After almost a year and a half I have finished my Hawken. This is my second build. I have posted many questions here and always received very helpful info. I asked Dick at Pecatonica about two years ago to look for a real nice stock. It took about 5 months to find one but I am very happy with it. Some of the problems I had:
1. I had to have Pecatonica breech the barrel a second time as I totally screwed up trying to fit the tang to the breech the first time. I did learn and got the second one fine.
2. I went and screwed up the first triggerguard when it cracked trying to bend it. Used a little heat and the second time around with a new one and it bent fine.
3. The bridle seemed loose and I spent a lot of time fitting a bushing.
4. The sear screw seemed very loose. I filed out and threaded a new screw and carefully fit it and it seems perfect.
5. The staple underlugs installed by Pecatonica were off from where they needed to be. I might have had to move the barrel back too far to fit the tang in the precut stock. I cut them off and installed dovetailed underlugs. They seem way better.
6. My hammer was not hitting the nipple as perfect as I wanted. This was a learning experience. I screwed up two hammers before I learned how hot to get it and how to grab it and the third one bent fine and hits dead center on the nipple.
7. I realized that the front trigger supplied was the straight one and I wanted the one with the little curve. Junked the straight one and ordered the one I wanted. Was able to bend with heat to be more Hawken. The trigger pivot pins seemed way too loose and I fit new pivot pins with # 39 drill bit rod. They don’t wiggle sideways like they did.
8. When Herb said he sometimes faked the solder fill of the underrib I ground out the rib and filled with solder.
9. Poster JPK on this site j.kilts@hotmail.com was nice to help me and did the beautiful color case hardening. He had to unbreech the barrel as I could not. He did say it was stupid tight. He refit the breech and the color case hardening is beautiful. The pictures don’t do it justice.
10. I spent hours looking at pictures of Hawken lock panels. There is a lot of variance. I just picked the look I liked best.
11. The front sight supplied by Pecatonica was brass with a silver blade. Herb, who answered many of my questions, sent pictures of Jim Bridger’s rifle and said it was copper with a silver blade. So I found a copper one at MBS and Herb was nice to show me how much to leave sticking out the side.
12. I gave up trying to learn to rust blue. I need lessons I guess. I polished up everything and sent to Hot Flash Refinishing and for $107.00 they hot blued everything. I am sorry I took this easy way out. But they did do a very nice job.
13. Pecatonica sent a brass ramrod end. Herb told me real Hawkens have steel ramrod ends. I have built one with a color case hardened end and one with blued steel. I also built one with the brass and for real shooting would use the brass as I think it would be better for the barrel.
Please give all the thoughts you have. Not so much for me as for someone else. I learned so much looking at old posts. Thank You all for the help. Dan
