Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Hawken 50 Cal

My son and I have been playing with a new toy for the past few days. Got a Traditions 50 Caliber Hawken Woodsman. I have no idea what makes this one a Woodsman vs a St Louis or Mountain or Prairie Hawkens. They all look the same to me but it looks pretty nice for a pretty inexpensive model.



We sighted it in yesterday and today we started tinkering with finding a bullet and powder load that grouped well. Well we found one. This was shot from a Lead sled because I wanted to see what the gun would do with each load not what I could do. 80 grains of Swiss 2F black powder, felt wad over the powder lubed with Ballistol and a 275 grain TC Maxi Hunter conical. Three shots from 50 yards.


I can live with that. Lots of fun shooting these old style rifles.

Darn good shootin!

That's some good stuff right there.

That’ll do.

Wonder how many of these TC Hawken clones have been produced over the years? They’ve been the object of a lot of scorn over the decades from purists but brought a bunch of shooters into the fold, and certainly made a lot of meat.

Much of the criticism was based on their lack of authenticity, and they are definitely not a “Hawken” or even close, but what they are, and maybe should have been called from the start, is a fair representation of a New England half-stock, based on one original I saw for sale a few years ago at one of the ML sites, maybe Track of the Wolf. That one had a lot more drop in the buttstock and of course old-timey sights and a longer barrel, but the rest was very close to TC’s pattern, even down to the brass, single barrel iron, and fancy triggerguard. Somewhere in the back of my old brain I seem to have a memory of TC even mentioning that in their catalog.

Those TC catalogs from the old TC were a real trove of goodies, unlike later after they changed direction.

that 3 shots proves that one doesn't need to spend 1k to get accurate guns. that is a handsome gun. as for being a Hawken, it's what is called Hawkenish!
many a slip between a true Hawken and these contemporary issues.

Nice shooting.

That rifle looks just like my Thompson Center Hawken I bought in ‘75. Same brass furniture, etc.

There were many plains rifles and trade rifles built in the half stock style during the fur trade. But a Hawken rifle was built by the Hawken brothers or latter by Gemmer. I have seen a lot of original Hawken rifles and so far, no two are exactly alike. Think of them as custom, built to order rifles. Besides the large bore "mountain rifles" they also built rifles for small game hunting, shotguns and pistols.

Looks like you found a good load for your rifle. Have fun, go forth and kill something with it.

I have one they are very accurate

Was goin' to mention that.

Mine, too.




GR

Same here. I am on my third barrel. With the last one, TC told me although they have life time guarantee they would have no more barrels

best replacement for a TC Hawken is a Green Mountain drop in. hard to find but they sing.
i have a 45, a 50, and a 54. all fit the same stock. all shoot much better than I do. full disclosure. they are all flint lock.