I had a wild hair and decided to get my TC Hawken out and try to shoot a Jack Rabbit a couple weeks ago. I blew some smoke at them but did not do much damage to the population! But, it renewed my interest in the old smoke pole and got me to shooting again. I thought I'd go out and shoot off a bench last weekend and see if it was me or the gun. I still don't know because the wind was blowing about 20 mph and those old round balls and wind don't go together very well. What I did notice was that my eyes are not quite what they used to be and that a Peep sight may be in order. So off to Sportsman's where they have next to nothing in Traditional Muzzleloaders.....seems the world has gone in-line and the side hammers are nearly a thing of the past. T/C completely eliminated the Hawkens from their line - what? Too bad in my opinion, packing the old Hawkin makes one feel like a trapper in the 1830's - not exactly the same feeling I get with a plastic stocked, scoped in-line with 3 pellets and a sabot and pistol bullets that rivals a 30-30. I'm sure this has been discussed before, but like I said before it's been a while since I had the old soot burner out (like 15 years...) so I have some catching up to do. Anyone else out there still like the old style or are we a dying breed?
