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TOW Hawken full stock plains rifle

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PAmike

32 Cal
Joined
Jan 2, 2024
Messages
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Location
PA
I was wondering if anyone has built or owns one of these rifles in a flint. Im really considering this as the first rifle build I take on.

I would like to hear any and all advice on this rifle if anyone has any real hands on experience or any comment on the subject

Thank u
 
I was wondering if anyone has built or owns one of these rifles in a flint. Im really considering this as the first rifle build I take on.

I would like to hear any and all advice on this rifle if anyone has any real hands on experience or any comment on the subject

Thank u
Not track, I built one from Log Cabin parts, my first build. L and R lock, green River barrel, now out of business, walnut stock, early flat to the wrist trigger guard, long triggers, plans from log cabin.
She was a shooter
All incorrect, luckily I have no photos of it as I did all wrong.
Flintlock plains style guns don’t seem to be a thing the Hawkens ever made.
There were flintlock style guns on full stocks that went to rendezvous
 
Not track, I built one from Log Cabin parts, my first build. L and R lock, green River barrel, now out of business, walnut stock, early flat to the wrist trigger guard, long triggers, plans from log cabin.
She was a shooter
All incorrect, luckily I have no photos of it as I did all wrong.
Flintlock plains style guns don’t seem to be a thing the Hawkens ever made.
There were flintlock style guns on full stocks that went to rendezvous
I really like the full stock hawkens look would you know of any other gun makers or kits that would be similiar to that look

I like the
Full stock
Flint
36” ish barrel
Pins to remove barrel
 
Lyman were full stock and flint lock, but the thin butts are uncomfortable
The Henry ‘English rifle’ was bought by the dozens by fur companies. Fitted with brass furniture and a flat style butt. The Dickert was another similar style
 
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One cannot say with certainty “The Hawkens never did that” just as you cannot say “Deringer never did that” or “Leman never did that”.
Never say never- don’t trap yourself into a corner thinking such.
We weren’t there, we don’t know what they did or didn’t do- we can only make assumptions based on the examples we have access to.

Rifle builders back in the day were businessmen, they built what the customers wanted, not what you think they built them.

There is definite documentation that a full stock Hawken rifle was cheaper than a halfstock.
 
There is no doubt if someone walked in to the Hawken shop and said I want a full stock Hawken iron mounted and flit lock the bothers would have said ‘very good choice sir. half down and half on delivery acceptable to you sir?
Jacob was building rifles in 1818 in Maryland. Any gun he made then would made would have been flintlock then. He would make a rifle for Ashley in 1821 or 22 that may have been flint.
Every know gun produced By Jacob and later by J and S in St Louis was cap
I’ve spent forty years really wanting an historic flint Hawken westren rifle. We know lots of flinters were still being sent west all through the rendezvous period and beyond and J and S and later Sam alone sold lots of rifles to both Rocky Mountain and American fur, I want some to be flinters, but can find no indication any were.
 
There is no documentation of full stock flint Hawken rifles built for the plains and the mountains. That's why I made a full stock Deringer replica.
I've browned several barrels. The best is to use one of the cold browns. Laurel Hill and Wahkon Bay are good. You live in Arizona and if you have room in your car or van to create a mini oven in the sun, you have an ideal browning oven. Make a small rack to lift the barrel free of the floor. Follow the instructions. Be sure that all oils are removed from the metal. Wear latex gloves. You don't want any fingerprints. Apply several coats of the solution, carding or wiping away light rust between applications. This may make a darker brown (almost black) than using the heat and humidity of your shower as a browning oven. It's not really that much of a pain and you have control of the results.

Here you see the results of the browning of my Harper's Ferry Rifle with Track's browning solution. The Derringer was left in the white.

View attachment 222442

The Harper's Ferry was browned in the back of my minivan. It got to about 150 degrees F and really did the job.

I got my plans from the Trade Rifle Sketch Book by Hanson for the 1809 Deringer rifle. Built from a plank. Had to find the parts by matching catalog pictures to the sketchbook.
 
Even the full stock Hawken they found in the river was percussion. In 1980 I built my son a scaled down replica of this J.J. Henry trade rifle, full stock and flintlock. It would be a good rifle to copy for a full stock rifle and be absolutely correct for the period.
20230909_104522.jpg
215583-IMG-6385.JPG
 
I was wondering if anyone has built or owns one of these rifles in a flint. Im really considering this as the first rifle build I take on.

