SR James, you have a fine collection of rifles there.
I find it interesting how much we have in common. Like you, I longed for a GRRW factory Hawken back in the 70’s. All I could afford at the time were their kits, of which I bought three before they went out of business in the fall of 1980. Also, like you, I started buying a few vintage repro Hawken rifles a few years ago. I initially focused on GRRW rifles, but when another make crossed my path, I often ended up buying it, mostly out of curiosity to see how it compared to the GRRW since many were direct competitors.
There is a lot of overlap in our collections, but not completely as we each have something that the other doesn’t.
This first rifle is one I just recently traded away, but since I still have pictures of, I thought I would include it.
Custom Rifle with Cherry Corners Components, .58 caliberThis is a custom built rifle and is stamped with the date 4-11-76, but no information as to who the builder was. The barrel is .58 caliber, 1” x 35” straight octagon, has 7 lands/grooves, and may be a GRRW barrel. The barrel key escutcheons are German silver and the nose cap is poured pewter. The stock is figured maple. The lock, breech & tang, and triggers are from Cherry Corners, and I suspect the rest of the furniture is also from Cherry Corners.
Cherry Corners was a company started by Bud Brown and operated in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Brown was probably the second after Lee Paul of Yreka, CA to offer a complete parts set or kit for a Hawken rifle.
Brown sold the Cherry Corners business with all the patterns, dies, and molds for the various Hawken parts to Ithaca Gun Co. in July 1976.
Top Rifle: Ithaca Hawken, .50 caliberBy October 1976, Ithaca Gun Co. was issuing announcements of its purchase of Cherry Corners and its plans to make a production Hawken rifle using Cherry Corners parts and designs. The only significant variance was that Ithaca turned to Fajen to design and shape the walnut stocks for the new Ithaca Hawken. Ithaca began shipping the new Hawken rifles at the beginning of 1977. I’ve seen statements that Ithaca only produced their Hawken rifle for two years, but haven’t been able to verify this. Their actual production run couldn’t be much longer than this because Ithaca sold the rights to their Hawken rifle to Navy Arms who began marketing it as the Navy Arms/Ithaca Hawken in the early 80’s.
The Ithaca Hawken above is serial number (SN) H 225. The barrel is 1” x 32” with one twist in 66”, and apparently made by Ithaca. The barrel key escutcheons are German silver, and interestingly the nose cap is an aluminum alloy rather than pewter or German silver.
Second Rifle: Western Arms Jedediah Smith Commemorative Hawken by Uberti of Italy, .54 caliberAt some point in the mid- to late-70’s, Leonard Allen of Western Arms Corp began working with Uberti of Italy to produce a copy of a generic Sam Hawken rifle. By May of 1978, Western Arms was running advertisements for a new Santa Fe Hawken rifle and a special Jedediah Smith Commemorative version. The Santa Fe Hawken and the Jedediah Smith Commemorative Hawken are essentially the same rifle, differing only in the barrel markings and some of the metal finishes. In addition to the Commemorative numbering on the tang, the Jedediah Smith Hawken rifles are also marked with the Santa Fe Hawken sequence of serial numbers.
The second rifle down in the photo above is marked “
N 91
of One Thousand” on tang, and the SN 562 is stamped on barrel. All the steel parts on the rifle have been browned. It has German silver barrel key escutcheons and a German silver nose cap. The stock is walnut with a reddish brown stain and oil finish. The barrel is 1” x 32” straight octagon with a 1 turn in 66” twist.
Third Rifle: Western Arms Santa Fe Hawken by Uberti of Italy, .54 caliberThe next rifle is a regular Santa Fe Hawken marketed by Western Arms Corp and so stamped on the barrel. It is SN 2003. This particular rifle has a color case hardened lock plate and trigger plate. The hammer and trigger guard appear to be heat blued. The barrel, tang, and butt plate are brown. All the dimensions are the same as the Jedediah Smith Hawken. The stock is walnut with same stain and oil finish as the Commemorative Hawken. The proof mark date codes on both rifles are “AE”, indicating that these rifles were proofed (manufactured) in 1979.
