Bridger Hawken- my second copy

[Herb]

My first Bridger copy is at top and my second (and LAST!) is below it.  It is as near exact to the original as I could make it.  Has an Oregon Barrel Company 1 1/8" straight 1-48" twist barrel, 33 1/8" long ahead of the snail.  Phil Meek told me that Knob Mountain had a Hawken stock that could be made into an accurate copy, so I got one.  Wanted plain hard maple, but he had only this fancy one, $240, inletted for barrel and rod only.  It took an awful lot of work to whittle it down to size, maybe only 300 hours or so in this now!  The other parts are from Muzzleloader Builders Supply and Track of the Wolf, most requiring modification to match the original or even work at all.  I detailed the muzzle to look like the original externally, am not sure how it looks inside the bore.




New one at top.

The bottom first copy has maybe a couple thousand rounds through it now, and a couple of elk hunts in the high Uintahs.

[Herb]

I shot it to finish the sights.  There is no notch cut in the rear sight here, I just held at the middle of the bottom rear sight, 50 yards from rest, 6 O'clock hold on the bottom of the V.  I'd pushed a patched ball through the ball before I installed the plug, and thought an .012 crush was OK.  The blue linen is a loose weave, first shot OK, second  blew the patch.  Went to the red cotton duck, a tight weave but crushes to .012 also.  Held together, but both patches too hard to load with .530 Hornadys.  The detailed muzzle let the ball set into the bore about a half diameter, then used a short starter.  Had a damp cleaning patch on the seater jag, no other wiping of the bore.

Went to a PINK! linen, which crushed to .010, and that loaded easily.  So the thickness of a dollar bill (.004) (.002 per side on the ball), made the difference between too hard to load and easy to load.  Shot #9 went before I was ready (light set trigger), otherwise it would have been in the group for a fat hole.  The charge was 50 grains of Goex 3F, measured with a weight-corrected measure.  I'll now file down the front sight to get the group two inches higher, which with heavier loads will be about a hundred yard zero.  When the weather gets better, I'll chronograph and shoot for group this load plus 80, 100 and 120 grains of Olde Eynsford 1 1/2F, my favorite powder in .54's.

[Curtis]

Great looking rifle Herb!  You did an excellent job on the finish for sure.  Looks like it could be a shooter too.

Curtis

[bptactical]

Incredible work and thank you for sharing.
What some of you guys can do is incredible.

[Smokey Plainsman]

Beautiful! How did you go about recreating the varnish? Seems some originals were varnished dark, something even the best modern Hawken builders seem to ignore. Also, both the original and your rifle have a 1/2" ramrod?

[General]

Herb, you do amazing work.  Love them both.

[ScottH]

Herb,
What lock did you use?
The whole rifle looks great as did the first one.

[rich pierce]

Remind me, is the Bridger rifle a J&as or an S Hawken? Approximate date made?

[Herb]

It is a Sam Hawken, and I don't have the date at hand, but can find it if someone else doesn't post.

[Mtn Meek]

Probably about the same date as the Kit Carson in the Masonic Lodge in Santa Fe.  My opinion is mid-1850s.  Some think later, though I've never seen anyone explain their rationale.

Bob Woodfill in an article he wrote about the Jim Bridger Hawken for the October 2016 issue of Muzzle Blast went so far as to speculate that it was made by either William Watt or J. P. Gemmer between 1860 and 1866 when Bridger carried the rifle to Montana.  Woodfill doesn't really explain the basis other than he described it as a "late-period" S. Hawken rifle.  He had defined an "early-period" for S. Hawken rifles from Jake's death in 1849 to Sam's trip to Colorado in 1859.  He defined the S. Hawken "late-period" from 1860 on, when Watt and Gemmer were owners of the shop.

I was in Santa Fe this past December with one of Herb's friends (snow storms in the mountains kept Herb from joining us) and we spent a day and a half at Jim Gordon's museum and a half day at the Masonic Lodge studying the Kit Carson Hawken.

I closely studied the Gemmer rifles that Gordon has, many of which are in his three volume book, and didn't see any that matched the skill and sophistication I saw in the Kit Carson Hawken.  There may be some Gemmer marked rifles out there that match the Carson Hawken, but I haven't seen anything published on them.

I think what we are seeing in the Kit Carson Hawken, and by extension in the Jim Bridger Hawken, is the apex of the development and perfection of the Hawken rifle by Sam.  I don't know of any William Watt marked rifles, so it's impossible to compare to his abilities, but the known rifles marked by William S. Hawken and J. P. Gemmer are lower quality copies compared to the Kit Carson and Jim Bridger Hawken rifles.

[Herb]

Hi, Curtis.  Good to hear from you.  I don't get down into Missouri anymore.

Smokey P-  I didn't varnish it, but I would if I knew how.  What I do is stain the dark places of the stock first. I tried all my dark stains on the cut-off butt piece and found Fiebings dark brown oil leather dye too red.  Lincoln is blacker and I would have used that, but had none left.  I used Muzzleloader Builder Supply's Color Rich Stain for Tiger Maple, soaked in good, dried, then lightly sanded the edges to blend.  For the light areas, I used Track's Original Oil Finish (OOF), with a few drops of Laurel Mtn Forge Nut Brown mixed in to darken it.  In fact, covered the whole stock with it.  Did a second coat.  Steel wooled 4/0.  Smoked up the stock with a paint thinner lamp.  Steel wooled that.  Third coat was rubbed down good, let dry.  Tried Fiebings in the barrel channel, it went right through the OOF.  Smoked the stock again, rubbed out.  A fourth coat with some Fiebings added to the OOF.  Dried good.  The Color Rich stain will also go through the OOF, just tested in the barrel channel.  Rubbed it all down good with a coarse cloth.  My first Bridger Hawken was made about the same way, Maybe I used Lincoln's dye, can't remember.  Also OOF on the worn places.

The barrel has four coats of Laurel Mtn Forge Barrel Brown and Degreaser, left a little streaky, steel wooled down.  I heat blued the breech plug and tang and the butt plate, toe plate, trigger guard and plate.  Escutcheons, keys, nose cap and entry pipe left white.

The ram rod I whittled out of a piece of hickory from a cabinet shop, probably didn't take me much more than 3 or 4 days.  It is 34 3/8 inches long, .510 at the front with a brass collar containing a steel 10x32 hole for a jag tip.  At the second entry pipe, it is .490, at entry pipe it is .470, down to a 7/16 rod tip at the other end.

Scott- the lock is the Davis Jim Bridger Hawken lock, where I cut out for the snail.  I slimmed the hammer some as Taylor has described.

Mtn Meek-  Thanks, Phil.  I knew you could answer better than I could.  I agree with you that the Carson Hawken is the most pleasing of them all, and it is easier to handle than the Bridger.  It is my favorite of all the Hawkens.  The Bridger I just finished, I'd need a mule to haul it around and then I'd have to shoot the rifle rested across its saddle.  Whoa, Mule!

[adam h]

herb,hawken rifles are tough enough but to try and copy one exact as you have .
they are both excellent rifles . so whats next?

[Herb]

Another Carson Hawken with a Green River barrel.