TC Hawken Custom XXV

[mykeal]

Came home from the auction today with an unusual Thompson Center Hawken. The barrel is stamped Hawken Custom XXV, and the metal parts are all a very highly polished dark blue - all of them, barrel, lock, hammer, trigger guard, butt plate, nose cap, ramrod thimbles and tips, wedge and wedge plates. The wood is a high grade of dark walnut, also highly polished. Cost me $250 and it's a beautiful gun, unfired as far as I can tell. I can't find any references to a custom grade Thompson Center Hawken - can anyone provide any background?

 

Very nice you stole it!

 

[pepperbelly]

Beautiful rifle.

Jim

 

[roundball]

Yes, it was one of those special runs TC does every few years with a Hawken model variant...the custom was a .50cal caplock only in the mid 90's...deluxe wood, mirror finish, etc...had a new one myself several years ago that I got as part of a trade for a centerfire I was selling...took it out of the case a couple times and finally decided to sell it without every firing it...I knew I could never carry it into the woods as everythng that touched it would scratch that finish...pretty rifles and a good price at $250

 

[mykeal]

Yeah, this one is probably going to become a 'barbeque gun', going to the range only for the formal, more social events.

 

[MSW]

wow- nice looking rifle, but you shouldn't steal.

the government hates competition.

 

[roundball]

Yeah, this one is probably going to become a 'barbeque gun', going to the range only for the formal, more social events.

FYI...I just now looked more closely at your photos...to be honest, I'm not sure what that is any longer...the Hawken Custom that is featured in one of the TC catalogs I have from the mid 90's shows all the furniture as highly polished deep blue/black color...your photos show brass furniture...unless that's somehow the lighting in the photo?

And, I don't remember from my own brief ownership the barrel stamp including XXV on the barrel.
For example I have a 25th Anniversary .45cal TC Hawken, but 25th Anniversary is what's stamped on the barrel, not XXV...you might want to give TC a call and query them a little about these two points jusy out of curiosity. Maybe they made even yet another variant, although I have TCs catalogs from the 70s/80s/90s and don't see that specific configuration.

 

[mykeal]

The metal is a dark blue/black.

The 'brass' tone is due to a poor natural light photo with my new Olympus digital. It has outstanding low light capability and I really don't know how to use it properly yet. I'll get some true color photos in the next few days. Sorry for the poor photo quality, but I got home late and wanted to get a photo into the posting. I should have done better.

I will call TC, however, about the barrel markings.

 

[RedFeather]

I remember handling one in a shop circa 1990 or so. Believe it was priced around $500 or so back then. Great deal!

 

[oldwolf]

That's a very nice Hawken Mykeal. Looks to be NIB condition. The furniture is from a Renegade, or at least, it is the same blued steel furniture from one, and I have often wondered what a Hawken would look like in the "Black", so to speak.

Is the buttplate also Black, do you have a picture of it for us? I'd like a full view picture of that rifle if you have one too.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Mike I don't have alot from personal knowlege to share about TC's but from pic's and price. Well lets just say you got a heck of a deal.
I looked at a TC at a gun show 2 years ago. Owner said it had never been fired but I think it had and swore it was a TC custom but I do not remember seeing anything on the barrel about it. To me it looked more like a kit, some areas around the breech and lock did not seem to fit well. He wanted $350.00 back then for it!
While I am thinking about it did TC offer kits on there .50 back in the 70-80's?
Roundball? Anyone got an answer about kit rifles?

 

[kansas_volunteer]

All I can tell you is the wood is most likely Kansas walnut. For years T/C had all its stocks for all of its various guns made by a mill in Perry, KS. I applied for a job there once. You should have seen the "sample" stocks hanging on the wall, they were drop dead gorgeous. I don't know if the stocks are still being made there or not.

 

[Walks Alone]

50cc - Yes, they offered Hawken kits early on. I believe the kit guns had a "K" prefix serial number or a "K" stamped on the breech plug, and I've even heard of stocks with a "K" in the barrel inlet as well. I also remember seeing one with this barrel stamp before, but can't remember if it was in person or just from a picture.

Regardless, great find at a great price.

 

[oldwolf]

I built my Renegade from a kit, and the bottom of the breech plug has a "K" stamped in it. Also, the inside of the forearm has an inked "K" stamped in it too. There is not a "K" as part of the serial number though.

 

[roundball]

That's a very nice Hawken Mykeal. Looks to be NIB condition. The furniture is from a Renegade, or at least, it is the same blued steel furniture from one, and I have often wondered what a Hawken would look like in the "Black", so to speak.

Is the buttplate also Black, do you have a picture of it for us? I'd like a full view picture of that rifle if you have one too.

Just for some additional info, it's not actually Renegade furniture...all the "Custom Hawken" furniture has a special mirror finish you can see your teeth in, literally

 

[roundball]

While I am thinking about it did TC offer kits on there .50 back in the 70-80's?

Agree with W/A...they offerred kits pretty much from the beginning.
The letter K was used as a prefix for kit barrels up to a point not long ago. TC got tired of having so many TC barrels laying around out there having botched up barrel jobs with TCs name on them from poor kit work, that they stopped using in-the-white barrels in their kits, and just included factory finished barrels...the factory barrels just have normal numeric serial numbers.

 

[mykeal]

I'm still not getting the pictures I want with this new camera, but here's a couple of tolerable ones:

 

[oldwolf]

Very nice.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Thanks for the info on the kits everyone. Pics are good Mykeal. Did you kinda feel like you had to back up to the counter to pay for that one! :grin: Looks like you got a great deal.

:hmm: Is it just me is the forum site moving slooooooooooow this morning?

 

[mykeal]

The auction that I got this gun at is an interesting one, and may become a regular one. It's held quarterly, in a village in central Michigan, in an old brick opera house. The venue is too small - they get many more people than they have room for and sell more guns than they have room to display comfortably. You have to be there when they open to get a seat and to inspect anything you're interested in as the lines get long quickly, and much time is spent standing around waiting to get up to the displays.

I got an ASM Colt Walker at this auction also; it wasn't as good a deal as it cost pretty much what the book value is, but it's in very good shape. This is the same place I got my T/C .54 cal White Moutain Carbine last fall; a cherry gun for $120. So, other than the crowded conditions, I like this auction. It's been very good to me twice.