The barrels on both the Santa Fe Hawken and the Jedediah Smith Commemorative are marked as .54 caliber, but it is well known that the bore is actually sized 0.53”. This apparent discrepancy was noted in reviews of the rifle and advertising as early as 1980. It was stated in these reviews and ads that the choice of bore diameter was not a mistake but an intentional effort to copy original Hawken rifle bores.
I have a little different theory. As early as the 1840’s, the literature often referred to a typical Hawken rifle as carrying 32 balls-to-the-pound. In more modern times, some writers have made the mistake of equating the number of balls-to-the-pound to the same number in modern shotgun gauges. This is not correct. A gun that carries 32 balls-to-the-pound does not have the same bore size as a modern 32 gauge gun. The reference of balls-to-the-pound during the fur trade era is a measure of the ball size. The modern shotgun gauge is a measure of the bore size. Any muzzleloader shooter knows that it is very difficult to load a ball that is exactly the same size as the bore of the gun. Allowance needs to be made for patching material and fouling. The difference between the ball size and the bore size is called windage. Windage in the 18th and early 19th centuries could be as small as 0.01” for sporting guns and rifles and as large as 0.05” for military arms.
Charles Hanson, Jr. in
The Plains Rifle and John Baird in
Hawken Rifles: The Mountain Man’s Choice, made the mistake of substituting shotgun gauge for balls-to-the-pound and erroneously referred to a typical Hawken rifle as being .53 caliber. If they had taken windage into consideration, a rifle of 32 balls-to-the-pound would need a bore size no smaller than .54 caliber. Since these two books were the primary resources available to Leonard Allen and the people at Uberti, it is easy to see how the 0.53” bore size may have come about.
Hammer asked a question about Santa Fe Hawken serial numbers and how many were made. The highest serial number I’ve seen for a Western Arms Corp marked Hawken is SN 4053. Around 1980, Western Arms Corp was dissolved resulting from a trade name infringement law suit by Olin Industries. There must have been a large inventory of Santa Fe Hawken rifles with the Western Arms Corp stamp on the barrel at that time because these rifles continued to be sold by various dealers, including Allen Firearms for some years after 1980. Considering the 1,000 Jedediah Smith Commemorative Hawken rifles that shared the same serial number range with the Santa Fe Hawken, there were apparently a little more than 3,000 Santa Fe Hawken rifles made with the Western Arms Corp. barrel stamp.
Also, in the 1980’s other companies such as the Log Cabin Shop, Track of the Wolf, and Cimarron Arms began to import Uberti Hawken rifles under their own name. I have an Uberti Hawken kit with a Cimarron Arms barrel stamp from the time they were still in Houston, TX. The SN on the barrel is 9481. Uberti also supplied their Hawken rifle to distributors and dealers in Europe. And as late as the early 2000’s, they were still being imported to the US. Between the US and European markets, the total number of Uberti Hawken rifles made in factory finished and kit form probably runs into the tens of thousands.
This thread has a long discussion on the history of the Santa Fe Hawken for those that are interested.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=22049.msg211859#msg211859Similarity of Ithaca Hawken to Uberti Santa Fe HawkenBefore moving on to the fourth rifle in the photo, I’ve always been amazed by the similarities between the Ithaca Hawken and the Santa Fe/Uberti Hawken. The German silver escutcheons, bright metal nose cap, same barrel dimensions, same rifling twist, same rear sight, and both have walnut stocks. One really has to look close at the two rifles to see their differences. The Uberti Hawken has a slab sided forearm while the Ithaca is more rounded. Both have too much wood left on the lock panel, but the Ithaca Hawken is better defined in the rear. The hammers on the two rifles are a little different and so are the snails on the breech bolsters. There are some small differences in the shape of the front trigger and in the scroll guard.
It’s almost as if Leonard Allen got a hold of one of the first Ithaca Hawken rifles off the production line and sent it to Uberti in Italy as the prototype for their rifle. The timing barely works as the Ithaca Hawken production began at the beginning of 1977 and the Santa Fe Hawken production appears to have begun in 1979 (based on proof marks). Uberti could have had a little over a year to study the Ithaca Hawken and set up their tooling and manufacturing systems.
