Author Topic: A GRRW kit Hawken?  (Read 4919 times)

Offline Herb

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A GRRW kit Hawken?
« on: January 28, 2015, 07:01:16 AM »
Everett, who I built "A Correct But Different Hawken" for last September 20 (see Gun Builders florum) came in today.  He saw about 70 elk out in the sagebrush but was unable to get close for a shot.  He just bought a used .54 fullstock flintlock Hawken from Dixie Gun Works.  I did not get photos of it, but it has a 1" x 35" .50 barrel stamped GRRW on the bottom and the initials PC.  The tang has the smallest hook I have ever seen on a breech plug.  The powder chamber is bored out larger than 3/8" but smaller than the bore.  Has a White Lightning flash hole liner still .050.  It has a Modena patch box and a big silver oval in the cheek piece, not engraved.  Inside the barrel is written in pencil JB Como 1-81.  This JB mark is also on the top of the barrel flat.

It is made about as well as I could have made it. except the keys have escutcheons and they are slotted but not pinned.  The nose cap and entry pipe are left full length, and I shorten mine.  I don't think it has been fired because the front sight is .275 high and the notch of the buckhorn is .250 at the top.  Usually the front sight has to be about .040 lower for a zero.
Herb

Offline Mtn Meek

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Re: A GRRW kit Hawken?
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2015, 09:36:36 PM »
Hello Herb,

Is this picture of Everett's new full stock Hawken?



Quote from: Dixie Guns Works description
Overall length is 50 ĵ”. The octagonal barrel is 33 ½” long and is made by Green River Rifle Works. The barrel is darkly browned with all the brown finish remaining. It is mounted with a silver blade front sight and a buckhorn Hawken style rear sight. It is engraved behind the rear sight on the top flat in an oval “JB” in script. Caliber is .50. Hook style breechplug with long Hawken style tang. This gun was made using the Hawken style parts from the Hawken Shop in St. Louis, Missouri. The furniture is all browned steel and comprises the buttplate, open work patchbox, toeplate, triggerguard, ramrod thimbles, nosecap and sidelock screw escutcheon. The left side of the buttstock has a large German silver oval inlay on top of the beaver tail cheekpiece. Hawken style double set triggers are also present. Lock is an L & R English style Hawken flintlock with waterproof pan. The barrel is attached by three barrel wedges which are surrounded by oval steel escutcheons which are also brown. The stock is made of maple with excellent medium curl through the buttstock and forend areas. Overall condition of the gun is about new.

A GRRW kit Hawken?

It's hard to tell if it is a GRRW kit.  Their full stock Hawken kit was little more than a blank that had a rough shaped butt stock with barrel channel cut and ramrod hole drilled.  Below are pictures of the stock and barrel for a GRRW kit I ordered from them and received in 1980.






It came with all the parts to build a rifle such as large Siler flintlock, Bridger butt plate, triggers, flat-to-wrist guard, nose cap, thimbles, blanks to make the keys, barrel staples, pins, bolts, screws, etc, but no patch box.

As you can see, my kit has a fixed breech which was also the standard on the factory finished full stock flintlock Hawken rifles.  The barrel is 1" x 38" and is only stamped ".54" for the caliber, but does not have a "GRRW" stamp.  The lack of a "GRRW" stamp was typical of their kit barrels, but not always the case as I also ordered a half stock Hawken kit in 1979, and its barrel does have a "GRRW" stamp on a flat near the breech.

There is a lot of extra wood on the stock and it could easily be shaped into something that resembles the rifle from Dixie Gun Works.

But one could also buy a GRRW barrel and source all the other parts from Log Cabin, TOTW, or Pecatonica and build the same rifle.

About all that you can safely say about Everett's rifle is that it is a custom Hawken with a GRRW barrel as Dixie described it.

Phil Meek
Phil Meek

Offline Herb

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Re: A GRRW kit Hawken?
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2015, 10:04:01 PM »
Thanks, Phil.  That is the rifle.  The butt plate is welded or brazed onto the return.  The trigger guard is brazed from the loop to the rear grip.  I said .54, but it is .50 caliber.   I said it had a White Lightning flash hole liner, but they weren't made back in 1981.  The liner has a screw driver slot across it.  The ramrod hole was routed out inside the stock.  Whoever J B Como is, he knew how to build a Hawken.
Herb