When was the hay day of the Hawken?

[tenngun]

Pretty new to the world of muzzeloaders here. I would think a "Hawkin" style firearm would be a percussion (although I have read the Hawkin brothers did make some flinters) while a "Pennsylvania" or "Kentucky" rifle would be a flinter and not a percussion. Would I be correct in this assesment?

Classic Hawken was a half stock heavy percussion gun. They made full stock heavy guns, light half and full stock gentleman’s small game hunting guns. I understand they made some fowling guns.
The classic Hawken plains rifle came in percussion only, though they made a big gun for Ashley that may have been flint, just because of the time frame, but the switch to percussion was fast and by 1830 flint was hard to find.
The ‘Kentucky’-Pennsylvania’ developed during the flint time, and continued in the form of southern mountain rifles up to the Second World War. And from cr 1825 these were all most all percussion too.

 

[tenngun]

The actual Hawken or the Hawken-style?

There were rifles of this style used by Civil War Sharpshooters , especially early in the war. Were they actual Hawkens? I'm sure some were.

I'd say Jeremiah Johnson caused a resurgence in the modern Hawken repros.

Actual Hawkens were made in the Hawken shop. Many guns at this time made in England, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and many frontier states were large bore half stock percussion.
A irregular during the war May have had a Hawken, but generally snipers shot a snipers gun. The Whiteworth was common. Slimmer conicals in .45 size was ballisticlly much better then a .50-.54 ball or now real heavy conical

 

[UndeadPoet]

I’ve used this calculator and it does go back to 1840. $25 in 1840 → 2022 | Inflation Calculator

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It actually would probably be worth more today because it would likely have been a gold piece.

 

[Stantheman86]

More "Hawken-style" rifles are used today during muzzleloader season than ever were during the original period, so maybe the heyday of the Hawken is now?

 

[kyron4]

More "Hawken-style" rifles are used today during muzzleloader season than ever were during the original period, so maybe the heyday of the Hawken is now?

True, funny how that came to be.

 

[Stantheman86]

True, funny how that came to be.

It's one of those historical conundrums , that you kinda don't see coming......like the recent thread about chain fires in percussion revolvers .......

Technology advanced and people hadn't really worried about chain fires for about 100 years until the 1960s , when people started shooting percussion revolvers in large numbers and worrying about chain fires....and probably 1000x more rounds have been fired through percussion revolvers from 1960-present than from the 1830's to the 1870s when they were originally used.......historical oddities caused by recreational shooting, reenactors and movies .