Author Topic: Hawken Muzzles  (Read 1169 times)

Offline Herb

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Hawken Muzzles
« on: October 13, 2018, 06:04:36 AM »
This is the Kit Carson Hawken muzzle from Gordon's book "Great Gunmakers for the Early West, Volume III".  Others say the .54 barrel is 1 1/16" straight.  By measuring the width in the photo and the bore width across the lands, I calculate the lands to be about .567 apart.  The muzzle is relieved.  The maker filed the lands down to the bottom of the grooves, back about 1/4" or so, then filed the grooves back to depth.

The Carson muzzle as photographed by my friend Kevin.

The Jim Bridger muzzle as photographed by me at the museum in Helena, MT.

The Bridger muzzle as photographed by Jim Gordon.  The barrel is 1.125 across the flats at the muzzle.  Measuring the photo width and the land to land width, the latter calculates about .577 across, this in a .52 caliber bore, again, relieved.

The muzzle of another Hawken at the Helena museum.

The muzzle of the "Robidoux" drawn Hawken in the Nebraska History Museum, Lincoln, NE.

Muzzle of another Hawken in The Museum of the Early West in Cheyenne, WY.

All the Hawken muzzles I have seen, or seen in pictures, are flat, with no crown.  All are relieved or coned.  Some show no rifling at all.
Herb

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Hawken Muzzles
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2018, 06:21:04 PM »
Your observations are accurate, I think, Herb.  the 'smiths definitely did not radius the muzzles as we do today, but rather filed them to make starting a ball possible.  And I think you have nailed it as far as the technique.  I agree that the LANDS have been filed down to at least groove depth, and then the GROOVES filed to finish the muzzle.  It is possible to only go in a short distance, but it makes an effective crown.  Nice collection of images.
D. Taylor Sapergia
www.sapergia.blogspot.com

Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.