Bridger Hawken Tang by TOW

[Herb]

Here is Track of the Wolf's Bridger Hawken tang and stock.  The tang has too much of a hump and is 1/2" too low at the back, requiring high heat to bend it to the stock contour.

The front tang is Track's and the back one is GRRW's, copied from the actual Bridger rifle which they had in their shop in 1975.

This is Track's Bridger stock, changed from the original exact copy which Doc White of GRRW gave them.  I have to fill the escutcheon inlets in the forearm and to get matching wood, I'll cut a 1/4" thick slab out of the buttstock, gluing a filler in afterwards.  Then I can cut the escutcheon fillers out of this piece.  I am going to cut the stock to the line shown to get the 13 1/4" length of pull of the original Bridger stock.  This is not the right stock for that rifle, I'll know better if there is a next time.

This shows the correct location of the key escutcheons and why I have to fill those already cut.

Oh, and did I mention that the entry pipe is the wrong one and the nose cap too short, I have to redo those also.

[Mtn Meek]

Thanks for sharing with us, Herb.

Building from a pre-shaped and pre-inlet stock can be frustrating, especially when it's a parts set that has been around as long as Track's Jim Bridger Hawken kit.

The history of the kit may explain some of the issues you have identified.

Back in 1975, Ron Long designed and started producing the original breech and tang that GRRW used with their Bridger Commemorative Hawken rifles they built for The Montana Historical Society as well as their standard late Hawken pattern rifle they made post-1976.

Ron sold his lock and breech plug business to Tim Houseweart at the end of 1981.



Houseweart continued to make locks and breech plugs using Ron Long's patterns for a few years then decided to sell the business again.  Tom Faux bought the flintlock pattern and R.E. Davis purchased the other lock patterns and the breech plug patterns.  R.E. Davis produced the Ron Long designed breech & tang for a decade or two until they had some problems machining and drilling the nipple hole and flash channel which they couldn't overcome.  They ended up selling or transferring the breech plug business to Track of the Wolf.

Since the days that GRRW used the breech & tang from Long's original castings, the molds have passed through at least three other owners.  The original molds probably wore out years ago and new molds had to be made.  It's not surprising that one would see differences in the castings that Ron Long made in the late 1970's and the castings that Track is producing today.

You are correct in stating that Doc White traded GRRW's original master Hawken stock pattern to Track.  You are also correct in stating that Track made some changes to the pattern.

GRRW's master pattern was shaped but not pre-inlet.  The GRRW gun stockers hand inlet all the parts on their Hawken rifles.

Track first listed their Jim Bridger Hawken kit in their Catalog #11, copyrighted in 1986.  In their Catalog #14, copyrighted in 1997, Track describes the Jim Bridger stock as, "Precision pre-inlet and shaped on Allen's five axis pantograph.  Green River Rifle Works made the master pattern.  Michael Hayes refined and perfected our working pattern."  Basically, Michael Hayes made them a new master pattern with inlets.  They've probably had to make additional modifications since such as the entry pipe.

GRRW's contract with MHS for the Bridger Commemorative Hawken prevented them from selling any Bridger Hawken rifles or using the Jim Bridger name in any advertising.  They had to make small changes to their late pattern Hawken rifles so they weren't the same as the Bridger Commemorative Hawken rifles.  Some of the changes were that they did not file a square corner on the inside of the butt plate where the crescent meets the heel extension.  The forearm on their standard pattern Hawken was a different length than the Bridger Hawken.  The barrel lengths were generally different.  The location of the barrel wedges weren't necessarily the same.

Track was not a party to the contract between GRRW and MHS, so they can sell a Bridger Hawken.  But it it mostly marketing.  They probably tried to make their kit similar to some GRRW Hawken rifles, but they didn't try to duplicate the original Bridger Hawken.

Track's Jim Bridger Hawken kit will make a good copy of a GRRW Hawken rifle, but not an exact copy of the original Bridger Hawken.

If you were to attempt another Bridger Hawken copy, I would recommend starting with one of Tiger Hunt's pre-shaped Hawken stocks.  They have the barrel channel cut and the ramrod hole drilled, but no inlets.  They leave plenty of wood so you can shape the stock to match a particular pattern.  The photos below show a GRRW Hawken rifle at the top, a Tiger Hunt Hawken stock, and one of Track's Jim Bridger Hawken stocks next to a life size photograph of an original Hawken rifle.

