Hawes 44 Magnum

I have a Hy Hunter Western Six Shooter in .357 Magnum, which is the same gun, except for caliber, as the Hawes. My gun is an early one, came with alloy grip straps and imitation plastic stag grips. I fit a trigger guard from an 1851 Navy Colt and a backstrap from a Hawes, then made the one-piece style walnut grips.


Not really a thing of beauty, and as yet not really worked as hard, but truly a stout and servicable sixshooter. Mine was made by J.P. Sauer & Sohn, of Suhl, Germany.

Bob Wright

Dan, Bob, that's some sharp handiwork! Nice lookin' piece. I do prefer the '51's point characteristics which is do to the grip/frame shape, angle. The wood on a '51 can't be that easy to inlet. Very nice work.

The gap between barrel & cylinder was to large on one I picked up. Shot a few maximum w296 loads &sold it.

MCgunner said:

The wood on a '51 can't be that easy to inlet. Very nice work.

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Lest you think I am a far better craftsman than I am, those grips are two piece with a glued-in spacer.

Bob Wright

"Lest you think I am a far better craftsman than I am, those grips are two piece with a glued-in spacer." - You are a far better craftsman than me. I could not have shaped them like you did. They look great.

Many years ago, I picked up a Hawes "Federal Marshal" in .44 mag. It came with brass backstrap & trigger guard and one-piece style walnut grips, and looks a lot like the one pictured by Bob Wright (although I realize the shape of the '51 frame is different). As it was certainly imported prior to 1968, I don't use factory magnums in it, anymore, but do shoot .44 Specials and some mild handloads in magnum brass. It's very smooth, with a light trigger, and shoots quite well.

I have a pair of Hawes Western Marshall .44 mags, they're decent guns, nothing special. I used mine for SASS shooting because they were inexpensive and my rifle I was using was also a .44.

They're a bit bigger and heavier than a true SAA clone, and parts are supposed to be hard to come by, but mine have held up alright. I don't much care for shooting hot loads in them, it's unpleasant. I imagine a continuous diet of hot stuff would loosen them up, but it would take a bit. At the end of the day, it's still a 300 dollar gun, not a top end revolver.