I hope I made a good deal today...

[tecum-tha]

Surfing around on some gun auction site, I stumbled over a "description" saying:
.50 Hawken, can't find makers name on gun ,Has 32" barrel :grin: with very good bore :grin: , metal finish brown and worn :rotf: Has no ramrod :idunno: . Cracked stock at toe :hmm: . Price was low,too.
First picture I thought about another CVA, but upon closer picture inspection I saw a correct drum on a patent breach and a long barrel tang as well :wink: ,an older style hawken lock similar than on a friends Hawken which was buildt to the original plans in the 60ies :grin: , the ramrod thimbles appear to be soldered to the underrib and not screwed on like with the cheap copies and the trigger guard is steel as is the buttplate and toe plate.:grin: Everything is deeply browned and needs definately to see some oil. I got the rifle for $5 more than the minimum bid and hope to get it sometimes next week. Since the maker was not visible,I will pull the barrel and hope to find the barrel maker on the bottom where it belongs :grin: I hope for a Douglas or? The crack in the toe is not bad,because I will shorten the stock anyways to my preferred LOP.
Look here:

 

[hanshi]

Don't know what you paid for it but if it's in good shape you have a decent rifle. They make fine shooters.

 

[MSW]

based on my limited knowledge, i'd say you've done well, unless the bore is a real mess.

good luck with your new rifle!

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

It would be interesting to see more photos after you receive it. Looks pretty good so far.

 

[M. De Land]

Wonder if it is a home built made from ordered parts, like Track of the Wolf.MD

 

[tecum-tha]

I am wondering about that,too. I will hopefully find out when I get it.
I paid $200,shipping included. If it is out of quality parts,what I hope, it is for sure a deal...
I will let you know...

 

[BrownBear]

I'd have to dig out my own for comparison, but between the tang, lock and snail, I'm almost ready to guess that it's from GRRW. But the inletting around the buttplate and toe plate says it's from one of their kits, rather than a factory gun.

If my supposition is good and the bore is good, you done just fine grasshopper! :wink:

 

[plmeek]

My guess is that it was built from a Sharon Rifle Barrel Co. kit. I have one with the same breech plug. The snail on their plugs have a fairly unique shape. The kit came with pewter to cast the nose cap.

 

[F.G. Ford]

If the barrel turns out to be good and sound, you made a great buy.
$350 in parts alone!
The crack in the toe of the stock is an easy repair, that will be stronger than new.
Ram rods are easy to make, and also let the gun be yours.
Good fortune and great shopping!
Old ford

 

[varsity07840]

My guess is that it was built from a Sharon Rifle Barrel Co. kit. I have one with the same breech plug. The snail on their plugs have a fairly unique shape. The kit came with pewter to cast the nose cap.

Mtn. Meek:

Is that big head on the clean out screw common on Sharons? I've only seen one up close once and that was 25 years ago. I agree that it's a kit gun. The green cast stock color is a dead give away for the chromium trioxide stain popular back when Sharon and GRRW were in business.

Duane

were in business

 

[plmeek]

Most of the Sharon breech plugs I've seen did not have a clean out screw like that, but it would be easy to install one. The flash channel was drilled perpendicular to the bore from the off side, plugged with a screw, peen, then filed flush. The kit builder could have drilled into the flash channel from the snail side, tapped, and installed the clean out screw. The only tricky part would have been lining up correctly with the existing flash channel.

Sharon Hawken

Sharon plug

Flash channel plug

 

[tecum-tha]

I haven't received the gun yet. Last monday was a holiday that slowed down the sending of my MO.
I hope to receive it this week and will strip it and hopefully be able to find some markings...

 

[tecum-tha]

Unbelievable,that MO took 9 days to arrive. Never seen a letter beeing so slow. Anyways, he sent it to me today so I will know soon.

 

[plmeek]

If it does turn out to be a Sharon kit, I occasionally see one of their old stocks offered for sale on eBay like this: 270893875721

This one happens to be walnut, but I've seen maple ones offered, too.

Restocking gives you another option vs trying to repair the split in the toe.

 

[tecum-tha]

I got it this morning, unpacked it but haven't had time before work to check it out. I only saw that the inletting really sucks, not even around the toe plate/buttplate. But around the lock/entry thimble,too. Mortises are slightly too big, but could be wrong original pre-carve as well.
I will make pictures tonight and will post asap. I will also check for any makers marks.

 

[tecum-tha]

Ok,folks,here we go:
I disassembles the rifle and cleaned the heck out of the barrel. There was some rust in the barrel,mostly in the powder chamber. It looks to me that the rifle was stored,but did not get any oil regularly. Anyways, I brushed the bore several times and run ballistol soaked patches along. At the end the patches came out clean. I have it soaking some more. The lock is an L&R, you can see in the pictures. The barrel is unmarked, .50 cal with deep square cut rifling.
The clean-out screw has a needletip sized hole in it. This is the first time I've seen a hole in a clean-out screw. That seems odd.
I oiled everything heavily with Ballistol, that why some stuff is a little shiny now. This is just a cleanup step. I still don't know if this is a Sharon or a GRRW kit. Ok here are the pictures:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Actually, the hole in the screw is probably a good idea by a prior owner. It was all the rage in the late 70's to drill a tiny hole in the flash channel for the air to escape and prevent back pressure from stopping the flash when the cap went off - one of those swell ideas that occasionally sweeps the m/l community but nobody knows who started it or why. Most folks didn't see any difference and it has fallen out of favor. At least in the screw rather than the snail/drum it is easily correctable. Could also be someone used a flintlock vent as the threads fit. :haha:

 

[tecum-tha]

The tiny hole is in the screw, but I see no reason to change it. It obviously worked before, so it will in the future as well....
Now, I saw another picture of a sharon hawken rifle on gunsamerica and it seemed to have the same teardrop shaped "micro-sideplate" as the rifle. No markings on the lower barrel flats either.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

... It was all the rage in the late 70's to drill a tiny hole in the flash channel for the air to escape and prevent back pressure from stopping the flash when the cap went off - one of those swell ideas that occasionally sweeps the m/l community but nobody knows who started it or why. Most folks didn't see any difference and it has fallen out of favor. ...

Actually, those holes date back to the early days of percussion ignition, sort-of as a holdover from flint ignition. It was believed that it gave better ignition and/or initial combustion, but the idea was dieing out by the 1850s IIRC.

Regards,
Joel

 

[tecum-tha]

@MtMeek: Thank you for the ebay link. I bought this stock. The stock will always give me a template to have one pre-carve copied from it.

@interested audience:
I think I made a good deal. I just came back from the backyard range and I just took 5 fast shots from about 35 yards sitting on the ground with my b..t on a foam pad using thin bamboo cross sticks just tied together with shoe laces as a rest. This was ok, but not as stable a rest as from my shooting bench or prone over a log. But I really didn't want to get the fold up benchrest out for only a few shots.
I used some un-weighted .490, pillow ticking with just hand-rubbed-in bore butter. I wiped between shots with a moist moose milk patch.75 grains 2F Schuetzen Black Powder. Point of aim was center of the red dot.I think the rifle did good for such rough loading procedure. Here is the result: