Well- mostly. Friend Bob got eager and decided to build a Hawken rifle. Never mind that I built him one 20 years ago, a left-handed caplock with a GRRW 1x32 .54 barrel and a 14" LOP stock I hand-sawed out of a plank of West Virginia walnut, the other parts basically a Kit Carson Hawken. He has built cedar strip canoes and houses but no guns and has few metal working skills. So he came out from Colorado last Thursday and we spent a few hours each day through Sunday building the parts set as far as I could go in that time. He had Track fit the breech plug and underrib with thimbles. The rib was not cut off, so I cut it back 1/8" at the muzzle and 1 1/2" at the rear. He opted for the 36" 1" Green Mountain barrel against my advice of a 32" length, which is handier. The rib screw holes were correctly drilled to depth. This is what I got done:
1. I inlet the barrel, using a piece of 1" cut-off barrel 4" long to slide and smoke-mark the high spots.
2. Tried to unscrew the breech plug but could not do it. Advised him of the small powder chamber and how to clean it.
3. Fit the breech plug to the tang. Super-glued them together to inlet. Had to bend the tang a little. Inletted the barrel and tang together.
4. Cleaned up the lock and inletted it, the factory inletting being correct.
5. Cut the lock plate for the snail, smoke-fitted the snail into the plate.
6. Drilled, tapped and fitted the lock bolt and escutcheon.
7. Fit the dovetailed underlugs (substituted for staples).
8. Drilled for the two stock keys, 6 holes perfectly drilled, did not even scratch the barrel or underlug. (See our Tutorial section, Metal Shaping, my "A Pipe and Underlug Drill Jig" for how I did this).
9. Inletted the trigger plate, rather coached Bob and he did most of it. The triggers worked correctly without having to cut the blades down.
10. Heated and bent the top front trigger guard bow to get the stud at right angles to the plate. Re-cut the 1/4x28 threads on the stud. Drilled and tapped the hole and "countersunk" it with a 3/8" drill to get the bow turned full down and aligned.
11. Drilled, tapped and countersunk and installed the tang bolts.
12. Drilled and countersunk the screw holes in the buttplate and toeplate. The buttplate is BP-SE-I as shown in their plan, the wrong one. The stock is cut at 14 1/2" LOP, way too long for most people. Bob is about 6'2" tall and has a 35 or 36" sleeve length and this is way too long for even him. I did not have time to cut the stock off but gave him instructions on how to do it. And how to drill that top buttplate return screw hole.
13. Filed out the sights (the rear sight was not a clean casting) but did not have time to install them. Told Bob about my tutorial here in the metal working section "Cutting Sight Slots by Hand".
14. Trued up the 7/16" ramrod but did not have time to install the rod tip. The ramrod hole was undersize of the rod, so I drilled the hole with a 7/16" long drill, making it 1 1/4" deeper, back to the front tang screw. Scraped the hole a little larger, using a 3/8" steel rod that I peened larger at one end and filed to the diameter I wanted, about .440. I tap it into the hole a little and scrape back. Soon I can scrape full length. Now the rod with the steel tip goes through the pipes easily and into the hole freely.
I did not have time to install the entry pipe or nose cap. Also the hammer needs a little bending to align correctly with the nipple. Bob knows about this forum and I'll tell him about the current post on bending the hammer. He can do the final wood shaping, staining and finishing. The tutorials or posts here will also help him with metal finishing. Also told him how to drill and tap for the rear trigger guard loop screw. I didn't keep track of how many hours we put in on this, but I was wiped out. He should be able to finish it the rest of the way, but he set Skype up on my computer (rather, he and his wife, Torri, did), so if he gets in need of advice, we can communicate. I did not have time to take any pictures.
