Don King Kentucky

[Dphariss]

Carney Pace sent me these a few years back. Its rifle I had never seen. But the other photos indicate it was at an artists show, probably in Big Timber, MT since Jack and Jessica Hines are there. Wish there were better photos of the engraving.

[Dphariss]

I don't know where that monopoly cheats link came from but I think its gone now.

[heinz]

Thanks for posting that.  Don King made some really nice rifles.

[Dphariss]

Thanks for posting that.  Don King made some really nice rifles.

Indeed he did.

[S.P. Garbe]

Dan,
I remember when Don built that rifle...I think it was 1981. And...I think that was the rifle that Spike Van Cleve ended up owning. There were some issues with the sale at the art show that Jack and Jessica hosted and Don wasn't too happy. That touch hole pick was very slick, not to mention the rest of the rifle. Don made it specifically for the art show and followed it with the fancy .32 Vincent that I own. It went to a gallery in Jackson Hole and there were some issues with it as well. After that, Don would only build ordered rifles, no more "spec" rifles. I'd tell you what Don said about the whole deal, but the kids are still up.

Along those same lines, just talked to a gun dealer in North Dakota that sold what I think was Ed Kenney's Hawken rifle and pistol, made in 1975. The rifle had one of Don's silver double crosses...and other than nice wood, it was a plain rifle. Same with the pistol, and it had the little brass turned ramrod end that Don did to keep the ramrod from backing out. The guy couldn't remember who it was that sold them...just came walking in one day with those and a Sharon-barreled Hawken percussion rifle. A shooter in Arizona has the King guns now...the dealer was going to see if he could get the guy's number for me.

Steve Garbe

[Daryl]

Now THAT's really nice. Thanks for posting it, Dan.

[WadePatton]

I don't know where that monopoly cheats link came from but I think its gone now.

Dan those odd links attach somehow from our hosting setup. I like to nip them by doing a preview and edit when posting pics. 

Thanks for those too!

[Dphariss]

The first ornate patchbox is on an ornate silver mounted swivel breech. The bottom silver patchbox is on a rifle originally made for Burris of Burris Scopes. Its possible  he made the swivel for Burris as well. My memory fails.
The Burris rifle was bought at his estate auction for $900 with the lock disassembled. The new owner supplied me with the photos and told me that with the 200 or so piercings in the PB and the silver inlays there are no errors in the inletting.
The Hawkens were at the 1972 or 73 Chadron, NE  Rendezvous.
The wrist inlays are on a  another very ornate swivel breech
The Bedford was Don’s personal rifle “King’s  Ransom” he was laying the stock pattern out on his garage floor when the neighbor came over to tell him President Kennedy had been killed in Dallas. I has seen a lot of use. And the silver inlays have lost some of their engraving. Don was trained as a photo engraver.

[Daryl]

Over the top!

[Mike Brooks]

That blanket full of full stock flint Hawken rifles reminds me of the trade blankets I used to see at Friendship in the early 80's. HAWKEN MANIA!

[Mike Brooks]

That blanket full of full stock flint Hawken rifles reminds me of the trade blankets I used to see at Friendship in the early 80's. HAWKEN MANIA!

Do you ever wonder where all of those cool old guns went? You never see stuff like that around anymore.

[S.P. Garbe]

Dan,
Some interesting things about "Kings Ransom"...

The name came from Don refusing to sell it to a rich guy from Cincinnati at Friendship one year. The guy wanted to buy the rifle (Don had just finished it) but Don did not want to sell as it was his personal rifle. If you look at the sideplate, Don engraved an image of his first wife Suzy on it. Anyhow, the rich dude kept offering Don more and more money, even after Don said he would build him a copy, no go, the guy wanted "that" rifle. Apparently he became insistent to the point of being rude and, Don being Don, told him to *%#* off. Jim Coon witnessed the event and later, over whiskies in Jim's tipi, he remarked "I have now seen King's ransom." The name stuck.

Another one...
Don told me at the Guild Fair in Bozeman that he was using King's Ransom at Friendship in the offhand championships and doing quite well. He set the gun in a rack after loading it to wait his turn to shoot. Someone put a handful of sand down the barrel and when Don fired the rifle, it really messed the barrel the up. Don got mad, jumped in his VW, drove back home, freshed the barrel to clean it up and went back to Friendship and finished the match...posting the high score. He really laughed, telling me that story. I've bore-scoped and measured King's Ransom and it has been freshed, as well as having a slight choke...it still shoots extremely well. Don also said that he thought he had put over 10,000 rounds through King's Ransom.

