safari arms hawken/trade rifle

[johnwm]

Hello, first time poster here.

After playing with muzzleloading in my teens (1970's) I got away from it except for using inlines for the last few years to extend my deer season. I have also done a bit of hunting recently with a Lyman Deerstalker. However, I got the urge to get back into traditional muzzleloading, and went to a local gunshow hoping to trade away my T/C Thunderhawk inline towards a Lyman GPR or Trade Rifle.

On impulse, I made a deal (even swap) for a Safari Arms sidehammer muzzleloader. The vendor called it a Hawken, but it looks almost identical to a Lyman Trade Rifle except it has a patchbox and a double-set trigger. Haven't fired it yet...it's been raining and/or snowing since I got it two days ago...but I'm wondering what, if anything, I can learn about it here. I usually do my research before buying, not after, LOL, but better late than never.

I am hoping to use the gun with patched ball loads and real blackpowder, for hunting as well as casual plinking. The twist seems to be 48 inches. Condition is excellent, and the set trigger is nice.

Did I do good or bad?

John

 

[Trot]

Sounds like an Investarms Hawken, the same that Cabela's and Dixie sell as their Hawkens. If it is, it should be a good shooter.

 

[bpd303]

I would say you did good trading an in-line for a Hawken.

 

[petew]

Safari Arms was a company in Toronto that imported Invest Arm guns just like Lyman does.Go to the investarm site and you can see what model it is and what model the Lymans are.
Good guns and all the lyman parts fit.
http://www.investarm.com/eng-avancarica.html

 

[cynthialee]

any time you trade an inline in for a sidelock is a good day
:haha:

what is the caliber?

 

[George T.]

Your sure right about that. By the way what caliber is it? Geo. T.

By the way praise be we be having spell check!

 

[johnwm]

Thanks for the info, gents...very helpful!

Judging by the Investarms site, it is a model 120B. It has a nicely coloured and figured stock, and it's a .54 caliber. Bore looks perfect. I found out that the double-set triggers can be "set" and then dry-fired without cocking the hammer and bashing on the nipple. I've been dry-firing at the TV for an hour now...I'm up to a dozen elephants already, and who-knows-how-many lions and buffalo.

We're in the midst of a lovely April snowstorm which is supposed to last through tomorrow, so I hope to make some smoke the next day.

Thanks again for the assistance...I can tell that this site is going to be a godsend.

John

 

[sumoj275]

I just picked up a Invest Arm from a lady whose father put it together and then never shot it. For the money I can see that I will have a nice rifle when I get the stock shaped and finished, rear and brown sight added, and brown the brl. Mine is a .50 cal and I have been thinking of picking up a .54 cal brl, and see if I can locate a .45 cal to make it an all-arounder.

Congrats on your new rifle!

 

[GaCop]

+1. I have an Investarms (Cabelas) and it shoots RB or Maxi-Bullets with excellent accuracy.

Tom

 

[William O.]

You did good. My Investarms .54 barrel has the 1:48 rate of twist and is an excellent shooter using a .530 RB patched with .018 mattress ticking lubed with nothing more than olive oil and pushed by a charge of 85 grains of 2f Goex. I suggest that you replace the nipple too, and go with one made from either stainless steel or bronze (Treso-AMPCO metal).

 

[BrownBear]

Did I do good or bad?

You did very well. Between my wife and I we have something over half a dozen Investarms rifles including both Lyman's and other brands. Calibers are 50, 54 and 58. And all of them are reliable and accurate. Pretty good track record, isn't it?

 

[carolina cowboy]

now that's funny cynthialee..... :haha:

 

[Billnpatti]

Ya done good, my man! :hatsoff: Trading an inline for a well made traditional muzzleloading rifle in good condition is, to me, like trading a Yugo for a nice used pickup. You just can't go wrong with a deal like that. Go ahead, strut a little, you earned it. :thumbsup:

 

[hawkeye2]

While you aren't bashing the hammer and nipple you are bashing the trigger bar against the sear which could damage those parts. This might be specially true if the hammer were in the half cock position.

 

[johnwm]

Pardon the resurrection of this thread after several months. I had several days of shooting and playing with this new-to-me rifle before leaving home for an out-of-province job, and got back just a week ago. Shot it a bit more this afternoon, after equipping it with a Lyman aperture sight borrowed from my Deerstalker.

I am getting great results (2.5 inch groups @ 100 yards...great for me!) with this set-up using a PRB and 70 grains of FFg. Any more powder and the accuracy starts to degrade. I have a couple of assorted full-bore (non-sabot) slug varieties on hand and hope to come up with a more powerful hunting load using one of them. Blackpowder season here is at the end of the month and I would love to use this gun to take the one-and-only whitetail I am allowed this year.

My sincere thanks to all who have provided info here, and especially to hawkeye2 for the dry-firing warning...I have reduced my elephant culling accordingly!