Author Topic: Hawken tapered barrels  (Read 2348 times)

Offline Don Stith

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Hawken tapered barrels
« on: January 05, 2017, 06:16:08 PM »
I'll start this post to avoid distracting from Herbs post.

 It is true that you could file the amount of taper in most Hawken barrels.  However it would be a lot of work and not an accidental occurrence. I am sure it is more than a coincidence that the small end almost always  is at the muzzle.  There was an original that wandered around St Louis  in the 1970's or 80's that had the small end at the breech. It stuck out like a sore thumb. There were a lot of stories made up around the campfire to explain the anomaly. WE did not have the internet but stories still got made up and spread around.

Offline deepcreekdale

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Re: Hawken tapered barrels
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2017, 08:56:25 PM »
Thanks Don, appreciate the information. In my younger, more foolish days I filed a fairly substantial taper in and even  swamped a number of barrels. Tapers weren't too bad, tapering and flaring were! Now I just call Jason at Rice barrels and place my order. Less blisters.
I have a question for you though. Having done more research in my older and less foolish years, I find that many of the original tapers were much more subtle  than some of what we see from our commercial suppliers today. Do you think the original Hawken barrels were intentionally tapered by filing? What would have been the reason if, like you say, it was probably not accidental although many of them have only a slight taper? I wouldn't think  that slight taper would make that much difference in weight or was that just a by product of the production methods at the time.
”Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Theodore Roosevelt

Offline Don Stith

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Re: Hawken tapered barrels
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2017, 11:00:42 PM »
I  can only be sure of my observations
. The reasoning is conjecture. It certainly gives better balance and offsets the added weight of the rib. If someone actually knows the whys, I'd like to hear from them.
I have seen a couple of fullstock Hawkens with a slight swamp