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"Fixing" the TC Hawken

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Boomer

40 Cal.
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
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Location
Kentucky
Howdy folks, I have a TC Hawken 54 I bought as a kit in the early 80s that I recently started shooting again after being in the safe for 20yrs. Its still a fine shooter but I have an itch to make it more HC.

I have looked at the parts in the Hawken Shop & plan to order their 4 piece conversion set to replace all my brass furniture with iron.
I am wondering if anyone else here has undertaken this particular project & if so can comment on quality & how well it goes together.

Of particular interest is if anyone has taken it farther than just the kit? I would like to replace the patchbox, wedgeplates & tang as well.
As you might imagine my concern is; are the new patchbox, wedgeplate & tang larger than the existing furniture? Obviously its easy enough to remove material but adding it is a another thing entirely. Looking at the patchbox it looks larger than the TC version but I would rather be sure before spending $80 on a guess. I have significant doubts about the tang & wedgeplates but it doesnt hurt to ask.

Currently the rifle looks as good if not better than anything the factory turned out & is in pristine condition. I only say that to to highlight I am not looking to fix an inferior build. I want the rifle when altered to look as good as it does now only with HC furniture.

Any insight & comments would me most appreciated.

Bob
 
No matter what you do, short of complete replacement of the rifle, you will still have a factory made TC not-really-a-hawken-hawken. If you want to give the rifle a more earthy look, do similar to what I did when I bought mine. I stripped off the shiny finish, lightly oiled the wood and, whenever I used the rifle, rubbed my dirty patches over all the brass to (sorta) antique or age it's appearance. Plus I (crudely) added a couple inlays to personalize it. Ain't pretty, but to my eyes, it's mine.
 
The Hawken Shop sells very good parts in general. I would call them and have them tell you about the parts you're interested in. If you want steel parts to customize your rifle they are a good resource.
The TC Hawken is historically styled but is not the style of a mountain rifle. There are many original rifles that look very much like the TC but are from the 1860s built as target guns. New York state rifles often had a near identical trigger guard, cap box and nose cap of brass. Any frontiers man would be proud to have one.
If I was to change a TC to make it more old timey looking the sights would be the first thing to change.
 
I guess you can change out the parts you listed and it will look closer to a Hawken style of rifle. The sights are the biggest eyesore to me. Replace the front with a german silver blade and replace the rear with a prpoper buckhorn style would be the first step I took.

Or maybe just sell it and apply the money to a closer replica. Even a Lyman Great Plains rifle is a closer model than the TC will ever be. Or even better one of the Pedersoli Hawken rifles.
 
I agree that the T/C does not resemble the plains rifles. The T/C looks more like a Dimmick or Hawken rifle built in 45 or smaller calibers for hunting in Missouri or parts east. The brass scrolled trigger guard is quite common in Dimmick and J. P Gemmer built late percussion rifles.

The Hawken name was (is) a marketing strategy to sell rifles. After all, who would buy a Dimmick or Gemmer (who bought the rights to produce Hawken marked rifles) when the Hawken was the "Mountain Man's Choice".

That said, the parts set from the Hawken shop will go a long way to improving the looks of the T/C rifle. The Hawken Shop does have a replacement sight that is a great improvement over the adjustable factory sight. I am sure that the patch box question has come up often and a call to the Hawken Shop should answer that question.

Take your time as these parts are not necessarily drop in replaceable. But you will change the looks of your rifle I think for the better.
 
I had forgotten about it but TC used to offer a base with a fixed blade sight to replace the adjustable read sight so the gun could be shot in competitions that required a fixed rear sight. And I have one.

You could mount that and it saves cutting a dovetail in the barrel. The factory blade is an ugly affair that just sticks straight up and is sent extra tall for filing to the correct POA. But that could be replaced with a more traditional rear sight blade.
 
burlesontom said:
I had forgotten about it but TC used to offer a base with a fixed blade sight to replace the adjustable read sight so the gun could be shot in competitions that required a fixed rear sight. And I have one.

You could mount that and it saves cutting a dovetail in the barrel. The factory blade is an ugly affair that just sticks straight up and is sent extra tall for filing to the correct POA. But that could be replaced with a more traditional rear sight blade.

I just picked up a TC Hawken with adjustable rear sight. Where would I pick up a fixed rear sight for it?
 
Twer it me, or myself even, I would go straight to TOTW and have that sucker in hand in a few days. Other options but I believe for that item TOTW would be a good first call.
 
Hi....assembled a .50 TC Hawken kit in 1976 and the brass parts didn't bother me because I knew it wasn't a Hawken and bought it soley for deer hunting.

