I received some inquires about my Hawken rifle from Art Ressel’s Hawken Shop when I posted in Jim’s, “St Louis Hawken Kit build and review”.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=32088.0Instead of highjacking Jim’s thread, I thought I would start another showing details of the rifle here.
This rifle was originally purchased from Art Ressel’s shop in 1981. Below is a photo of the proud owner in Art’s shop the day he bought it.
The owner took another picture of some of the rifles that Art had on display. The one he purchased is the bottom rifle.
This is a composite photo of the rifle as it looks today.
The specifics on the rifle are:
W. M. Large barrel, .54 caliber, 34” long
Nominal 1⅛” to 1” straight taper (actual dimensions 1.097” at breech and 0.978” at muzzle)
Total length is 51⅛”
Length of pull is 13
15⁄₁₆”
Weight is 10 lbs
Height from top of barrel to bottom of forearm just behind rear sight is 1.99”
Width of forearm just behind rear sight is 1.52”
Height of wrist is 1.70” at mid-wrist
Width of wrist is 1.30” at mid-wrist
Drop at heel is 3”
Ramrod is tapered ½” to ⅜” at brass ramrod tip
ID of the upper pipes are ½”, ID of the entry pipe is 7/16” at the opening, but tapers towards the back end with just enough clearance for the tapered rod.
The stock is plain hard maple, stained dark, and finished with a varnish like finish. There is a little figure in the butt stock, but it’s not uniform.
In the pictures below, the triggers are unset. Notice how closely the back of the trigger bow fits around the rear trigger. The fit is even closer in the set position. You can’t get this fit with Ron Long’s triggers and the commercially available Hawken guards without extensive bending or forging of the guard. The Hawken Shop trigger set and guard is a cohesive unit. This is because the triggers and trigger guard were copied from an original in Art Ressel’s collection. The trigger plate is 1½” shorter at the rear than the Ron Long trigger plate.
The barrel is the only browned metal on the rifle. All the other metal parts appear to be color case hardened (more on this later), with some parts showing signs of wear where the finish is almost back to bright metal.
There is no extra wood anywhere on this rifle. The forearm is nicely rounded. The lock panels have a minimum amount of wood around the lock. They also taper from front to back. The wrist has been slimmed down just right.
It’s obvious that the builder had access to original Hawken rifles and followed their lines faithfully.
The nose cap and the entry pipe are held on by screws, following the original rifle. GRRW used this method on their Bridger Commemorative Hawken and the late S. Hawken rifles they built after the Commemorative project.
It is interesting that the builder of the Hawken Shop rifle indexed the screw slots with pencil marks.
I’m not sure who built the lock for Ressel, but it appears to have either Ron Long or Bob Roller internals. They don’t quite match the internals in the photo of the Hawken Shop Catalog #2. The bridle is similar to Roller’s while the mainspring is similar to Long’s. I can’t tell much about the tumbler in the Roller lock in the scan of the catalog but the one in the subject rifle definitely isn’t a Long tumbler. The internals are clearly not Schillinger’s, either.
The rifle was advertised as having color case harden lock, breech, and furniture, but on close inspection after receiving the rifle, I believe it is faux color case hardening that was skillfully done with a torch.
You can see this in the pictures of the inside of the lock plate above. It doesn’t have the mottled look of the outside of the plate. Except for the area just behind the plate bolster, the inside of the plate wasn’t heated beyond the straw/brown color.
There is no color on the hidden flats of the breech plug.
The trigger plate, trigger guard, butt plate, nose cap, and wedge escutcheons appear to have faux color case hardening, but the butt plate, nose cap, and wedge escutcheons color is faint as if partially worn off. The edges of the barrel flats also appear to be slightly worn.
I had assumed this was handling wear that had occurred over the 33 years since the rifle was purchased, but after I received the photos from the seller that had been taken by his mother and father in Art’s shop (first two photos above), I realized that the rifle was originally finished with this wear pattern.
I met Richard Wesenburg of St. Louis at the recent CLA show. Richard knew Art Ressel and many of the St. Louis muzzleloader builders of the 70’s and 80’s. When I was describing the rifle to Wesenburg, he said that Keith Neubauer was the best of the custom rifle builders that Ressel used at creating the faux color case hardening and faux wear patterns. He said Keith was not only well known for building contemporary muzzleloaders, but also an expert at restoring antique guns.
A few other details on the rifle—the underrib is riveted on the barrel rather than held on with screws.
The under lugs for the barrel wedges are dovetailed in place.
And of course, the front of the rib has the half moon soft solder common on original Hawken rifles.
There are no makers marks or signatures any where on the rifle. The only stamps are the “S. Hawken, St. Louis” on the top flat behind the rear sight and the “W. M. Large” over “J.J.J.J” and “L” on the left oblique flat near the breech.
The only other marks on the rifle were some hand written letters inside the barrel channel of the stock. However, I don’t know the significance, if any, of these letters.
