Gun Stories

[ord sgt]

I watched Gun Stories on TV last night. They did a segment on the Hawken rifle. Some of the videos showed what appeared to be a Traditions half stock rifle that was customized by the owner. Rudimentary checkering on the wrist and fore end. But what caught my attention was the slow-motion firing of the caplock. The amount of powder used was unknown but after the hammer hit the cap, a puff of smoke came out of the nipple blowing the hammer back. Not enough to go to half cock so the hammer fell back on the nipple. It could be due to an enlarged flash hole in the base of the nipple and a heavy powder charge or a less than heavy main spring.
I just thought it was curious to see. That's all there is.

 

[Rum River]

My neighbor has a Hawken percussion .50 of some make or another with which he was having a lot of ignition problems. He described his maintenance and shooting routine for that rifle and.....without going into a tremendous amount of detail he was just flat out doing everything wrong.

I offered to clean his flash channel, chamber, bore etc. and come up with a combination of components that shot well.

Instead a guy "who knows an awful lot about this kinda gun stuff" convinced said neighbor to let him "bore out" the flash channel and re-thread for a musket nipple.

Now whenever he shoots this thing it puts the hammer on full cock.

 

[ETipp]

The only time I have ever had a hammer go to half-cock after firing was due to shooting too much powder with a Maxi Ball.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I saw the show, that "Hawken" they used as the main example was a terrible representation of a real Hawken, even a TC would have been better than that hack job they showed. That wood butcher stock carving was perhaps the worst I have ever seen and emphasizes my point that a rifle with no carving looks much better than one with amateurish carving on it.

I also noticed that when the host fired his gun there was a bang but no smoke from the barrel or primer, Hollywood stuff, I guess.

Here is the "Hawken" the used as an example, some idiot went wild with a wood burning pen.

What a beauty, NOT! I sent a note to the show's producers telling them to fire their B/P adviser.

 

[Absoroka]

Totally cringe worthy. I guess beauty still lies in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I know an awful lot about some things with the emphasis on awful.