What did bother me was the cheek slapping because of the high comb and bulbous cheek piece. So I lowered the comb as much as the Bplate return would allow and removed a lot of wood from the cheek piece along w/ reshaping it.

The stock changes were worthwhile and the TC Hawken was very comfortable to shoot after they were made.....Fred

80qMClz.jpg
 
I guess you can change out the parts you listed and it will look closer to a Hawken style of rifle.

The sights are the biggest eyesore to me.

Replace the front with a german silver blade and replace the rear with a prpoper buckhorn style would be the first step I took.

+1 - I swapped out the T/C adjustable rear sight for a drop-in fixed rear sight from The Hawken Shop.

It looked much better, and was fairly easy to zero (YMMV, of course).
 
Fred gave me some excellent advice on how he reshaped and tamed his TC, I followed his lead on a 30 year old kit that was found in my dad's house. I reshaped just about everything on the stock, butt, lock panels and forestock. I like the look.

100_4686.JPG


100_4683.JPG
 
+1 - I swapped out the T/C adjustable rear sight for a drop-in fixed rear sight from The Hawken Shop.

It looked much better, and was fairly easy to zero (YMMV, of course).

I went to The Hawken Shop website and could not find a "drop in" replacement fixed rear sight for the T/C adjustable rear sight. What is the part number?
 
I went to The Hawken Shop website and could not find a "drop in" replacement fixed rear sight for the T/C adjustable rear sight. What is the part number?
Try The Gun Works in Oregon, they have a great sight for you, I have several, just install and file notch as needed.
 
I bought and installed the kit from the Hawken shop when it was in St Louis. I put on ramrod pipes from a Renegade, filled the screw holes for the rear sight and dovetailed in a buckhorn, and replaced the front sight with a silver blade on a copper base and also replaced the barrel key and escutcions with Renegade parts. I slightly reshaped the cheekpiece to flow better more like a Hawken. I still have the original patch box. Maybe someday I'll get around to changing it. It looks a lot like a Hawken but smaller with the 28 inch barrel. I do get a lot of comments on it. I built the gun from a kit in 1979
 
I have looked at the parts in the Hawken Shop & plan to order their 4 piece conversion set to replace all my brass furniture with iron.
I am wondering if anyone else here has undertaken this particular project & if so can comment on quality & how well it goes together.

I've installed a couple of their steel replacement parts sets. They're very well made and I have no issue. In fact I prefer their fixed replacement rear sight to TC's originals. I also replaced the front sight with one from TOW.

I dislike the way TC Hawken stocks fit me so completely that I've replaced one with one from Pecatonica and would consider doing it again, the results were so good for the way it fit me. Read that description and look at the picture to discover why.

I also dislike the TC triggers so much that I always replace with the R.E. Davis Deerslayer models. That's such an improvement it's worth every penny. Interesting enough it fits the Lyman GPR as well, so all my GPR's wear one.

Let's see now.... I've replaced all the brass, the sights, the stock and the trigger. At least we're left with the TC lock and barrel. But is it still a TC Hawken?
 
Let's see now.... I've replaced all the brass, the sights, the stock and the trigger. At least we're left with the TC lock and barrel. But is it still a TC Hawken?

What is is is what you wanted it to be! More of a Hawken than a TC Hawken. Maybe draw file the TC labeling off the barrel and brown everything?
A few pictures would be a good thing....
 
Nothing wrong with a T/C Hawken,... it's just a name.
Mostly IMHO, it was just a smart,successful advertising ploy at the time...
I think it worked... they sold a few guns in their time.

But they are Killers...

E940283-A-6-F60-472-A-AC0-E-5-FE575-E79926.jpg


23-DCD6-B2-D7-B7-4-B55-8-D84-E5-C963-FF15-A3.jpg


1-F76-C9-E6-153-A-4504-81-BE-0-CBDA4-AEA144.png


Just a few I've taken with mine in the past few years.

I've seen several converted with the parts mentioned above over the years,most of which looked great.

It's all in a Mans personal preferences as too what he likes or dislikes.
If every ones were the same, the World would be a boring place.


Excellent job on the kit Eric, that made a great looking gun.

It's true a TC gun will always be a TC gun, But if they're a great gun for the money and sadly they are not being Manufactured anymore.

There's a lot of Old Gray Beards who cut their muzzle loading dentures on them!
 
The Renegades weren’t bad guns either,
I just never got use to the thick front blade sight.

1EFFE995-5DB2-499C-B122-FB07BE6E393D.png

I much preferred the bead on my “Hawken”.

5CDF6511-F86F-4EB2-9F6C-36BB2CC24922.jpeg



Aim small, Miss small.
 
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