Don told me that he had hocked King's Ransom three different times when he got broke but always got it back. You've probably noticed the four small inset silver flowers on the top flat of the barrel...they hide the screw holes for Unertl scope blocks. Don would use a Unertl Small Game 6X scope when he did load development. Don't know where the scope went; Don used the tang peep sight he made for the rifle when he shot benchrest matches with it.

To me, King's Ransom really represents Don's life as a gunsmith. Not his fanciest rifle, but it sure has a lot of his life and times wrapped up in it.

Steve

[Mike Brooks]

Sand in the bore....that just ain't right. I have seen my share of dirty deeds pulled at Fship too. Winning is everything there no matter what  it takes. I took a fair number of pencil whippings my self down there, but never sand down the barrel.

[realtorone]

Dan Is that the rifle that Don entered in a show that a woman showed it in. It was in a 1970' or 1980,s Muzzle Blast. I may have given it to you when you repaired the lock for Don's Bedford Rifle. Hope you are still doing well.  George Hebling

[Dphariss]

That blanket full of full stock flint Hawken rifles reminds me of the trade blankets I used to see at Friendship in the early 80's. HAWKEN MANIA!

Do you ever wonder where all of those cool old guns went? You never see stuff like that around anymore.

I have a couple of Don’s Hawkens and had a really nice. 54 Kentucky but sold it for doctor bills. Also have a pair of  Hawken Pistols he made for AJ White.

[Dphariss]

AJ White pair. Don started to put a stalking safety on one.Stil trying to figure out what to do with it.

Don and King’s Ransom before he moved to MT

[Dphariss]

Montana Historical Gunmakers Fair 2010. Don’s guns were the major attraction that year making up a little less than 1/2 those on display. The little over under is a swivel breech and he used one of his Hawken set triggers for the lock. The “hammer was actually the rear trigger and cocking it set the front trigger.
After John Baird’s articles in Muzzle Blasts and his books the Hawken Craze really took off and Don made a lot of Hawkens. The rifle FS guns ( don’t think he made more than 1-2  half stock Hawkens) were patterned after an original he had access to while living in Kansas. And he made a lot of Kentuckys at the time as well.
And while I don’t remember the guns he did in 1981, I may have been working in Missouri and Kansas helping Dad take up RR track, I remember the stories he told about the rip off, he was not real happy.
I know someone sabotaged the bore on Kings Ransom but thought it was at a State match in Kansas or Oklahoma.

[Dphariss]

Random page from the records Don kept before he stopped keeping records

[doulos]

That blanket full of full stock flint Hawken rifles reminds me of the trade blankets I used to see at Friendship in the early 80's. HAWKEN MANIA!

Do you ever wonder where all of those cool old guns went? You never see stuff like that around anymore.

I have a couple of Don’s Hawkens and had a really nice. 54 Kentucky but sold it for doctor bills. Also have a pair of  Hawken Pistols he made for AJ White.

That fullstock flint Hawken you have been teasing us with for years now is just a beautiful rifle. That is it isnt it? I really love the color of that rifle.

[Dphariss]

Its the top rifle in the Hawken display in the photos above.
Don used a stain from the Wampler Chemical company. It went on almost dark and would give different colors depended on what he washed it back with.
And at one time he could not get the stuff so some rifles had different color.
The tacked rifle I bought a just a few years ago. Its all browned furniture.
The rifle I have had since back about 1990 was blued furniture though the barrels were always browned.

[Dphariss]

The rifles are much like a rifle in JD Baird’s “Hawken Rifles” and they have the same tang shape. Most, if not all have Douglas barrels. Don was set up to make the parts and he made them remarkably alike. But since he was basically copying an original (he did tweak a few things). But other than a few castings, cocks and frizzens, and the internals, some or all made by Carney Pace he made all the other metal parts in shop. Most have 38” barrels and most were 54 cal. TGs are probably wire than the original. But I don’t know. The rifle in the book has a forged barre/ by the look of the nipple seat when seems to be very much like the J&S rifle in Helena MT which we expect dates to 1834-35 but has a shot tang and trigger bar. The long tang and tigger bar likely dat to the later 1/2of the 1830s. The 1836 dated Atchison rifle has a long tang and its tied to a shorter than the typical Hawken trigger guard. But this rifle is silver mounted and the TG is attached to the stock and it has a SS trigger. So the basic design on Dons FL Hawkens IMO dates to 1836-1840.

[Dphariss]

Atchison Hawken