Guns Of The Mountain Men

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NewI wonder how many battlefield pickups from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 made it west of the Mississippi and into the mountains?
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I wondered the same thing in post #12. And I bet a lot of them went and were probably cut down in length to make them a little more portable to carry. No different than the shorter shotguns we all like today.
 
Ratshooter said:
Thats cool Armored Farmer. I wish I had a serviceable old rifle like that to play with. I did get to hold an old worn out half stock a man had hanging on his wall. That sucker must have weighed 13 pounds. I didn't dare cock the hammer. That gun was just worn out and the barrel was rusted beyond salvage
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Yea.
I hear you. It took me 2 yrs to get my first one in safe shooting condition.
I'm still working on the original triggers and sights on the other one. I already had it bored and re-rifled. I have shot it enough with the unreliable triggers to know it is very accurate. I even won a territorial bp match with it....but its not ready to hunt.
I have many pics of both, but our rural internet is not cooperative tonight.
 
Mariano Medina trapped out of Taos for 3 years and earned enough money to go back to St Looie in 1833 and get a custom made Hawken.. It was originally .54 Cal but he shot the rifling out of it had it re-rifled to .58. I got to handle and compare mine to the original.
View attachment 803324

https://frontierpartisans.com/12475/mariano-medinas-rifle/

This is a purty good reproduction.. It a nail head is wore on on the original, it's the same on this one. This one has taken Elk, and Mule Deer quite nicely.


View attachment 803322
I've been known to pack this copy of a smooth-bore NW trade gun too.
 
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Before browning, I draw filed the dumb warning and manufacturer's info off. Now it's plain and neat.
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I tried to do the same thing on the Renegade rifle I just redid but if I had of removed the writing all the way I would have had a dip in the barrel. But I reduced it as much as I could. What browning solution did you use? I used Birchwood-Casey and that gun had the darkest brown I have ever gotten. Its like a chocolate brown color.
 
Ratshooter said:
I tried to do the same thing on the Renegade rifle I just redid but if I had of removed the writing all the way I would have had a dip in the barrel. But I reduced it as much as I could. What browning solution did you use? I used Birchwood-Casey and that gun had the darkest brown I have ever gotten. Its like a chocolate brown color.
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I didn't have a dip because the letters weren't punched too deep. I took my time with long strokes too. I used Birchwood-Casey. Heated up each piece in my oven. Every piece aside from the barrel and rod holder took to the browning process very well. The barrel was a pain, streaky at first, now it's pretty dark. It took 3 or 4 treatments. But anything is better than blueing on these guns imo.

Overall, im happy with the Birchwood-Casey product and would recommend it as a Browning solution. I hear Laurel Mountain Forge has some more user friendly, no heat stuff that's supposed to be pretty good.
 
I just looked at the pics of the half stock Hawken and have to say it's the only one I've seen with brass furniture. Even the William Cody museum collection doesn't have one with brass, I have looked. Great job on finding that piece of history.
 
Ratshooter said:
I wondered the same thing in post #12. And I bet a lot of them went and were probably cut down in length to make them a little more portable to carry. No different than the shorter shotguns we all like today.
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I missed it on my first reading. Great minds!;)

I did some more research and found what may be the definitive discussion on the subject. “Firearms of the American West 1803-1865” by Louis A. Garavaglia and Charles G. Worman devote Part II of the book, three chapters covering pages 29 through 104, to the rifles, smoothbores, and handguns used by the trappers and traders. Too much to summarize here, but interesting for those who want details. Lots of gunmaker names are listed, and Hawken guns are discussed respectfully.
 
Good looking rifle Mn Fats. I hate to point this out but your rear sight is installed backwards. And normally wedge pins go in from right to left. No big deal though.
 
Yeah for some reason when the pins go in the other way, they're loose enough to pull right out or in some cases, fall out. This way they stay in perfect. And I didn't even notice the rear sight, it looked right this way. Ill tap it out, thanks!
 
This is a good series of videos on building the GP rifle and about any other BP rifle you build from a kit. Some of the detail on working the lock panels and cheek piece are interesting. I wish this had been available way back when I started building my own kits in the 1990's.

 
Iggy said:
Mariano Medina trapped out of Taos for 3 years and earned enough money to go back to St Looie in 1833 and get a custom made Hawken.. It was originally .54 Cal but he shot the rifling out of it had it re-rifled to .58. I got to handle and compare mine to the original.
View attachment 803324

https://frontierpartisans.com/12475/mariano-medinas-rifle/

This is a purty good reproduction.. It a nail head is wore on on the original, it's the same on this one. This one has taken Elk, and Mule Deer quite nicely.


View attachment 803322
I've been known to pack this copy of a smooth-bore NW trade gun too.
Click to expand...
I've dreamed of a smoothbore flintlock trade gun for a long time but now my wife is gone to the nursing home for life so funds are not there for me to own one!
 
I've dreamed of a smoothbore flintlock trade gun for a long time but now my wife is gone to the nursing home for life so funds are not there for me to own one!
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Life happens and things don't always work out like we want. I have my own medical problems. I would like a newer truck but it isn't going to happen. I refer to my 2004 GMC Sierra as my "end of life truck". But I have also learned thinking about owning something is sometimes better than actually owning it.:(
 
Mn Fats I think you did an excellent build on your Great Plains rifle. I have built a couple of the Investarms kits. They send them with lots of extra wood if you know how to do relief carving you can make a special rifle. But thats above my skill level so far.
 
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I use " Browns Best " for browning. You don't heat the steel, it's a rust process and takes longer than Birchwood Casey. Here's my first ever rifle. Made it back around 1975. I wanted something looking like a Hawken, but a 54cal fullstock flintlock. 005.JPG I built all four of these. The top one is a 12ga New England Fowler I use in Trade Gun matches, the second one my Hawken wannabee, next one a 20" barrel 62cal German Jager, and the last one I built for my wife from a copy of a muzzleloader my uncle brought back from Germany from WW11. I bought the locks, sights, and barrels, the rest I made and started with a blank piece of wood. The reason my smoothbore is a 12ga is because I bought a kit at a garage sale someone had screwed up except the barrel. Twenty bucks was a cheap price for a barrel with a breech plug. The Jayer has a 20" barrel because Henry Hoppy made three of them too short - they should have been 22" - so he had them on sale with a breech plug for $50. He built barrels with round grove rifling - suppose to be easier to clean. All my other rifles had Bill Large barrels and all of his were 1 in 48" of twist. Henry built a 1 in 72 twist - at least for that one. I'd mess with it every year before deer season and could never get it to group. Finally checked the rate of twist and then went way up on my powder charges. At 120 of 2F it grouped just fine. Not too bad of a deer gun to still hunt with because it's fairly light with the short barrel.
 
Good looking rifles Paul. I wish you had closer up pictures. I haven't got brave enough yet to just buy the parts and a rough cut stock and try making a gun.
I have always just used the B-C plum Brown for my kits. The renegade I just did that I mentioned in my other thread turned the darkest brown I have ever had metal turn. I had a bit of trouble trying to get it to stop browning. And that bottle is probably at least 10 years old. I didn't even know I had it. I had forgot about it. But the metal is a real chocolate brown color.
 
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