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Hawkins stock help

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Loja man

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I am contemplating re finishing a TC Hawkins stock. It is a kit gun. Stock was finished poorly. Especially around the lock and waist (I think). I know with long rifles the stock along the barrel should be finished to a thin edge. How about on a Hawkins?
How about some of you with nice Hawkins show your guns off! Pics playing special attention to stock details?
My sister in law is buying it for my brother-in-law for Christmas….trying to decide if I have time to give the stock a little working over.
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Here’s some more photos. Notice bumpiness of the stock under the trigger guard. Most of you may be much more familiar with the TC Hawkins than me. At first I thought the lock just needed shimmed out to meet the wood face. But then when I disassembling the lock and barrel I noticed that the snail on the barrel holds lock tight against the barrel. So the stock itself needs send down to meet the lock. In that case everything we need slim down. Am I correct in this deduction?
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To look the best you need to get rid any flat places in the stock as well as that "bump" at the back of the wrist.

I did a kit a couple of years ago and made a lot of changes to the stock TC stock.

I defined the lock and side plate panels and got rids of as much flat wood behind them as I could.

hawken stock shaping tang 004.JPG


I rounded the forearm and inletted all the metal parts down to be level with the wood


hawken metal to wood fit 001.JPG


hawken metal to wood fit 002.JPG


hawken stock shaping tang 001.JPG


Here is the biggie; I lowered the comb to be less of a cheek slapper and reshaped the cheekpiece to be more "Hawken like". I made the wood flow from the buttplate up through the wrist to eliminate any humps or bumps. I rounded the wrist as much as I could but there wasn't much wood to work with.

Done, the grain flow in the stock wood gives some lines that show as wood shaping but they are just wood grain.

TC cheek side.JPG


That is not a dished out place at the back of the wrist, just wonky wood grain.

TC lock side.JPG
hawken cheek piece 001.JPG
 
I added a toe plate as well after I dropped the stock and chipped out a little piece of the toe. I added a patch at first but with no matching walnut my patch looked awful so I added the toeplate to hide the patch.

hawken toeplate 008.JPG


hawken toeplate 010.JPG


I took out the flat wood from the tang to the lock as well.

TC lock panel shape.JPG


A little wedge plate inletting

hawken wedge plate 002.JPG
 
Eric did a fine job by refining the lines and giving some contour where needed. Your lock needs to be against the barrel so don’t shim it. Note how his lock panels blend with a radius rather then a sharp step. When sanding use a block to back the sand paper to keep the surface from being wavy.
 
Thanks Eric! That is very helpful! Do you still have the Hawkins or did you sell it? Just curious if you could pull a couple measurements off of it?
Still trying to decide if I have time to tear into it and finish it before Christmas! Sent pictures of the rifle to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. So they’ve seen what the gun looks like. Being unfamiliar with muzzleloaders my brother-in-law has no point of reference. Yet it chafes to send him one that is so unbalanced. I had thought about tearing into it at some point. Yet it’s a gun that I was gonna let my 12 and 10-year-old son‘s use…..so why make it beautiful till they were older. My sister-in-law called asking about a muzzleloader that I might have for sale and I offered her the Hawkins or a new Englander. She chose the Hawkins so I will keep the New Englander for my boys.
 
This kit was found in my dad's closet when he went to assisted living so I have a personal attachment to it, I still have it and plan to keep it.

I was going to keep it pristine but decided that was not what I am about, no gun safe queens for me.

I killed one deer with the gun after I finished it and do shoot it occasionally. The neck shot was finisher, I broke both his shoulders with the first shot and had to run him down, he could snowplow and run on his back legs at a very fast clip.

TC buck.JPG
 
Great deer!! Also great that it was a gun your father had. When you have a few minutes would you mind measuring from the back point of the lock plate to the end of the Roman nose? I really like your idea of lowering the stock so it slaps your check less. Also the vertical measurement from the Roman nose straight down? How thin did you take the wood along the barrel?
Thank you for your help!
 
Where the comb touches the wrist to the lock plate is 3", From the peak of the nose to the bottom of the wrist is 2 1/2"

I have the forearm wood thickness at the barrel at 1/8" above the nose of the lock quickly tapering to 1/16" for the rest of the way out to the brass nose cap.

TC forearm taper.JPG
 
If I can bother you a little bit more :) how about a measurement from the top tip of the butt to the tip of the nose?
 
So I have been at it most of the day!
So the stock needs to be tapered along the barrel. Starting near the lock and sliming towards the nose cap. I got that part! To to illustrate my next question I have a wonderful piece of art :) which one better depicts the shape of the stock? 1 or 2? Does the stock taper with semi parallel and flat sides? Or should be more rounded like number two?
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I find a cheap wood dowel the size of the barrel can be tapped in the barrel channel. Then as you work down your side the dowel supports the edge so you limit your risk of breakage. You an even do all but the final sanding with the dowel in place
This saves you to from marking your barrel
 
So do I need to thin the nose down? Dish the side out more(for lack of a more technical term)?
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#2 on the forearm shaping, a slab sided forearm like #1 is always ugly.

I blew a knee out 3 weeks ago, the day before M/L season, my pain level has gone up every day and now walking room to room is a chore. I can't get an MRI until next week and see a Doc until the following week. No trips out to the gun safe out in the garage today to take more measurements right now.

It is hard to tell from this picture but I put a straight edge on the buttplate and looked at the transition across the butt to the wrist. I took off all the humps and bumps to make a smooth line from the buttplate to the wrist, you can see how narrow the nose of the comb is. I also carried the wrist down into the butt more than a factory gun stock.

hawken stock shaping tang 007.JPG
 
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