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Oops this should be a good link here,

earley hawken build

Cant get link to work, but will work b if you cut and paste

Well, there are some on here that are far more adept at builds than I am. The areas I find to be a pain in the backside on a Hawken are the long tang, the trigger bar, & inletting the buttplate. Fitting the breach snail and getting everything aligned with the lock is a challenge. And then a halfstock has to have the rib fitted to the barrel and that can be tricky. I know reading this may not sound like it's that difficult, but if it's your first build you'll be ready to chuck the whole thing in the trash before you are finished with it. All I can say is it is a lot of work, and if you haven't at least done a kit or two going in, you are pretty much doomed to screwing up a bunch. If it's something you really want to try doing, get some books and study. Go to http://americanlongrifles.org/ and read all you can. I'm certainly not trying to discourage you, builing longrifles is a very rewarding hobby. But it's not something you can just go into unprepared and through together in a couple weeks.

Also, I couldn't get your link to open. I'd like to see what he did.

I just spent some time messing with the link. It should work now.

EARLY HAWKEN BUILD

I went through the pics, he did a very nice job. IMO, that isn't his first build. If you think you can get by, then by all means give it a go. It's a lot of fun. But, don't expect your results to mirror the pics...ain't goinna happen on a first build. That's not at all an insult to you. It's inevitable to make mistakes on your first several builds, some crucial, some you can get away with. I just hate to see someone spend that amount of money and think it's something easy to put together. Not trying to talk you out of it, but short of a mentor, I highly, highly recommend something else.

Huntingnut thanks for your honesty, I appreciate the advice Well I may have a CVA kit on wed if the guy brings it to the airport. All I know is it was bought in 1972, and is a flintlock. I have no clue if its a .45, 50, 54 cal. or other. Short of being covered in rust I'll pick it up to gain some experience. Not really what I'm looking for but I can't beat the price.

Richard

Not a problem! I do encourage you to do a build at some point! That CVA kit is a good starting point, and in my opinion they are of a decent quality.

Good luck!

I would strongly recommend getting a copy of "Recreating the Long Rifle", by Buchele, Shumway, and Alexander. It is chockablock full of no BS wisdom that will guide anybody building his first rifle, be it a basic no-frills kit to a scratch-built elegant masterpiece- Pennsylvania long rifle, percussion half-stock, it doesn't matter, the basic principles are all the same. Buy the book, read it, then buy the gun parts or kit.

Be it a kit or a handful of raw materials, the quality of one's end product will be a result of how much dedication/patience/knowledge one puts into it. It's as simple as that.

The Lymans are a good value, and fairly true to the originals.

I would not try a kit myself, they are challenging for a beginner, unless he is unusually skilled and patient. TOW usually has rifles for sale that are finished by custom makers. They won't be cheap, but will be good rifles.

The other thing is to take a look at buying used. A lot of the guys bought/built Hawkens after the movie Jeremiah Johnson came out in the 1970's. Many of those guns are now being sold off by the AR generation, and good used ones can be found.

I bought this one used for $600 from the guy who built in in the 1970's:



It's about due for a barrel, but that's not a horrible expense, and it is a neat rifle.

I fear a lot of great classic guns of all types will be had for pennies in the future when we silverbacks start shuffling off this mortal coil, and the young "tactical babies" and "AR/AK hustlers" snub their noses at them. (Trouble is, I'll be gone too and not able to take advantage!)

Thanks I'll deffinatally get a copy

Do NOT get a 1/48 twist! This is a compromise between conical and round which shoots 6 " groups of anything in all three of my rifles (all 1/48 -TC .50 Hawkin, TC 45 Seneca, Cabelas .45). Decide between conicals or round, and get the proper twist rate for it. And 1/48 IMO isn't!!!

Off the top of my head I believe it is around 1/28 for ball and 1/72 for conical.

I might have those reversed.

Good luck- the two kits - Hawkin and Cabelas- were a lot of fun building 30 some years ago, and dusting off time to time since. Maybe one day I'll hunt with one, tho my Denver brother killed a doe at 15 yards with the Hawkin. He's since bought an in-line. I probably should get that rifle back from him one of these years...

Yuppp.....

Wow, you sure have bad luck with your guns! I've had several 1:48 rifles (including a .45 Seneca) and none shot that bad with PRB or Maxi Balls. Not sayin' it's an ideal twist for either, but with the right powder charge it does okay with both.

Your twists are screwed up LOL.

1:28 - 1:48 for sabots/concials

1:48 - 1:72 for patched round balls.

A 1:48 twist will do excellent with round ball. The original Hawken rifle used a 1:48 twist, rifling depth plays an important part. TC's only use somewhere around .004" rifling dept which is very shallow and will let the patch strip out.

My 1 in 48 Hawken shoots both prbs and conical well.