Dane: funny you should mention this. I have never built an English sporting rifle in flint - I know, inconceivable! But I currently have on my bench, a Hawken rifle I built in the 70's for a friend who is 6'9" tall and now nearly 90 years old. He asked me to sell his two Hawken rifles, both of which I built and both of which have 16" lop's. I now have sold them both, coincidentally to the same fellow, and he like me, is a mere mortal at around 6' tall. So I am in the process of rebuilding the rifle with a 14" lop. This rifle, built during the first formative years of my "Carreer" has some features that are regrettable, namely some brass furniture, a Siler flintlock and a big brass patchbox. I have cut the butt stock for the new plate at 14" lop, removed the patchbox and will build a new one to cover the inlet of the old, and I'm replacing the lock with a Davis Twigg flintlock. So it's approaching an English Sporting rifle style, but with a gaudy American patchbox. This rifle, and the first one he bought from me, both have Tonjes .60 cal barrels on them. The first rifle, I bobbed at 32", cutting off the muzzle, replacing the under rib etc. The flint rifle, I am not going to cut the muzzle off unless I have to, so we're going to shoot it first to establish a base line for accuracy. The percussion rifle that I bobbed, shoots easily into a one hole group at 50 yards off a bench, so I don't think we lost any of the inherent accuracy of Hugh's barrel, but now we'll never know. This flint rifle has never been fired since I shot it to regulate the sights back when it was new, and I have no recollection of the rifle's potential from those days. But we'll find out soon enough when we test it.
So it comes down to a description of this rifle: is it a flint Hawken, a Hawken inspired flint rifle, or is it an English sporting rifle with American influence? Film at 11!
