Kibler Hawken kit

[alacran]

The Hawken I own now is my third. I built it in 2006. It has a .54cal 36-inch GRRW barrel, with a Griffith breech plug. Also it sports a solid under rib. It is maple stocked.
I have weighed it several times on a digital scale and it comes in at 10 1/2 pounds.
I have carried it more than 50 days elk hunting averaging five miles a day. I have killed 4 elk with it. It is heavy but not unmanageable. I have carried it every way that is possible short of dragging it.
It is a heavy rifle, but then so is a Kibbler Colonial in .54 caliber. I would much rather carry the Hawken than the Kibbler. It is handier and comes up to the shoulder quickly. I was 55 the first time that I hunted with that rifle. I will be 70 this year, God willing and will be hunting with a .58 cal Jaeger that I built. It weighs in at 9 1/4 pounds.
I do have a much lighter .54 cal Bucks County with a skinny 42 inch Ed Rail barrel. It weighs under 7 pounds. I have killed 3 elk with that rifle.
The point is the weight of the rifle is a problem only if you make it so.
Back in the day of the Hawken If you owned one, you probably owned two horses and a couple of pack mules. You weren't toting it as much as most of us have to today.
I think if Mr Kibbler offered a Hawken kit as easy to assemble as his two current offerings, It would sell well specially out West.
 I have been Buckskinning in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado for almost 25 years and a large part of the custom rifles one sees are  Hawkens.
Would I build Kibbler Hawken Kit? Probably not unless it was to help a friend. Kits for me hold no interest.

[Top Jaw]

I think there might be a marketing link for in-line shooters to transition to a more traditional muzzleloading hunting rifle with a Hawken percussion kit.  Lots of those guys don’t have any experience with flintlocks. But might be convinced to take the plunge on a percussion gun that they could build.  So this might be a more appealing transitional entry for the inline crowd, and it’s still an iconic gun for the majority of us. Plus it would give Kibler a useful outlet for shorter pieces of wood they have on hand - left over from cutting out full stock blanks. 

[Mike Brooks]

Oh come on. I have never in more than 50 years of hunting  had to belly crawl through the brush. I hunted for many years with a gun with a 48 inch barrel with no inconvenience  whatsoever.

[45-110]

"Well come on" .....I remember 2 of my elk that required a long crawl to close the distance in open grass country. Once in New Mexico and one here in Montana.

[Daniel Coats]

I have belly crawled while hunting in open country in Colorado and Wyoming. Barrel length was a non issue but carrying the rifle was. I even modified a sling for Antelope hunting.

[Stoner creek]

 I don’t belly crawl ever. It would look like one of those Sea Lions on the beach 🏝.

[Daniel Coats]

A Sea Lion with a gun still sounds plenty dangerous to me.

[Rajin cajun]

Go for it Jim. “The proof will be in the pudding“...!
I want one....! At 81 I may not be able to heft it to my shoulder, but I can hang it on my wall and enjoy it. Go for it, get her done.

Bob

[alacran]

I don’t belly crawl ever. It would look like one of those Sea Lions on the beach 🏝.

I would pay to see you belly crawl Wayne!

[Bushfire]

Oh come on. I have never in more than 50 years of hunting  had to belly crawl through the brush. I hunted for many years with a gun with a 48 inch barrel with no inconvenience  whatsoever.

The world is not America,  in Australia and New Zealand hunting styles are very different to Eastern US. Come here and the expectation is that you stalk quarry from the ground whether you can see a mile in open country or a few feet in front in thick country. There is no way whatsoever someone is hunting with a 48" barrel in red deer country here without inconvenience I promise you.

Then again I'm always happy to be proven wrong so I will happily host you hunting here if you make it across the ditch someday. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about hunting long barrels in tight spots.

[oldtravler61]

 Every area has it's own unique still of hunting. I've hunted several places. Montana, Iowa, Ohio and a few others. Most you could hunt pretty easy with a real long gun.
 But when you get into the real thick swamps an your still hunting.  I'll use a short fast handling rifle everytime. Specifically when the deer your after jumps up almost at your feet.....   Oldtravler

[Mike Brooks]

I must live in hunting heaven. It is Iowa after all.

[Daniel Coats]

I find it helpful to point the rifle in the same direction I'm going. 
 

[JPK]

When Kibler puts out a Hawken he has already sold one to me. I don’t need it and may never hunt with it by then. The money has been set aside and my full experience with Jim Kibler’s products is one colonial. That one told me everything I need to know about his company.

[Dphariss]

Oh come on. I have never in more than 50 years of hunting  had to belly crawl through the brush. I hunted for many years with a gun with a 48 inch barrel with no inconvenience  whatsoever.

Well sometimes where I live crawling is necessary. Or walking on ones knees for 100 yards or more due to terrain which is the only concealment, too mush snow to crawl in. But barrel length has never hampered me. And I do hunt white tails in creek bottoms. The one I killed last year was at 20 yards or less.
These photos required some low crawl work. These things, I have read, have 8x vision and I have no doubt. They will see you from a mile and leave if they don’t like your looks.
Then I over shot the buck .





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[Dan'l 1946]

Oh come on. I have never in more than 50 years of hunting  had to belly crawl through the brush. I hunted for many years with a gun with a 48 inch barrel with no inconvenience  whatsoever.

Thanks for posting this Mike. You're absolutely right, no one in their right mind crawls through brush while hunting. But I hve moved through fairly thick cover with my 48 inch barreled fowler and never found it difficult.  Dan

[Austin]

Ive heard that barrel length directly effects rearview mirror life, in either hemisphere.

[borderdogs]

I haven't hunted prong horn but I know they are jumpy and very fast a friend of mine hunted them and he said they were the hardest thing he ever hunted.
Rob

[Craig Wilcox]

Hunted with my uncle in eastern Colorado, decades ago.  He put up a stick with a hanky tied on - the antelope came to us.

[Frank]

Only thing wrong with a Kibler Hawken is trying to find percussion caps so you can shoot it.

[Daniel Coats]

I've never seen flagging antelope work within muzzleloading rifle range. You can certainly get them within 200 yards that way. I put a pronghorn and the record book but only by belly crawling with a flintlock rifle. 1 1/2 hour stalk and a 40-yard shot. The worst and most painful part of the stalk was belly crawling downhill with my head up pretty tough work that way.

[alacran]

I suppose a lot has to do with where you hunt.
I have been able to get prong horn within 50 yards by waving my hat , or waving my arm from behind a tree. Of course if you are lucky enough to get drawn in AZ, you won't be seeing many hunters. Last time I got drawn for unit 2A, there were only 20 tags. The unit is over1400 square miles and 750 of those are public land. So I dare to say the antelope don't get much pressure.

[mountainman70]

Man ,y'll, has this thread been fun. I have enjoyed everyones input, I have only hunted here in our state,and almost always in heavy growth. Have a Hawken style  flinter built in 79 by Bob W, and has always done what was needed.
I dont recall hunting with any of the long barrel rifles like I build now,mostly paper punching and woods walks.
I believe if mr K made his hawken kits with the metal parts aligned, drilled ,maybe tapped, it would be the most difficult of the assembly taken care of.
I love them Hawken guns, but not likely to build anymore from blank or precarve. Might get a Kibler if Im still able.
Have a great evening all y'all. Best regards, Dave

[Tacitus]

If Mr. Kibler brings a Hawken kit to the market I will be on it like a duck on a junebug.

[Mike Brooks]

It seems there were 6 or 8 pages of kibler Hawken anticipation not more than a month ago.