Mtn Meek told me about this rifle, so I stopped to examine it on my way to Iowa. It is in The Nelson Museum of the West at 1714 Carey Avenue, right downtown.
Herb, I’m so glad you were able to take the time to stop in at the Nelson Museum of the West and take pictures of this rifle. When I saw the picture of that rifle on the museum’s website sometime back, I was intrigued by some of its features. Your pictures show those features in detail and answer many of the questions I had about it.
I was hesitant about adding this post as I’m not sure very many folks are into the details of Hawken rifles as I am and wouldn't find discussing some of the minutia of this rifle all that interesting. But what the heck, here goes.
Through the literature and the few rifles I’ve seen in person, I’ve observed some noticeable differences in the rifles marked J&S Hawken versus those marked S Hawken. Granted, there is about as much variation among the J&S Hawken rifles as there is between J&S and S Hawken, but a few things stand out. One of those is the shape of the breech bolster and another is the shape of the trigger guard.
There are no hard, fast rules when it comes to Hawken rifles, and it’s dangerous to make general statements about them, as there are always exceptions. The rifle in the Nelson Museum appears to be one of those exceptions.
Most J&S Hawken marked rifles have one of two types of breech bolster. One of these types is the brazed-on bolster like the one found on the Leonard Hawken now in the Museum of the Fur Trade collection.
This type of bolster can be found on early English percussion guns as well as pistols and rifles made in the Eastern US. It was apparently developed early in the adoption of the percussion system and was stronger than the typical screw on drum and nipple configuration. The Hawken brothers were obviously influenced by new developments overseas and back East, but it is not known how quickly they adopted new techniques and abandoned older techniques and styles. Otherwise, it might be assumed that the brazed-on bolster would be found on the earlier J&S Hawken rifles and the patent breech bolsters on later rifles, but we just don't know.
This bolster is often brazed on the barrel and not part of the breech plug as there is no seam visible in front of the bolster. The breech plug used in this style of breech is an English hooked breech plug.
The other type of breech bolster seen on several J&S Hawken rifles is the snail or “comma” shaped bolster as seen on the Sublette-Beale Hawken.
The snail type bolster is often part of the breech plug and forms what is commonly referred to as a patent breech. The face of the rear fence is continued down and forward forming a groove that curls under the bolster holding the nipple. This groove is meant to divert the flash from the nipple down and away from the shooter. There is often a flat face on the bolster that resembles a “comma” as highlighted in the photo below.
The front of the bolster is rounded, and it’s lower than the rear fence, providing little or no protection to the barrel in front of the bolster.
The brazed-on bolster probably required a separate “standing” breech as part of the tang to provide a platform for the rear fence. Therefore, the brazed-on bolster will likely always be found in conjunction with a “hooked” breech design.
The snail type bolster with patent breech is seen on both fixed and hooked designs.
In later years, Sam Hawken refined the shape of the bolster with a concave section coming around from the front of the bolster and down to the junction where the “hooked” breech meets the “standing” breech. The groove from the front of the fence was directed almost straight down along the line of the junction and not curled under the bolster. This later snail shape developed by Sam is what most people expect to see on a Hawken rifle. It is well illustrated by Herb’s picture below of the S Hawken rifle in the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln.
The variety of shapes of the breech bolster found on S Hawken marked rifles is shown below. In the sprite of full disclosure, the images have been ordered in such a way to imply a progression or evolution in the shape of the snail on S Hawken rifles. These rifles are not dated and there is no way to know in what order they were actually made. The top two images are probably early and the bottom two are late. Those in the middle could have been made in any order.
The snail on the subject rifle, as seen below, more closely resembles those seen on some J&S Hawken rifles than the typical S Hawken rifle.
In fact, it is very similar to the snail on the John Brown J&S Hawken rifle in L.D.S. Church historical collection in Salt Lake City, especially the way the outside corner of the rear fence comes around and along the side of the hammer.
Another interesting feature of the S Hawken in the Nelson Museum is the shape of the trigger guard. John Baird was the first to point out in an article published in the May 1967 issue of
Muzzle Blasts that the rear scroll on many J&S Hawken rifles is rounded while the rear scroll on most S Hawken rifles is oval shaped and almost perpendicular to the bottom of the butt stock.
This is the classic shape of the trigger guard found on some J&S Hawken rifles.
The classic S Hawken guard looks like the one on the S Hawken in the Lincoln Museum, shown in Herb's photo below.
As with all general statements about Hawken rifles, there are exceptions to the shape of the trigger guards found on both J&S Hawken rifles and S Hawken rifles. On these exceptions, it’s often difficult or impossible to tell if the rear scroll on the guard left the Hawken shop in the shape we see it today or if it had been bent sometime during its working life.
The guard on the S Hawken in the Nelson Museum appears to be kind of in between—not quite fully round and not the elongated oval seen on other S Hawken rifles.
Some other features of the Hawken in the Nelson Museum can be found on both J&S Hawken marked rifles and S Hawken marked rifles. These include the two-piece brazed nose cap and the two-piece brazed butt plate.
Considering the period that Sam Hawken was proprietor of the Hawken shop—from Jacob’s death in 1849 to about 1855—this rifle has characteristics that could place it near the beginning of that period. It’s possible, and maybe even probable, that this rifle was made around the time of Jacob’s death or not long after. The rifle appears to mark the transition from the rifles built under the direction of Jacob to the point that Sam and his workers started developing Sam’s signature characteristics, namely the classic snail on the breech bolster and oval rear scroll on the trigger guard.
Herb, the S Hawken rifle in the Nelson Museum and the one you examined and photographed in the Lincoln Museum may pretty well bookend the Sam Hawken period.
