Finally! My stock arrived!

[Chocktaw Brave]

After almost 3 months of wait, I received my Pecatonnica River Hawken stock yesterday.
Of course it probably would’ve taken me more than three months to carve out this much from a solid block of wood!
I know this is like cheating for a lot of you, but I’m not much of a woodworker and really needed the extra help.
I’m hoping to have this finished by summer so that I can shoot it enough to practice for fall hunting.
We’ll see. Now the project begins.

[BrianS]

Yay!!!!!

[Frozen Run]

I know this is like cheating for a lot of you

Congratulations on your new kit! Don't sell yourself short here and underestimate the project ahead of you. I have blank and precarve experience and precarves are more difficult for me. Everything has to work in harmony and you have very little room to deviate or make adjustments with a precarve. Make sure you study the parts that you have in relation to the inlets that are already done for you and have an intimate familiarity with how everything should come together in the end. Problems have the tendency to cascade themselves, you miss an issue early and don't understand its relationship until later on in the build.

That being said, you can do this as long as you take your time and plan. Any mistake can be fixed if you know how to. Don't hesitate to ask for help, and enjoy your build!     

[Chocktaw Brave]

Thank you! I did trial fit some of the major pieces this morning. Definitely have to take off some wood to make everything fit.
I plan to start with fitting the barrel and tang first. Then move on to the lock and trigger. My barrel is still in the raw, with no mounting lugs machined in. I’m thinking that trying to align the barrel keys is going to be the hardest part of that. Not much wood between The barrel channel and ramrod, and they have to be drilled perfect.

[flehto]

Some years ago I bought a grade 4 maple  Hawken stock kit from Pecatonica and when it arrived  I noticed that the lock inlet was mislocated and called them that I was driving down the next day. Upon arrival, they agreed that the lock inlet was mislocated and showed me another stock but it's LOP was too short. So they upped the grade to a #5 blank and machined it while I waited. Had no further problems w/ the build. It was my elk rifle and shot 3. This .54  rifle was totally comfortable to shoot and was very accurate.....the stock's  curl is outstanding....doesn't shpw well in the pic.....Fred
 

[borderdogs]

Pecatonica is very good from my experience. The barrel and tang are a good place to start don't worry about the lugs and such. I am assuming its a flintlock with a hooked tang. The all important thing about these Hawken parts sets is to get the barrel and tang fit right and if its a hooked breech than the fit between the tang and breech has to be right too. Guaranteed the tang is not the right shape and if you hook the tang to the breech the tang  and sight down the barrel the tang isnt straight and inline with the barrel. Those have to be fixed before you try to fit the tang and barrel. I had to do this on my Pecotonica Hawken flint parts set it will be the same if you have a percussion too. Study the parts and the shapes of the tang and trigger bar they will have to be fixed. Also before you start to fit them you will need to file a draft on the parts so you get a good fit.

I would recommend before you start fitting anything do a search on Hawken rifles on this forum and you will find a lot of information on them Herb and Taylor both have great posts on these rifles hopefully they will chime in. They both have helped me,.. Good luck
Rob

 

[Bob Gerard]

Beautiful curl on the fore part of that stock! The butt appears lacking of curl but a nice cap box would certainly dress it up! Good luck on your build and keep us posted! 

[Chocktaw Brave]

Thanks Bob, yea it’s a grade 3, they were out of grade 2 stocks when I ordered. There is a very light ripple in the butt stock, but there is a sorta knot where a limb was that kind of dissipates the curly part.

Flehto,
That’s a beautiful rifle, mines going to be an early flintlock version. Hopefully I won’t have any alignment issues I can’t fix.

[davebozell]

Since your lock is already inletted (mostly), I would recommend that you get your lock in its final position, since you will have almost no room to move it fore or aft.  Then determine where your touch hole location will be on your barrel. (Your breach plug will need to be installed.)  If you are using a touch hole liner, you’ll have to allow clearance  so that it does not interfere with the breach plug.  Now determine the required barrel location to match up the pan on the lock to the touch hole.

