Sublette-Beale J & S Hawken article

[Chuck Burrows]

With the recent interest in Hawkens, there should be some folks interested in this J & S Hawken with some interesting features including an early slant breech, 38 3/8" long swamped barrel,oval patchbox, and single set trigger - article has some good pics.......
http://asoac.org/bulletins/87_burke_hawken.pdf

[Dave B]

Chuck,
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed reading the article about this Hawken rifle. The pictures are great.
You cant have too many pictures of Hawken rifles laying about.

[Roger B]

I really appreciate this post!  Many thanks.
Roger B.

[G-Man]

What a great rifle and a great piece of history.  I'm really interested in the Sublettes - Andrew Sublette and his brothers were the grandsons of William Whitley.  The gun speaks of how in some of these families, generation after generation kept moving west to the edge of, and beyond, the western frontier, for almost a century - Virginia, Kentucky, St. Louis, the Rockies and the far west.  Getting to see tangible remants of how they lived, and the tools they used, is great.  It makes an interesting study when you compare it with his grandfather's rifle by Jacob Young, which is on display at the Whitley House in Kentucky and you can see on the American Historic Services website.  The two pieces sort of frame an era - from the closing days of the eastern  frontier, to the end of the western fur trade era.

Thanks for the post

Guy

[rtadams]

12-16-09

Chuck,

Thanks for the information. I will use this data along with my other documents in my library for future Hawken's rifle research.

Best Regards,

rtadams

[Chuck Burrows]

Ya'll are welcome and as I understand it this rifle is now in the NRA Firearms museum...
I've been a fan of Hawkens since I saw my first one in a 1962 Guns magazine article by Jim Serven - I still have that magazine although it's a bit worse for wear, but then aren't we all!
Since then I've tried to collect as much info as possible and have had the good luck to handle/examine about a dozen originals, mostly later period guns. I like the J & S Hawkens best but will take whatever I can get....

[Dphariss]

Great rifle. Great story too. Killing a G bear with knife when he was 45 years old.

In the Hawken line I like the J&S guns best. The later guns are great hunting rifles, sturdy and all that but the J&S guns like this one are far more interesting, better lines, more variation. They still are good study rifles. Probably the ultimate evolution of the American ML hunting rifle.

Dan

[G-Man]

"Great rifle. Great story too. Killing a G bear with knife when he was 45 years old."

Isn't that something?  When you read about these guys' lives and how they covered so much ground and so much living, it's surprising when you see how young so many of them died.  45 is too old to be knife fighting grizzlies, but too young to have your life cut short.

Must have been in their genes - Sublette's grandpa (William Whitley), in spite of having been a well known, and successful militia leader in the Indian wars in the Kentucky/Tennessee area in the late 1700s, enlisted as a volunteer private and went along with Harrison to the Battle of the Thames when he was 64.  He volunteered to be part of the initial charge ("the forlorn hope") made to draw the Indians out from cover and died there on the field.  Some sources say that he asked that his scalp be sent back to his wife in Kentucky.

Guy

[Dphariss]

My dad was fighting forest fires in California at 64-65. He could pass the step test etc and was told he was the oldest firefighter in the FS computer at the time.
He is still pretty active at 83 and splits firewood with a maul.
He has slowed down to the point he does not trap as much as he did. But three years ago was trapping Cats in Wyoming.



He knows how.

He would likely be trapping right now but prices are so low its pointless.

Has low blood pressure and his heart is good. He is looking forward to living to be 100+.
If he does not go looking for Wolverines to trap he will be burning piles on some cleared land after Jan 12 in AK. He is down here on vacation right now.

[bigbat]

Neat picture of your Dad, Dan you are a "chip off the old block" 

[Dphariss]

Neat picture of your Dad, Dan you are a "chip off the old block" 

Hopefully.
Both our tickers are still good or so they tell us.
I still know how to trap too.

Dan