After much contemplation, and due to my love of full stock Hawken rifles, I have been selling all my half stock Hawken rifles. I have sold five of the six and this is the last one I have available. Need the funds for my order of a Don Stith full stock parts kit to be built by John Bergmann, and my new full stock GRRW CA built by Doc Gary White (former owner of GRRW) and Carl Walker (former gunsmith for GRRW) I received.
This rifle is a custom-built Green River Rifle Works Collectors Association (stamped GRRW CA on the barrel) half stock Hawken rifle built by Doc White, with serial number H-24. Doc’s name is engraved on the top of the barrel.
What makes this rifle so unusual is that it is a mix of Hawken and English Sporting Rifle traits. Here is what Doc said about this rifle:
The Hawken brothers recognized the value of the improvements in British arms that they saw come through St. Louis with the English and Continental adventurers in the first half of the 19th century. Many of the features on the Hawken guns match what can be found on the best quality British hunting rifles of the day. The brother’s real contribution was the long-bar double set trigger, double-bolted to a long tang, vastly improving the strength through the wrist. They kept the American curved buttplate and DST, recognizing that a broken DST can still function as a single trigger where the British single set trigger could not.
This rifle is conceptualized as a Hawken product more closely following the English lines of the 1840’s. The semi-pistol grip trigger guard was becoming more popular then, as was the simple round cap-box. The R.E. Davis Hawken trigger on this rifle can be fired set or not-set, and the R.E Davis Hawken percussion lock is the best there is, with a fly on the tumbler for the set trigger. The custom Howard Kelly half octagon, half round 33” barrel, with double wedding bands, is in 58-caliber but with a slow 1x90 twist, which has been shown to be more accurate with large powder charges and higher velocity patched round balls. A great combination for hunting large, big game animals like elk, moose and bear. The stock is excellent quality walnut, with the grain carefully chosen for strength through the wrist.
The barrel is double keyed with a Hawken style slanted hooked breach and plug. The barrel, tang, lock, triggerguard, cap-box and buttplate are finished in a deep blue-black antique rust blue. The triggerguard is a British style pistol grip popular in the later percussion period. There are two Hawken pipes and Hawken entry pipe for the ramrod. The late British style cap-box is spring loaded and snaps firmly open and closed. The wedge escutcheons, lock escutcheon, triggers and hammer screw are silver. The escutcheon screws, wedge keys and lock screw are all fired blued. The front sight blade is a soldered-on brass blade with a L&R adjustable five step Hawken rear sight dovetailed into the barrel. The hickory ramrod is stained to a dark walnut and both rust blue iron ends are threaded for attachments.
I discussed this rifle with Doc before my purchase and he advised that he had shot it and it has a few, very small handling marks. I have difficulty finding them, but I wanted the buyer to know. He also advised that with this slow twist and seven land and groove rifling, it could safely handle 180 to 200 grains of FFg blackpowder behind a patched round ball. That would be one wicked hunting load for all large game animals, including bison.
This is one of the most beautiful Hawken rifles I have ever seen. The contrasting colors of the two types of bluing (fire and rust), the silver metal and the natural color of the wood stock, which contrasts with the dark ramrod, just make the rifle pop. I have not fired the rifle and I am selling it for less than I paid. I will ship directly to your door for $2500. I accept cash, MO and personal checks. No trades or PayPal please. Email or PM me with any questions or for any specific pictures. The proud owner will be pleased with this one-of-a-kind rifle. Thanks for looking.
The barrel is octagon, then goes to sixteen sides and then to round with two wedding bands. One where to goes from sixteen sides to round and one forward of that.
The 180 to 200 grains is correct, but that is the max load. You can use less powder, and the slow twist allows the patch not to tear with the higher loads.
" He also advised that with this slow twist and seven land and groove rifling, it could safely handle 180 to 200 grains of FFg blackpowder behind a patched round ball. That would be one wicked hunting load for all large game animals, including bison."
Ross Seyfreid (sp?) (in the nineties) wrote about the English Sporting Rifles with extremely slow twists (like this rifle), which used heavy charges of black powder.