It is my understanding that Art Ressel would contract his “built to order” rifles out to at least five custom builders:
1. Keith Neubauer
2. Doug Scott
3. Joe Corley
4. Bevins or Blevins
5. Bob Darnstatter
I believe Keith Neubauer is the most likely builder of this rifle based on the information I've got to date.
I would be interested if anyone has any other information or opinions on who might have built this rifle for Art Ressel.
The Book of Buckskinning III, copyrighted 1985, has a section on contemporary muzzleloader builders. The author has a two page write-up on Art Ressel and his Hawken Shop on pages 51 and 52. The article states, “Though in the past completed guns have been built on order, presently the Hawken Shop offers the S. Hawken half stock rifle in kit or component form only.”
It would appear that Art Ressel only offered completed rifles for a few years beginning in late 1980 and ending before 1985. Since they were not serial numbered, we do not know how many were built and sold through the shop, but it likely wasn’t a large number.
Green River Rifle Works built and sold 680 half stock Hawken rifles in the eight years they were in business. Purely a guess, but the Hawken Shop likely sold less than 20 completed rifles per year or under 100 rifles total.
The subject rifle was purchased in 1981 at a cost that was almost twice what Green River Rifle Works was selling their standard S. Hawken rifle for in 1980, the last year they were in business. The price difference is explained by the fact that the Hawken Shop was selling a true custom rifle while GRRW was a semi-custom/semi-production operation. Few people could afford the price of a true custom rifle and most prospective customers would buy the Hawken Shop kit or opt for a finished rifle from companies like Ozark Mountain Arms at a fraction of the price of a Hawken Shop completed rifle.
In the picture below, the Hawken Shop rifle (top) is shown with a GRRW “Bridger” pattern Hawken (2nd down), an Ozark Mountain Arms Hawken (3rd down), and a GRRW Hawken made prior to the “Bridger” pattern (bottom).
All rifles are .54 caliber. The “Bridger” pattern Hawken has a 1⅛” x 34” straight octagon barrel and weighs 12 lbs. The Ozark Mountain Arms Hawken has a 1” x 33¼” straight octagon barrel and weighs 9 lbs. The bottom rifle has a 1” x 32” barrel and weighs 8.5 lbs.
A few things to note about this comparison:
The variation in appearance between these four rifles is within the variation one sees in original Hawken rifles. That said, the Hawken Shop rifle looks more “Hawken” to me. Everything on it is right.
The other three rifles have a lot fancier wood, but the Hawken Shop rifle still stands out because the light blue/grey color of its iron furniture contrasts wonderfully against the dark stock. In HGTV speak, it pops.
Even though the Hawken Shop rifle has a bigger and longer barrel, it’s almost as light as the Ozark Mountain Arms rifle. This speaks to the earlier statement that there is no extra wood on this rifle.
The Ozark Mountain Arms rifle has a few Hawken Shop parts on it, namely the hammer, rear sight, lower entry thimble, and 1” nose cap. The breech & tang may also be the Hawken Shop’s one inch version. The lock and triggers are from L&R. The butt plate is similar to the one on the bottom GRRW rifle and may be a generic commercial item.
My only criticism of the GRRW rifles is the trigger guard (this also applies to the OMA rifle). The back of the bow doesn’t fit the rear trigger as well, and the oval of the scroll at the end of the guard is angled too vertically. It needs to be almost perpendicular to the line of the bottom of the butt stock like on the Hawken Shop rifle.
How would I rank these rifles?
On authenticity, the Hawken Shop Hawken is tops. The GRRW rifles are a close second, but as I mentioned before, the trigger guard could have been better. The OMA Hawken would be third. It has the same guard as the GRRW rifles, plus I question why they stopped where they did on using Hawken Shop parts? They should have gone ahead and used the Hawken Shop’s butt plate and trigger guard.
On quality of build, it’s close between the Hawken Shop rifle and the GRRW “Bridger” pattern rifle. The inletting on both is precise, and the shaping of the stock and metal are faithful to the respective originals they were patterned after. But again, I give the nod to the Hawken Shop rifle because of the faux color case and slightly aged finish. It’s simply the difference between full custom work by a top notch builder and semi-custom production by highly skilled and experienced builders who had to produce a quality product in a relatively short period of time. The OMA Hawken is definitely a third behind the GRRW rifles as some sections of the lock plate are inlet too far below the wood and overall the inletting isn’t as tight as the Hawken Shop and GRRW rifles. It’s good, but definitely not custom quality. I don’t mean to denigrate the OMA Hawken. I’m simply ranking these examples. Anyone who owns an OMA Hawken has a very good rifle and plenty reason to be proud of it.
I apologize for the length of this post. It’s picture heavy, but that’s probably due to exposure to comic books and
Playboy magazine during my formative years. I’ve always liked books and magazines with lots of pictures.
I hope this answers some questions that a few of you had about Hawken Shop Hawken rifles and helps you recognize it if you’re fortunate to come across one in the future.
I also welcome any corrections or additional information from anyone with personal knowledge of Art Ressel, his shop, and the people that he worked with.
