I had a .50 GRRW barrel and a walnut plank and some odds and ends of Hawken parts so I put them together. The barrel was picked up off the shop floor at GRRW by a friend in about 1978. The flats had been milled uneven on four sides, so it was a reject and Doc White gave it to him. He gave it to me last year. I filed the flats on the thickest sides of the barrel down some to mostly equalize the diameters across the flats. Then I rebuilt some Cherry Corner triggers and worked over a Hawken lock of unknown ancestory, probably a Davis. I got the brass trigger guard and buttplate from Track a few years back and they are still available. I riveted the underrib on with copper rivets soldered into the barrel and then peened over. Made brass escutcheons, but used steel keys and entry pipe and brass nose cap. Today I went out to do the sighting in and load development.
![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/HerbGLT/BrassHawkenProof_zpsqj4gnilw.jpg)
Thirty-two inch barrel, about one inch across the flats, 13.5 inch length of pull.
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I heat blued the lock plate and trigger plate but blued the barrel with Brownell's Oxpho blue.
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Stained the stock with Laurel Mountain Forge Nut Brown and finished with Chambers Traditional Oil Stock Finish. This was 8 years old and so I thinned it and wiped it right off with paper towels, about six coats.
![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/HerbGLT/BrassHawkenPanel_zps9kmawam6.jpg)
![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/HerbGLT/BrassHawkenForend_zpsuivneuwt.jpg)
I shot my proof targets at 50 yards from rest, 92 degrees but calm. Made weight-corrected measures from brass cartridge cases. The patching is JoAnn's linen, .012 but crushes to .007. This loaded easily. I don't know what caused those two wild shots, but the patches may have holed. I could not find all of them. This rifle may be used for deer hunting this fall by its new owner.
![](https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/HerbGLT/BrassHawkenTgts_zpsin60qucj.jpg)
I have now built about 16 Hawkens, if I remember them all. Eight were parts sets such as Track's Bridger and Carson Hawkens and one fullstock and a Don Stith fullstock. But eight I sawed out with handsaws. Four or five of these were walnut and one was left-handed. I wish I did not have to do this again, it is a lot of work and difficult to get right. JoeS wrote in "My Hawken Build So Far" on 6/21/2015 "I think next time I would start off with a blank." I highly advise against this. It is just too hard to get the lines right. I made mistakes on my last three, including the Bridger Hawken and this one. I could have built three Hawkens from correct parts and an inletted stock in the time it took me to do this one.