...I have a mystery gun I would like some input on. It’s an unfinished Hawken I purchased used on-line from Numrich Arms. They had no additional info on it. I took it to Track of the Wolf and we figured a few things out.
Gun in question;
Hawken halfstock stocked in low to mid-range maple.
58 caliber octagon barrel that is 28 7/8 inches long with hooked breech and 8 grooves/lands.
Barrel is tapered from 1 1/8 to 1 inch.
Distinctive toeplate.
Big ugly unfinished patch box – no spring and open hole for latch/grip.
Ron Long Lock – [marked]
L&R trigger [unmarked but obvious to Track of the Wolf guys]
All iron “in-the-white” furniture.
...It leads me to believe it was a semi-finished “kit” from some high end company or individual.
Ideas? Any info would be appreciated.
Mike
Mike,
These mystery guns can be fun and frustrating trying to figure out their origin.
I don't think your rifle was "a semi-finished 'kit' from some high end company". Many of the component parts date back to the 1970's. I've studied guns from the companies producing Hawken rifles back then including GRRW, Sharon Rifle Barrel Co, Ithaca Gun Co, Western Arms/Uberti, Ozark Mountain Arms, and The Hawken Shop. Your rifle has elements that are different from the guns each of these companies produced.
Ron Long started producing his Hawken lock in late 1974 or early 1975 and sold the business in December 1981. GRRW used Ron Long locks almost as soon as they became available, but GRRW bought the cast parts from Long and assembled the locks in the GRRW shop. I've yet to see a GRRW Hawken with a lock that had Long's stamp on it. Most have no markings. Your rifle could date back to the 1970's, but it could also be more recent. I've seen a number of Long's lock for sale on eBay over the years, so there are still a number of his unused locks floating around out there.
The breech plug on your rifle is recognizable as one that GRRW used some, so it also dates back to the 1970's. It was also available from TOTW as late as the 1990's.
Ozark Mountain Arms and Sharon used L&R triggers, but both companies made their rifles and kits with 1" straight octagon barrels and used different breech plugs and trigger guards. Sharon used the version of L&R triggers that had a curved front trigger, also.
The butt plate is nondescript and available from a number of sources.
A similar patch box was available in the 1970's and is still available from Muzzleloader Builder's Supply.
Tapered barrels were available from GRRW, but their barrels had 7 land/grooves. Not many other companies offered them in the 70's, as they weren't as popular as they are now. The barrel is the one part that might suggest a more recent build.
The trigger guard is the most intriguing part of your rifle. It is not the typical cast guard that was/is commercially available. It looks like a custom piece to me. There were some small companies back in the 1980's and 1990's that offered some forged butt plates and trigger guards. I wonder if that might be the source of your guard.
My guess is that your rifle was assembled from component parts available from a number of different sources from the 1970's through the 1990's. It could have been started anytime in that period. Your statement about a mix of very good and not so good workmanship suggests that more than one person has worked on the rifle over they years. This is not that uncommon. I've seen a number of rifles that were only partially completed and then passed on to another builder. Sometimes they were started by an amateur then finished by a more skilled and knowledgeable person. Sometimes it was the other way around.
The biggest issue I see with the rifle, as is, are the dome head bolts and screws. They should be replaced with flat head ones.
