Between 1979 and 1982 inclusive, I was employed by Robinson Firearms Mfg. Ltd., here in Prince George BC. Don Robinson saw an opportunity to make some money with the recent love affair with Hawken rifles, so he asked me to come to work and design the rifle. I built a prototype rifle from the parts that he had accumulated, and to separate it from all the other "Hawken" rifles that were coming out, we called it the Fraser River Hawken. Using the prototype for a pattern, Don copied the stock on his Solstrome (sp?) twelve spindle carving machine. The first ten serial numbers were reserved for other prototype guns and some personal ones that employees made for themselves. Robinson # 5 was my personal rifle and it is now owned by the coach of the Finnish National Shooting Team. We made a total of 185 rifles if my memory serves me, and these included some scaled down Hawken styled rifled for women and a shorter barreled hunter with one key and a 15/16" bbl instead of the 1" on the big rifle. We made fullstocked rifles and pistols too. Over the three years of my time there, we used parts from a number of manufacturers. Barrels included Douglas, GRRW, Sharon, and GM. All the locks and triggers were L & R's and I think the hardware came from Pete Allen.
In the summer of '79 Dave "Black Dog" Cunningham, the other 'smith, and I went to the joint NAPR / NMLRA rendezvous in Montana, and took along tow of these rifles. We shot them well and won many prizes, but the most notable critique came from a guy who claimed to know everything. He said the rifle was "all wrong". I think it might have been Peter Alexander. He may be right.
These rifles have enjoyed a long and popular career, and they surface from time to time. I didn't make them all, though I had a hand in almost all of them. We had a number of other assemblers come and go. In the end, a recession killed the project. People's money dried up, and we closed the muzzle loading part of the business. I bought all of Don's inventory, and made a few more rifles over the years. Hatchet jack's flint Hawken is one of those.
Almost all the Hawkens had steel hardware - only a few have brass. Most of the stocks were Claro or Bastone walnut, and some had wonderful colour and figure. If there's anything you need to know about the rifle, just ask.
