle-loading development, kinda, and are handsome and manly! They also evoke a period of time when men were opening the frontier, like it or not! Plus they are powerful like all get-out!

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I have owned 4 T/C Hawken rifles. I have one hanging over my home office desk right now.

wganz said:

The cent sign was deliberately left off essentially as archaic. It can be done by this maJIXical incantation that must be done in this order.
1) By pressing & holding the LEFT ALT key down with the LEFT HAND. Make sure you don't release it until you're told to do so.
2) While holding that ALT key down with the LEFT HAND, use the RIGHT HAND to type out the following four numbers on the numeric keypad on the right side '0162'.
3) then release the LEFT ALT key.

The ¢ sign will then appear.

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That works!!

Snake Pleskin said:

because you use a decimal system, IMHO

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¢ You can sometimes use an ASCII code, but it won't work with all forums. The alternative is to go to an ASCII code page (or any other page that show the symbol in HTML) and just copy/paste. It's tedious, but if you want it, it can be done. I've got a manual typewriter or two that doesn't have that symbol either. Gotta to to my old Royal for that. 0162 Just noticed the "inline code" option in the composition menu. I'll give it a shot.

wganz said:

The cent sign was deliberately left off essentially as archaic. It can be done by this maJIXical incantation that must be done in this order.
1) By pressing & holding the LEFT ALT key down with the LEFT HAND. Make sure you don't release it until you're told to do so.
2) While holding that ALT key down with the LEFT HAND, use the RIGHT HAND to type out the following four numbers on the numeric keypad on the right side '0162'.
3) then release the LEFT ALT key.

The ¢ sign will then appear.

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Kabulrocks said:

That works!!

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There are other characters available by using a different four number code:

€ - 0128
‰ - 0137
Π- 0140
™ - 0153 (a favorite of mine on Twitter for use in "ButtHurt™")
® - 0174
¢ - 0162
£ - 0163
¥ - 0165
§ - 0167
± - 0177
² - 0178 for x²
µ - 0181
¶ - 0182 (another favorite of mine to indicate the end of a screed)
¼ - 0188
½ - 0189
¾ - 0190
¿ - 0191 (another favorite of mine for use in the title of a post for the reader to immediate see that it is a question)

HTH
¶

rich pierce said:

Many of the most famous men in the fur trade owned Hawken rifles. They were higher quality than common trade rifles and cost about twice as much. In the early 1900s Horace Kephart found one in find shooting condition and shot it and wrote about how impressed he was. When the rondy culture was revving up in the 1970s and 1980s John Baird was over the moon for Hawken rifles and wrote books and articles. Companies making lightweight short percussion rifles (very different from original Hawken rifles) capitalized on the Hawken name for marketing purposes and sold tens of thousands of so called Hawken rifles.

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But the Hawken really came out in the last days of the Mountain Man period.

rchas said:

I always thought of them as an 1800's reimagining of a jaeger rifle.... In any case, everything having to do with muzzleloading got very popular in the 1970's due to interest in the Bicentennial. The hawken style rifle rode the extra wave of the movies "Jeremiah Johnson" 1972 (very good and very popular), and "The Mountain Men" 1980 which romanticized the western fur trade. Heavy marketing by Thompson-Center also helped.

In practical terms they are no better; and no worse; than a long rifle. It all depends on whether you like the style.

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I would love to see a movie about the real "Liver Eating" Johnson! The true story is told in the book, Crow Killer. Actually, the beaver fur trade was a short window in American history. I personally have had a love of muskets since I was a little boy in the 1950's. As a bald musician, I have a collection of beaver fur, felt hats. lol. These are 1940's and 50's style fedora style hats. Not from the fur trade days. Anyway, I believe that the muzzeloading deer seasons helped our sport more than any other single factor.

Just some random observations over the last 4 decades on "hawkens".

TC would have really cornered market if they had chosen 32" barrel length over 28". The only "hawken" i really liked to carry was the "seneca" in .45. Most "Hawkens" run from a bit too heavy to way too heavy to lug about. Some of the biggest bore ones feel right but tend to consume way too much powder and ball plus have sometime uncomfortable recoil. The big brass patchboxes on TC's (and copies) detract from the overall appearance as does all the brass hardware. Neither lend themselves to "stealth" during field use. HAve more but enough for now.

I assembled a Sharon Rifle Works Hawken in the 70’s because it looked like the real Hawken. The drop to the comb was way more than your factory guns like TC and it just felt right and was a natural pointer for open sights. There was no way anyone would stick a scope on these guns. At that time there were not many authentic options.
I still have that rifle and have since bought and sold a LYMAN GPR which was a very nice shooter but it didn’t have the same feel as the Sharon. Don’t think I can improve on the Sharon even today. IMHO

My reason, and I'm sticking to it.

Texas Gil said:

I assembled a Sharon Rifle Works Hawken in the 70’s because it looked like the real Hawken. The drop to the comb was way more than your factory guns like TC and it just felt right and was a natural pointer for open sights. There was no way anyone would stick a scope on these guns. At that time there were not many authentic options.
I still have that rifle and have since bought and sold a LYMAN GPR which was a very nice shooter but it didn’t have the same feel as the Sharon. Don’t think I can improve on the Sharon even today. IMHO

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Hal was a good friend. We discussed designs and i told him then about what i liked and disliked especially about short barrels and brass furniture. Think he listened. Anyone who has a Sharon fullstock has a real treasure. Sadly the last of his barrels came back to me from a late friends estate and brought back memories of happier times. Heres an old link about Hal that some may not have seen. Sharon Rifle Barrel Co – GRRW Collector

Very nice

Texas Gil said:

Very nice

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I didn’t know enough back then to want a full stock. Now I would like to have a full stock flint Sharon.

Thanks for that link.

Joemolf said:

Nice! Your enthusiasm for a Hawken is wearing on me. I hate to go to Jim’s sight because I know what will happen. Is the Kimbler Hawken rifle in work or rumor?

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He has to get the Woodsrunner and the Smooth bore out first. I told him us 70 somethings can't wait too long for the Hawken.

IIRC The full stocks were assembled by a really talented guy as Hal was the barrel maker. Even then the full stock hawken was the holy grail of hawkens at the time and outside of most shooters wallets. ANother maker, the late Andy Fautheree (sp) was in high demand and some of his work was like Boutet of france.

Texas Gil said:

I didn’t know enough back then to want a full stock. Now I would like to have a full stock flint Sharon.

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I had a chance to use a full stock Sharon on the range. It was a special order in .56 or .58, extra curly with cherry corners furniture. Balance, LOP, weight all perfect. The forearm was very thin and not at all like many of the "2x4's " I have seen since. As an "over 70", like many, weight, balance and fit have, and rapidly continue to become extremely critical features in any ML design especially "hawkens". My very last mongrel "hawken" build turned out to be a just a half stock long rifle. It will only work for me on the bench due its 39" barrel and damaged rotator cuffs. When i finished it last week it immediately reminded me of the Sgt York turkey/beef shoot. Rifles are funky (just like my mutts) but fun to watch.