[Herb]

Phil- you do good work!  Thanks. 

[Clowdis]

Herb,
Just an observation and that's all it is, but it will be near impossible to hide the new wood that you will need to put in the existing escutcheon inlets. While I realize that you are trying to do an exact repro would it be so bad to leave them where they are? You might want to weigh your options here. I will echo some other remarks that have been on the forums here about precarved and inlet stocks. Most are generic in nature and you can't always get exactly what you want out of them.  If you have the ability to start from a blank you can use the precarve for reference and make the stock the way you want it.

[FlintFan]

I am going to cut the stock to the line shown to get the 13 1/4" length of pull of the original Bridger stock. 

If that is the original dimensions of the stock I can see why it was changed.  Unless the shooter will be a 14 year old boy or a small woman, very few people would be comfortable with a pull that short.  To each his own, but making a pre-carve with a pull that short would be very problematic.  Much better to make it longer so someone could shorten it to whatever length they might need.

Please keep us updated with your progress, this looks like a good project. 

[Joe S.]

Herb,I'm thinking along with Clowdis on trying to plug those holes for a do over.I tip my cap to you for even thinking about trying it!

[Hungry Horse]

 I say go for it Herb. The old timers did it, and some of their plugs are pretty hard to detect. A good example is a heavy barreled target rifle I own made by J. Rogers. I literally owned the gun for years before I discovered that it had a plugged hole in the buttstock. It was hanging over a doorway in my home, and as I walked under it one day, when the light coming in through a nearby window was just right, I saw a faint circle on the buttstock. I got the gun down, and studied it carefully under magnification, and found the plug.

  Hungry Horse

[bgf]

I am going to cut the stock to the line shown to get the 13 1/4" length of pull of the original Bridger stock. 

If that is the original dimensions of the stock I can see why it was changed.  Unless the shooter will be a 14 year old boy or a small woman, very few people would be comfortable with a pull that short.  To each his own, but making a pre-carve with a pull that short would be very problematic.  Much better to make it longer so someone could shorten it to whatever length they might need.

Please keep us updated with your progress, this looks like a good project. 

13.25" is a good LOP for me, and I'm bigger than a small woman .  Modern unmentionable things are usually in that range and they fit full grown men fine.  Shortening the Lop moves the balance point back and allows a heavier weight barrel to be used comfortably but still retain its ability to hang steadier.

Herb,
I agree on leaving the escutcheon plates where they are inlet, unless you want an exact dimensional copy of the Bridger.

[Herb]

I am building this for Kevin who wants an exact copy.  I thought this stock was an exact copy of the GRRW pattern, thus we got it.  I had built 2 or 3 of them some years back, but did not know then what I know now about the original.  The original stock was varnished very brown-black and much of this wore off over the years.  I will see if the fillets can be disguised by staining, but I needed them made of the same wood and grain orientation.  I built my copy of the original from a blank and that is more work than I wanted, but I thought this stock was correct.  The short length of pull much improves handling.  I have shot mine off hand hundreds of times with great success. In fact, I built my .58 flint plains rifle with a 12 1/4" LOP.

[Herb]

My .58 flintlock halfstock with 12 1/4"LOP.

I sawed this out of a blank.  1 1/8" tapered barrel 31" long.

My copy of the Bridger rifle, from a blank, with the original in Helena, MT.

My barrel was 2" shorter than the original, so I had to change the forend, thus my forward key escutcheon, entry pipe and nose cap are spaced differently.

[Herb]

The tang has to be fitted to the breech plug face by filing.  The snail also needs to be cut to a smooth circle, including the back and front of the top.

The plate has to be cut for the snail.  Place it in position and carefully mark the cut-out.  I do mine with a small hacksaw, front and rear and down.  A rattail file is used to cut close to the line.

A Dremel Heavy Duty carbide disc is just exactly the right diameter to cut the snail.  This is done with smoke-fitting.

After the lock is fitted exactly against the snail, the taper of the lock panels to the rear is evident. 

