Ok here is one for ya. My question is, did original Hawkens built built by the Hawken brother have cast-off in the stocks? Also what where the big differences in the early & late style Hawkens? I am not a huge Hawken fan but I have built one for someone in the past but it was from a pre-inlet stock that they bought & never got to so the asked me to take over. But now I may build one for a customer the correct way (from the blank) and I need to really would like to know the nuances.
Thanks for the help.
Darrin
If you can get a good enough picture of it the rifle on pages 2 27 (Plates 3, 36-40) of Baird's "Hawken Rifles..." is a good choice. Its an early gun, no patent breech etc.
Collectors like to think that the FS Hawken is not a "plains rifle" since in their thinking the "plains rifle" is a 1/2 stock.
This is just a way of thinking. The FS hawken was as much a plains rifle as the 1/2 stock.
The long tang, long trigger bar Hawken design is a very durable rifle and is hands down the best rough usage hunting rifle.
I have seen photos of Hawken FS rifles with buttstock shapes very much like the early J&S Hawken 1/2 stock rifles. Its just not possible to make hard and fast pronouncements on hand made rifles. Later guns using store bought cast buttplates were more consistent perhaps but the brazed plates are not likely to come out the same so the buttstocks are more likely to vary. Note plates 22, 36, 45 and 57 in "Hawken Rifles..."
Considering the popularity of the flintlock in the west till circa 1840 its simply silly to think that the Hawken shop did not make FL rifles for the western trade. Everyone else did.
There is not a good lock for a flint Hawken on the market. The L&R Manton is too small and the "Late English" is too big.
A freind of mine male a lot of flint Hawkens and made his own lock.
![](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi199%2FDPhariss%2FML%2520Guns%2FDKingHawkenlock.jpg&hash=322ae90e34378619352669b535c27c62577fa91c)
It basically the Ashmore lock shown in Baird's book.
Below is a modern reproduction with a stock that would make a flintlock just as easily.
Dan
![](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi199%2FDPhariss%2FML%2520Guns%2FPerchawken003.jpg&hash=803f6deb85e6a50342c8ed617547ba52fcdd4582)
![](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi199%2FDPhariss%2FML%2520Guns%2FPerchawkenlock007.jpg&hash=17e37311d57795e28a0ad51823d844400332cbff)