Kit Carson Hawken Build Photos

[Herb]

In building this rifle, I scaled the parts and dimensions from a life-sized photo I had made of it, with Jim Gordon's permission.  It is from his book "Great Gunmakers For the Early West, Vol III".

The keys go in from the right and are captured.  I cut the head size down and made my own escutcheons.

The rib is riveted on.  I made my own rod pipes.  The rod is 1/2" inside the stock, a little larger here.









The lock panels are tapered, wider at the front.

The barrel is browned with Laurel Mtn. Forge Barrel Brown Degreaser, 5 coats, boiled in distilled water after each.  The breech plug, tang, nose cap, entry pipe, keys, escutcheons, lock, trigger and trigger plate, butt plate and toe plate are heat blued.

I made the lock bolt escutcheon.

Track's Bridger butt plate was cut down to match the original Bridger and Carson butt plates.

Muzzleloader Builder's Supply 1 1/8" cast nose cap is correct but oversize for the 1 1/16" barrel (tapered) here.  I had to solder a filler in to fit the cap to the barrel, and to raise it level with the under rib.  It is screwed on from the inside of the stock, so is the entry pipe.  The pipe is cut down from Track's to the dimensions of the original and drilled out to .500 inside.  I made my own escutcheons to match the originals.

I modified the snail to the top curve of the originals.  Reshaped the trigger plate.  Reshaped the trigger guard.  Cut the triggers off shorter.

The rod tip is brass like the original, but I made it with a 10x32 hole for a cleaning jag.

This is a Colerain barrel, tapered from 1 1/8" to 1", 31 1/8" long ahead of the snail.  Only six lands and grooves instead of seven on the original Hawken barrels, but it is what I had on hand.  I coned the muzzle about 1/4" and filed the grooves deeper, somewhat like original Hawken muzzles.

The rifle weighs 10 pounds even and I have to use a rib support to shoot it.  But it goes where it was pointed, it is easy to hit with it.  See "A Uintah Mountain Peep Shoot" in the shooting forum here.  With research, sawing the stock out of a blank, modifying or making parts, I probably have 300 hours in this build.  But now I know how to do it.

[Bob Roller]

Herb,
This is a remarkable work of American art.The inletting is superb and it is a job to be proud
of and congratulations on bringing this one to a successful conclusion.

Bob Roller

[Joe S.]

I concur,really nice job Herb.Thanks for posting your build.

[n stephenson]

Nice Work!!!     I like it!!        Nate

[bama]

Great job Herb, I love dedication to the Hawken rifles. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Jim

[sloe bear]

I'm a sucker for "Hawkin" rifles and this is great example and a real piece of art.

[rich pierce]

Wow a half inch ramrod is STOUT!  Herb, I really appreciate your research and your work.

[Herb]

The Bridger and Carson Hawkens have half inch ramrods to the entry pipe, then they taper down.  I don't know why, my idea is why taper?  If my life depended on my rifle and ramrod, I'd want it strong.

[dave gross]

Another very nice Hawken from Herb.  I confess that my untrained eyes can't always discern the minute details which make or break the correctness of interpretation of Hawken rifles, but Herb's guns all look good to me.
My only question concerns the muzzle of the Kit Carson rifle which Herb used as inspiration for his latest effort.  The muzzle of the original, and of the few others I have seen, show no sign of crowning or coning.  I wonder how some of current tight ball and patch combinations would have fared in loading through such a muzzle.   Just pondering.

Dave Gross
down east in Maine

[conquerordie]

Besides knowing that Hawkens are iconic, I know very little about them. After seeing this incredible piece, I know I now want one! Incredible attention to details to make it historically correct. I applaud and respect that. Beautiful rifle!
Greg

[Herb]

Dave, the lands of the Bridger rifle are relieved in about 1/4 inch, is what I thought when I handled the rifle in the museum in Helena, MT.  That could be done with a file, but I made a fast taper coning tool and relieved the lands uniformly.  It would do no good to cut down the grooves without lowering the lands.  You are correct that there is no crown.  The muzzles are flat, not even radiused at the edges of the muzzle.  Many of the Hawkens I have seen have the muzzles detailed like this.  Some in Gordon's book don't even show rifling.  Were they coned to remove the lands?  This is the muzzle of a S.Hawken rifle in a private museum in Cheyenne, Wy.

This is the muzzle of the S. Hawken rifle drawn by Robidoux, in a museum in Lincoln, NE.

A photo taken at the GRRW of the Bridger muzzle when they had the rifle.

My photo of the Bridger muzzle when I handled and measured it in the museum in Helena, MT


Rich, the Bridger rod pipes measure .530 ID at the front, then .520 and the entry pipe measures .510 ID.  The "Robidoux" Hawken pipes measure .515 ID and the entry pipe is .485.  The Cheyenne pipes are .500 ID and the entry pipe is .475.  I have not yet personally measured the Carson rifle.

[Elnathan]

Gus  "Artificer" recently suggested in a discussion on another forum that this very small cone is in fact the result of wear from the hot gases escaping the muzzle. I'm not sure that I buy that, given the lack of any other type of crown, but it does seem worth considering.

That is a lovely gun, Herb. What is the caliber?

[adam h]

herb, I have read every post you have put in here and are a great inspiration I love your work
and that's another great looking hawken . a reason I have a kit to put together I had to start
somewhere and try myself . keep the pics coming

[PPatch]

NICE work Herb! Beautiful rifle gun.

dave

[Clark Badgett]

Great looking rifle Herb. What method do you use for the heat blue?

[Herb]

Elnathan, gas cutting at the muzzle is not the answer.  If it were, most of the original muzzleloader barrels  would look like the Hawken muzzles.  Doc White of the GRRW said he has examined hundreds of original muzzleloader rifles and most had some relief of the rifling at the muzzle, if I remember how he said it.  If you want to see what he says about original Hawkens and modern copies, look at his web site, http://whitemuzzleloading.com, All About Doc, Books and Articles, Doc's Ramblings.  He said screws of original Hawkens were fire blued, with a forge.  I do it with a propane torch.  About the simplest thing there is to do in finishing a rifle.  My rifle is a .54 caliber.  The Jim Bridger original is .52 caliber, my copy is a .54.

[Bob Roller]

Elnathan, gas cutting at the muzzle is not the answer.  If it were, most of the original muzzleloader barrels  would look like the Hawken muzzles.  Doc White of the GRRW said he has examined hundreds of original muzzleloader rifles and most had some relief of the rifling at the muzzle, if I remember how he said it.  If you want to see what he says about original Hawkens and modern copies, look at his web site, http://whitemuzzleloading.com, All About Doc, Books and Articles, Doc's Ramblings.  He said screws of original Hawkens were fire blued, with a forge.  I do it with a propane torch.  About the simplest thing there is to do in finishing a rifle.  My rifle is a .54 caliber.  The Jim Bridger original is .52 caliber, my copy is a .54.

I would think that only a pristine original Hawken or any thing else could be verified with
fire blued screws.It IS the simplest thing you can do before the range test and I some times
do it on fancy locks like the 4 screw that was shown on this forum a few weeks ago.
Again,congratulations on such a fine job of reproducing an American classic muzzle loader.

Bob Roller