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Hawken squirrel rifle

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Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
76
Reaction score
192
Location
the Niagara
Last fall I asked for recommendations for a light weight, hooked breech rifle project. I wanted to build a rifle my teenage daughter and the 4H kids in my shooting sports club would find easy to handle and clean.
I settled on a set of squirrel rifle parts from Don Stith. I've worked on the gun on and off since February and it's now ready for the range.
It's .45 caliber, with the recommended L&R
lock and my first attempt at a poured pewter forend cap.

PXL_20210724_190242782.jpgPXL_20210724_190235800.jpgPXL_20210724_191737207.jpgPXL_20210724_190310606.jpgPXL_20210724_190324498~2.jpg
 
Beautiful rifle ! Congratulations. Good choice on .45 caliber - much easier to clean, especially between shots than say, a .32.

You can always "bark" a squirrel with a large bore - just shoot the tree below the squirrel's head and kill him with the flying bark. Or, shoot it in the body and have stew meat already in pieces.

Really like the long tang on the breech. Nice.
 
I am glad you were able to contact Don Stith and get the parts from him. I tried contacting him numerous times through email and phone messages and never received a response.
I ordered everything from him in late January, early February, after the Christmas shipping backlogs had cleared, and had a few good conversations with him. He did mention his wife was very sick at that time. I have heard people now say he is struggling with his health. I do hope not as he struck me as a very decent fellow. I am proud to have been able to use his parts.
 
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