The amount of taper can be calculated from a scale drawing, or file and try.  I needed to cut .040 from the back of the bolster to bring the lock tail in to the lock panel.  The original Bridger lock plate was bent to effect this taper, Carl Walker told me, who handled the rifle at GRRW. 

Our modern trigger guards are a little different from the originals.  Here I hit on a good trick.  I called my photo of the original Bridger trigger guard up on the computer and enlarged it (by hitting Control+) to be about 5.75 inches, holding a ruler against the screen.  Then I held my TOW trigger guard up to it and took a picture of the screen.  This provides a comparison to the original.  That is shown below. (The rear top of the trigger guard loop is bent and filed to shape here and the stud bent to 90 degrees to the plate).

With the Ron Long triggers and Track's TG-Hawk-L-I held together, it is seen that the front TG stud does not meet the plate at 90 degrees.  I carefully bend the guard until it was 90 degrees.  The rear of the loop is unmodified here.

I bent this cold, but that little curl at the back of the bow took white-red heat and I never did succeed it bending it, could not get at it to tap it.  Finally filed the front back some.

I cut the end of the rear loop off to match the original, but needed to open the loop up some more.  I thought I could bend it cold, and got it almost right, but then I cracked it.  This has to be heated red-white to bend.  My friend Bill Lewis will weld the loop and I hope I know better next time.

The Ron Long trigger plate does not match the stock belly.  The front has to be bent out about 1/16" to be parallel with the stock.  The tail also had to be bent out about 1/8".

I cut the fillet out of the butt stock and then used it to cut fillets to fill the misplaced key escutcheons in the forestock.  I placed the filed-out Bridger buttplate at 13 1/4" LOP, marked the inside and sawed it off with a hacksaw.  Then it took smoke-fitting to make it a good fir.

More in a few days.

[Herb]

On the stock.  This is the final shape, without the trigger guard.  The ramrod is just for the photo, have to make a full sized one.

A closer look.  I had to bend the hammer nose in about 1/8", heating it red to do it.

Nose cap from Muzzleloader Builders Supply, Track's entry pipe RP-Hawk-TE-7-I, filed out.  They use the wrong one in their parts set, too much belly.

Cutting the escutcheon inlets.  I use a 2" piece of hacksaw blade bent to the arc of the metal and sharpened as a chisel.  A tight radius chisel is made for the ends.  Heads of the keys get filed smaller.

The fillet in the end of the stock.  Some of you may remember my posting of my .58 fullstock flint Hawken where I fell on a rock during an elk hunt and broke the toe off the stock.  This 2" long screw reinforces the toe.  The original Bridger rifle has the buttplate riveted to the toe plate with a diagonal rivet.  Carl Walker told me that at GRRW when they had the rifle in 1975 they took the buttplate and toe plate off in one piece.  I don't know how I can rivet these parts after they are color case hardened, as Kevin wants them done.

Kevin wants to put the wear on the rifle, so I am building it as new, nearly as I can guess what it looked like.  When I made my copy, I stained the stock with Fiebings dark brown oil leather dye to match the original color and wear pattern and left the rest white.  Too white.  So I then stained the worn parts with Laurel Mountain Forge Lancaster Maple, a close match.  I am out of that, so I gave the stock a coat of Track's Original Oil, which Doc White likes and now I do, too.  It was too light so I added stain to the oil, but that does not darken the color much. (Muzzleloader Builders Supply Old Towne Curly Nut Brown Stain, too red but the closest I had on hand.  Lancaster Maple is just right, put on bare wood).  I will next stain the whole stock with Lincoln dark brown oil leather stain to closely match the original stained varnish. (I tried that in building my rifle, but did not get a dark enough color).



More when I have time.

[JB]

looks good.  I look forward to seeing the rest of the build.

[Herb]

The rifle ready for final staining of the stock and light heat bluing of the metal furniture.  Kevin decided against color case hardening.





Trigger is unset here.





This is not the ram rod, just a prop.  I am whittling out a .500 hickory rod with a steel 7/16 tip to inside the stock and a lead tip on the front, like this one.  The barrel has five coats of Laurel Mountain Forge Barrel Brown Degreaser, probably get another couple of coats and then be boiled in distilled water for a blue color.