TC Hawken differences?

[frontier gander]

Guys, I took on a refinish job for a friend and his then .45cal TC Hawken kit rifle. He bought another kit gun with a cracked stock but it had a like new .40cal GM barrel and so we put that on the good Hawken stock.

Question, the cracked stock hawken had that "burl" like pattern in the walnut, its butt plate is much longer and shaped differently than the hawken with the good stock. The bad stocks patch box also looks like same yet does not fix into the other stock, its thicker and so it sticks out more. The bad stock also has a MUCH thicker "bushing" that the lock screw goes though. Triggers and lock are also different. The cracked stocks trigger guard is also shorter.

I'd assume due to the "burl" like pattern in the cracked stock, it's quite a bit older than the current good stock? Anyone have a clue when TC changed so much on these rifles?

I've already got the .40cal barrel mounted into the freshly finished stock along with the trimming. I plan on selling off the parts on an auction later down the load, I just want to figure out what exactly the difference between these 2 kit guns are.

Heres a picture of the lock off of the cracked stock. IMO it has been replaced with a newer version. What do you think?

[galudwig]

The lock in your picture is of the newer style.  Not sure when T/C switched over, but about he time they started branching out with the "New Englander" and "White Mountain" carbines (early 80's?), they started putting the newer style locks on everything. 

The cock on the older T/C locks (my picture) have a straight back (i.e. a line drawn line along the back of the cock from crook to tip is straight) whereas the top of the cock on the newer locks sweep backwards (i.e. like yours).  Also, it is hard to tell for sure but the older cocks seem to have a shorter distance between the front face and the part which strikes the nipple/cap than does yours. 



Comparing my older locks to your newer style, it looks like the internals are pretty much the same.

galudwig

[prairieofthedog]

TC made alot of subtle changes along the way on it's Hawken.Unless you have a few its hard to notice.A lot of the older stocks had beautiful wood,as TC went along the walnut got more straight grained.On the older Hawkens the wedge pin plates were recessed into the stock.The nose cap had 1 screw instead of 2 on the real early models.Like you said the butt plate was different on the early models.In the later models they thinned the brass down.There is really no timetable on these changes except earlier or later.TC or nobody else really has exact times when things changed.I even heard that a few of the earlier stocks s even had longer LOPs.But basically all components are interchangeable.