Another possibility is that Leonard Allen sent Uberti a custom built Hawken that used Cherry Corners components similar to the first rifle I pictured above. Pewter nose caps were popular on custom Hawken rifles in the 1970’s and German silver escutcheons were also common. Either way, the Uberti Hawken seems to have been heavily influenced by the Cherry Corners/Ithaca Hawken.
Fourth Rifle: Custom Flintlock Hawken, .54 caliberThe bottom rifle in the photo above was made in the late 1970’s by an amateur builder from Rifle, CO. It has a tapered, 1” to ⅞”, GRRW barrel that is 36” long. The lock is a late 1970’s era L&R flintlock Hawken lock. The rest of the components are from Art Ressel’s Hawken Shop. These are all top notch components and the build is way above average for an amateur builder. The stock has a few dents and dings from use and storage, and the finish has darkened over the decades since it was new. In other words, it has character. Flintlocks weren’t as popular in the 70’s as they are today, so you won’t find very many vintage repro Hawken rifles with one. Tapered barrels weren’t real popular back then, either, making this a very unusual rifle.
This next group of rifles is definitely a step up in quality and authenticity.
Top Rifle: Art Ressel Hawken Shop Hawken, .54 caliberThis rifle was purchased in 1981 from The Hawken Shop in St. Louis, MO for $1500. Through research, I’ve attributed it to Keith Neubauer who is shown in The Hawken Shop’s Catalog #2 and described as the prime gunsmith associated with The Hawken Shop. It has a Bill Large barrel that is a nominal 1⅛” to 1” straight taper and 34” long. The rest of the components are from The Hawken Shop, many of which Art Ressel had cast from original Hawken rifles in his collection.
The Hawken Shop primarily sold components parts and full kits for their Hawken rifle, but Art generally had a few finished rifles on display in the store that he had commissioned from a handful of professional builders. He didn’t have a factory operation building rifles. The rifles he had built using his parts and sold through his shop were truly custom rifles. He apparently only offered finished rifles for sale for about five years. The cost of this rifle in 1981 was almost twice the price of a GRRW Hawken in 1980, the year they went out of business. Apparently Ressel sold very few finished rifles.
If you’re interested in more pictures and information on this rifle, I refer you to this post.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=32210.msg327943#msg327943Second Rifle: Green River Rifle Works “Bridger Pattern” Hawken, .54 caliberThe second rifle down is a GRRW Hawken stocked by Gardell Powell in June of 1978. The barrel is 1⅛” x 34” straight octagon of their own manufacture. The SN is 552. The fancy maple stock was an extra cost upgrade. The lock and breech are from Ron Long.
In 1975 and 1976, GRRW worked with the Montana Historical Society to build a collectable replica of the original Jim Bridger Hawken rifle in the museum’s collection that MHS was going to use in a fund raising campaign. The original Hawken rifle was loaned to GRRW during this time to study and duplicate. The agreement between GRRW and MHS prohibited GRRW from marketing or selling a Bridger Hawken, so GRRW made some minor changes in the pattern and marketed their rifles after 1976 simply as a Sam Hawken or a late Hawken rifle. A few of us collectors refer to this version of the GRRW Hawken as the “Bridger Pattern” even though GRRW never used Bridger in their marketing.
The stock dimensions and barrel dimension closely duplicate the original Bridger Hawken. The component parts were the closest to the original that were commercially available at the time. GRRW did not do any proprietary castings of the Bridger Hawken. That said, the GRRW “Bridger Pattern” Hawken was, and still is, the most authentic production rifle made.
