Hatfield Rifles

[Horace]

Someone tell me all they know about Hatfield rifles. I am a relative newcomer and am vaguely familiar with this rifle, but know nothing about it. Help me!

 

[[email protected]]

They dont make um anymore,,,,
they come in a variety of calibers, percussion & Flint
& and they shur R a nice rifle...
maybe sumbody else can fill ya in a bit more, but that all I know othern that I sure would like to own one!

*** WV SCROUNGER ***

 

[Mike Brooks]

The only ones I've seen are the ones that come to me for repair. I'm probably just seeing the lemons.....there sure seems to be alot of those....
Generally the complaints are that they won't hold a group. The reason for this is the way they hold the barrel to the stock....bad design. The second problem is the locks won't spark dependably. I turn all hatfields away these days, they cost more to fix then they're worth. Not to mention, there's enough wood on those things to build two ugly rifles out of.... :winking: What do those things run in todays market...$600 bucks or so?

 

[bpollock_sr]

I shot a hatfield rifle for about three yrs. It was in 50 cal and a real pretty gun. The problem is the way the barrel is secured to the stock. It is held in place with screws. With my rifle, when shooting at the range ,the warmer the barrel got ,wether due to shooting or the outside temp,the lower and farther right the gun would shoot. The only way it could be corrected was to set the rifle in the shade and let it cool completely.Shooting a cold clean barrel was the only way I could get it to group well.This made it almost impossible to use in most matches,and made for long days without much shooting being done, so I eventualy sold the rifle.


" and those were great times" Lewis Black

 

[quinnconner]

The ones I have been around, looked pretty but shot awful.I saw a guy at a shooting match one day.Take his by the barrel and head towards a post with it.He didnt actually wrap it around the post ,but he was thinkin about it.He had problems loading his to.I think the barrels and the locks on them are junk!So ,unless you want a wall hanger, I would stay away from Hatfields.
J.J.

 

[[email protected]]

thanks to everyone for the info....I was..(WAS) planning on someday gitting one....after all the negative post I have
changed my mind.....the screwed barrel is the thing that shocks me...and if it dont shoot good it aint worth havin.

*** WV SCROUNGER ***

 

[Stoney]

I own four Hatfield rifles, .50 and .54 Cal percussian Mountain Rifles, both of which have the barrels held in place by two wedge pins, so heating is not a problem with the barrels on the half stock Mountain Rifles.

I also have two full stock flintlock rifles, one is A .36 cal,and the other is A.50 cal.I have never had a bit of trouble with the locks or keeping a decent group with a hot barrel. I have heard of other people having trouble with there Hatfields, but my rifles have given me many years of trouble free service.

I 'v made meat with Hatfields, and spent all day on the rifle range without problem.So before you decide all Hatfields are junk, I wanted to you to hear someone that has had good luck with there rifles.

 

[[email protected]]

AH....yes...
the other side of the story.... I am glad somebody has good things to say.....I still like em now...
still might git one....have only seen 1 in my entire muzzleloading LIFE.....are they THAT scarce???

*** WV SCROUNGER ***

 

[danlwhite]

good to hear both sides; I know that at Cains muzzleloading shop, the current version of Mt. State Muzzleloading, has one on the wall and they have a lot of stories about it. Most of their problems dealt with the guy who made the guns, not necessarily the gun. Unless something has changed, I don't believe they are made anymore. Might be worth a call to Ed Cain, a former Mt. State owner, to get his take on the gun if you find one for sale somewhere. I do have a friend who owned one and after 2 or 3 outings, sold it because he had trouble getting it to shoot right.
Then again, maybe his was one of those that had trouble and another guy didn't, who knows. I would just check with Ed before I laid out a lot of cash. :imo:

 

[Rebel]

The Pedersoli Frontier/Cabela's Blue Ridge are as close to an original Hatfield as you will get without it being an original.

 

[Stoney]

Hatfields pop up on both Gunbroker and AuctionArms all the time.There's a .36 cal fullstock percussion on Gunbroker right now with the current bid at 400.00 dollars. Hatfields are a good semi custom rifle, are the as good as A custom rifle, No, but in my opinion, they are a good looking, acurate rifle that will take game, and are good for a day of fun on the range.

 

[Stumpkiller]

The only one I've known in person was a friend's .36 from the mid 80's and it was a fine shooter. As I remember Ted Hatfield sold the rights to some other company and things didn't stay the same.

Do they ever?

 

[the skrat]

ive had a hatfield for 5 or 6 years now real pretty gun .45 cal flinter my first flinter gets about 30 shots or so out of a flint fairly large lock might have something to do with being hard on flints not a gun i would bring to a shooting match and would expect to win but accurate enough for deer hunting it has made meat several times but i just recieved a custom armstrong flinter with a rice barrel and siler lock wow big differance but i couldnt afford a custom gun at the time so it served its purpose well still have it probably wont shoot it much any more :m2c:
curly maple

 

[[email protected]]

curly maple....I wish to send you a PM but is says you are not accepting.... please check your settings

 

[weirdjack]

The Pedersoli Frontier/Cabela's Blue Ridge are as close to an original Hatfield as you will get without it being an original.

Doesn't the Blue Ridge also have it's barrel held by screws instead of pins? I read somewhere earlier this year that the cure for shifting groups with this construction style was to loosen the barrel retaining screws a little to let it have some room to float.
Jack

 

[Deadeye]

The Pedersoli Frontier #269 is the same gun but without the premium wood that Hatfield used, Pedersoli price $1200.
I have the Hatfield .50, beautiful gun, shoots great with the screws tight, 1/70 twist. I've heard that some of the later guns were made with fast twist barrels.

 

[Rebel]

Yes it is held with screws that go up through the ramrdo thimbles into a piece on the bottom of the barrel. Never had any problems with the system myself. Both of the Blue Ridge rifles i had shot just fine.

 

[the skrat]

hello wv scrounger you are correct i do not accept pm because in the past had trouble with viruses and unwanted e mails so when i joined this board i promised my wife no emails sorry but will answer any questions over the forum

curly maple