Barrel lugs for a Hawken

[Paddlefoot]

I have an old Sharon Hawken kit that needs some repair. The original barrel lugs were soldered on and for whatever reason the gun likes to shed them after a few rounds. Well it finally has gotten to feel like a personal challenge but I would still like to do the job correctly. What is the authentic form of the barrel lugs on the Hawken half stocks? Were they actually soldered, dovetailed or staked?

[rsells]

I had one like yours many years ago, and had the same problem.  Back then I didn't use the low heat silver solder I sometimes use today to put under lugs on swamped barrels.  To fix my problem, I made a couple underlugs that were dovetailed into the bottom flat of the barrel.  I used a .050 deep dovetail because I wanted to minimize the depth I cut into the barrel.  I made the slots in the underlugs the same configuration as the ones supplied by Sharon to make sure the wedges would fit correctly.  My rifle was a .54 cal barrel one inch across the flats, and never had any issues with the results from then on.  The fellow I sold the rifle to still uses it and there have been no issues.  I have tried to get the rifle back several times over the years and have been unsuccessful. 
                                                                                       Roger Sells 

[Hungry Horse]

 If the barrel walls are thick enough, I would buy a kit from TOTW, to install barrel staples. I bought a kit years ago, and almost never cut dovetails, except for sights, and thin, or light swamped barrels.

 Hungry Horse

[Dave B]

IIRC the only original halfstock Hawken rifle barrel I was able to hold in my hands had staple under lugs in it. the barrel was found in a barbwire fence in Montana, being used as a tension bar for the wire. It still had a portion of the standing breach attached and some one had forged out the portion where the tang screw was for  use as a crow bar. Didnt think it would be too effective with the standing breach but thats what it looked like.

[louieparker]

Dave I recently saw that barrel and it still looks as you described.... LP

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The stapling kit from TOW includes a staking punch with a cut out that encircles the staple's leg.  I think that that punch has too much surface area to do the job correctly, and so I made my own punch out of a nail set, grinding the tip flat and a flat along one side to get close to the staple leg.  I am able to move the barrel steel around the leg in small areas without hitting it so hard that it dimples the bore.
Their double centre punch works well though.

[Paddlefoot]

This is a .58 so the walls of the barrel are pretty thin. How deep does the loop have to be to stake it securely and not distort the barrel?