 If you don’t have a book to refer to, I would recommend getting one.  I like “Recreating the American Longrifle” by Buchele.  I have read mine probably a dozen times.  The best advise I ever received was to take my time.  If you make a mistake, take a break, and research a potential solution.  Then go back to it in a day or two when you are fresh.  If you get stuck, ask here.  There are plenty of experienced builders who will help.

[Frozen Run]

Since your lock is already inletted (mostly), I would recommend that you get your lock in its final position, since you will have almost no room to move it fore or aft.  Then determine where your touch hole location will be on your barrel. (Your breach plug will need to be installed.)  If you are using a touch hole liner, you’ll have to allow clearance  so that it does not interfere with the breach plug.  Now determine the required barrel location to match up the pan on the lock to the touch hole.

This is the route I would go.

[Frozen Run]

I’m thinking that trying to align the barrel keys is going to be the hardest part of that.

Use calipers to measure from the top flat of the barrel to the lug, then transfer that measurement to the outside of the stock when the barrel is refitted back into the channel.     

On top of a book on gun building, you are also going to want to pick up a reference book on Hawken rifles. There is a lot of wood that needs to be removed on a precarve during the shaping, pay close attention to line work and how elements get blended together. otherwise it will look very clunky.

[Chocktaw Brave]

Thanks for the advice! I don’t have a flash hole drilled in the barrel yet, so there is some room for movement there. Also not even sure how I’m going to address the flash hole yet. Original style, or use a liner. I have seen that some of the new liners are quite fast though.
Also I did pick up a Track of the Wolf full size Hawken drawing, it has some good info about the stock shape.
But yes, maybe a book on long rifle building is in order.

[Mule Brain]

Doing a pre carve from them right now. These are not just put together in a couple days, and done.

If you haven't already looked at it, here is a free tutorial from Mike Brooks   https://americanlongrifles.org/PDF/tutorial.pdf

Good lighting, good vice, files, rasps, chisels, drill press really helps, take your time, cause moving fast will cause mistakes and extra work.

I am no builder, and just getting started

[Chocktaw Brave]

Good tutorial, I might do my next one from scratch. I went ahead and ordered “the book” and some inletting black from MBS. They had both in stock, i’ve ordered from them in the past and they’re pretty quick to ship.

I think your on to something in putting the lock in first. Barrel channel is not finished in the rear, although the tang slot is carved.

[Chocktaw Brave]

So I’ve started on mating the tang to the hooked breach, wow what a pain. It was really a sloppy fit so I built up a weld inside the upper hole in the tang. Then filed it to fit. This helped a lot. But in trying to mate the flat surfaces I was having a hard time.
I had the tang side as flat as I could get it, but it still wouldn’t made up to the breach plug. So I started filing the breech plug and it just got worse from there. I ended up with some gaps on the top, started smoothing them back down and I got a little better but I’m at a point where I don’t really know which way to go.

[borderdogs]

These hooked breeches are hard and a lot of people have trouble with them me included. I bought a couple of them before I got it right. The next flint plains rifle I am going to build has a long tang not hooked and it is a lot easier than the hooked breech. The last one I did was on a percussion plains rifle I just finished and I probably spent more time on that mating surface than any other item in the build. I would suggest using transfer color or inlet black on one surface and see where it makes contact. You do not have to take a lot of material off in fact I used small files and even gravers to take down interference. Having a loop or good magnifying glass helps a lot to see what is going on.  I learned its better to take off metal from the tang face than the breech plug face. You will probably have to work the breech plug face too but I always keep it to a minimum. Once I had the fit good I used super glue and glued them together then flied them as a unit. I also inlet the unit as one piece.

You can drift metal using a metal punch along the line of the breech and barrel to blend the joining line. I have been moderately successful doing that.
Rob

[Chocktaw Brave]

After being away from it for a little bit I went back and decided to see how straight the tang was, not very much.
I used a piece of sandpaper on the flat table, and took off quite a bit to get it smooth. It does fit better now but I have to touch up the breach face. I think I will put down the file and only use sandpaper so that it goes slow.

[borderdogs]

Here is the link to Taylors Hawken stuff its a great review on building Hawken rifles:

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=37886.0

Rob