Third Rifle: Ozark Mountain Arms Hawken, .54 caliberThe next rifle down is an Ozark Mountain Arms Hawken. This company had a convoluted history. Milt Hudson founded the company called Mountain Arms Inc. in Ozark, MO. It appears to have started producing Hawken rifles in 1977. The magazine
Gun World published an article on it in their October 1977 issue that was written by Bob Zwirz titled “Mountain Arms and the Hawken”. In the November 1977 issue of
Buckskin Report, John Baird has a long editorial heavily criticizing Mr. Zwirz’s piece over a number of inaccuracies unrelated to the Mountain Arms Hawken. Baird does say that the Mountain Arms Hawken is a “near copy of a rifle made by Ed White (now deceased), who used Art Ressel’s original S. Hawken as his model…We say ‘near copy’ because, in the interests of mass production, some modifications were necessary in the Mountain Arms version, ie: 1” barrel instead of a 1⅛” tapered barrel as on the original, minor variation in hardware, etc. Mountain Arms’ Hawken replica is, in fact, a copy of a copy…”
In 1979, Milt Hudson left Mountain Arms Inc. and formed a new company called The Hawken Armory located in Ozark, MO. Mr. Hudson had apparently been crowded out of Mountain Arms Inc. by some new partners he had taken in. The new owners changed the name of the company to Ozark Mountain Arms and moved it to Branson, MO. The company operated there until late 1983 or beginning of 1984 when it changed hands again and was moved to Ashdown, AR. In the meantime, The Hawken Armory had apparently changed owners and moved to Hot Springs, AR in 1981. You still with me?
I’ve seen a number of Hawken rifles marked with Mountain Arms and Ozark Mtn. Arms, but none marked Hawken Armory, so far.
The rifle in my collection is marked Ozark Mtn. Arms, though the stamp is so faint, it is hard to see. There is no serial number and no address, and therefore, no way to date this rifle. The rifle is stocked in a beautiful piece of tiger striped maple and stained in a nice, warm honey-colored stain. The barrel is 1” x 33¼” straight octagon made by Green Mountain. The lock is an L&R percussion Hawken lock with a copy of the hammer from the Hawken in Ressel’s collection. I once thought it was the same hammer from The Hawken Shop until an acquaintance pointed out that they are slightly different in some dimensions. The triggers are from L&R. The trigger guard and butt plate are the pattern that was available from a number of suppliers and still available today. The entry thimble and upper pipes are fancier than seen of most repro Hawken rifles. The upper pipes were probably machined by Ozark Mtn. Arms and the entry pipe may be a proprietary casting.
The Hawken Shop Hawken has parts that were cast from at least two originals in Ressel’s collection. The Ozark Mtn. Arms Hawken is a copy of a copy of one of those two originals. So in a way, the two replicas are an interpretation of the same original Hawken. I once thought that Ozark Mtn. Arms used some of The Hawken Shop parts on their rifle, but now realize that isn’t the case. The Ozark Mtn. Arms parts developed independently.
The Ozark Mtn. Arms Hawken is a good lookin’ rifle, especially with the fancy wood. As Baird pointed out, it is not an exact duplicate of an original Hawken. The biggest compromise is in the 1” straight octagon barrel, but that isn’t too bad since the 1” barrel makes for an easy to handle rifle.
Fourth Rifle: GRRW “Transition Pattern” Hawken, .54 caliberThe bottom rifle is another GRRW Hawken stocked by Gardell Powell in June of 1976. The GRRW barrel is 1” x 32” straight octagon. The SN is 315, which puts it in what I call the “Transition Pattern”. The figured maple stock may have been an extra cost upgrade, though the stock finish and/or stain has darkened so over the decades, it’s hard to see the curl. The lock is from Ron Long, but I’m not sure who made the breech. The butt plate and trigger guard are the generic commercial items similar to what’s on the Ozark Mtn. Arms Hawken. The nose cap is a two-piece brazed cap that was made in the GRRW machine shop. The thimbles and barrel keys were also made by GRRW.
In the eight or so years of operation, GRRW had two set Hawken patterns that included a relatively standard set of component parts. One was in their early years and the other after the Bridger Commemorative Hawken project was completed in late 1976. In between the two is what I call their “Transition Pattern” Hawken.
One sees a variety of component parts during the “Transition” period and more variation in stock details from builder to builder and in rifles built by the same builder over time. There was a bit of individual expression and experimentation in this period. This individual expression would not be seen again except when a customer ordered several extra cost upgrades that called for a custom Hawken. Another interesting observation is that nearly all of the half stock Hawken rifles built before the end of 1976 have a 1” barrel. And with a few exceptions nearly all the half stock Hawken rifles built after 1976 have a 1⅛” barrel. I know of only about three GRRW half stock Hawken rifles built after 1976 that have 1” barrels.