I would like to hear any and all advice on this rifle if anyone has any real hands on experience or any comment on the subject

Thank u
I didn’t build it myself but I have this rifle from TOTW in .54 caliber. It’s a great gun to shoot.
 
I really like the full stock hawkens look would you know of any other gun makers or kits that would be similiar to that look
You could get to the look you want with a Pecatonica full stock "Hawken" or a full stock Leman. The stock will have enough wood to play with the look.

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/hawkenfull.shtml
http://www.longrifles-pr.com/lemanfull.shtml
The simple deflection to those stitch counters who attempt to critique or denigrate your "Hawken" is to point out that it's NOT a Hawken. Just a common plains rifle.

Ought to be downright potent medicine in a 54 or 58.
 
I have handled at least a half dozen original full stock Hawken rifles over the past 40 years. They all had barrels around 36 inches in around 50 caliber, no hooked breech and caplock. They were all slab sided and fairly ugly as well. Not all that heavy, probably 9 to 10 lbs.
 
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You could get to the look you want with a Pecatonica full stock "Hawken" or a full stock Leman. The stock will have enough wood to play with the look.

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/hawkenfull.shtml
http://www.longrifles-pr.com/lemanfull.shtml
The simple deflection to those stitch counters who attempt to critique or denigrate your "Hawken" is to point out that it's NOT a Hawken. Just a common plains rifle.

Ought to be downright potent medicine in a 54 or 58.
Not denigrating, as yet it looked like the rifle hadn’t been made.
One is going to spend the best part of a grand for the parts to build a great gun. However if you want a flint lock Mountian gun of the type sold in the rendezvous days a Hawken isn’t a choice. As far as we know there were no such guns made by Hawken brothers or Sam.
Could there have been one? Sure, but as far as we know there wasn’t
So an historical gun can be found in the style the shooter wants.
I want a percussion long land brown bess. Could one have been converted to it? Sure, but if you were going to lay down the money to get a percussion smoothbore and you asked for advice and was told you might want a late percussion smoothbore instead isn’t denigrating anyone’s choice
And a flintlock Hawken style like Tracks is a fine gun
 
@tenngun I think you may have missed my point. Those parts sets aren't going to make any sort of Hawken but they can be a sort of typical plains rifle that might have been used in the rockies during and after the fur trade era (which many narrow minded historians insist was over in 1840). There are journals of Trappers making a good bit of money trapping through the 1840s.

That style of rifle, whether Hawken or not is ideal for the mountain country then and now.

There wouldn't be much difference between a Track build and a Pecatonica build given that track gets the stock from Pecatonica.
 
@tenngun I think you may have missed my point. Those parts sets aren't going to make any sort of Hawken but they can be a sort of typical plains rifle that might have been used in the rockies during and after the fur trade era (which many narrow minded historians insist was over in 1840). There are journals of Trappers making a good bit of money trapping through the 1840s.

That style of rifle, whether Hawken or not is ideal for the mountain country then and now.

There wouldn't be much difference between a Track build and a Pecatonica build given that track gets the stock from Pecatonica.
Your going to get high quality parts from track, I’ve done several kits from track and everything was excellent, but to have an HC guns from track or Pecotonic a differnt style rifle would be more correct
The reason 1840 was used as a cut off is an arbitrary end. The rendezvous system died in ‘40, though in 42 and 43 there were very small ones held near forts
‘39 really opened up the Oregon trail. Then the Mormons moved in to Utah, settling communities in the mountains
Civilization was coming
‘46 saw the army…. Oh my, ‘49 gold miners.
At the same time 36 Smith died and Walker left trapping. Carson in 39, Meek in ‘40, Bridger opened a fort, oh say it ain’t so Jim, beaver had fell out of style in 36, there just wasn’t any money in water rats any more.
1840 is just a good point to throw a dart and say the Mountian man period was over and the settlement phase started
 
I made this one from TOW parts. Initially I thought there was a problem with the tang alignment but later discovered the pattern was made with cast off.

View attachment 282591

View attachment 282595
These guns in the pics are what?
that is very much the style I’m looking to purchase/build.

Maybe me being a novice in the ML community asked the wrong question originally.
 

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