Happy Hawken ending

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Gus Chiggins

Gus Chiggins

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Dec 14, 2020
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British Columbia, Canada
I acquired a TC Hawken lock and stock a couple of years ago from a fellow that I was buying some parts from. I tried to find a barrel to no avail and ordered a Green Mountain drop in replacement barrel in .50 from Track of the Wolf. It was on backorder for ages and I'd kind of given up on it. It showed up last week! I haven't taken it out to sight in yet. It's 1/66 twist which should be great for patched roundball. I've only had 1/48 ones before so it'll be interesting to see how it compares. The rifling is quite more pronounced than original TC rifling. It's also beautifully devoid of any writing or markings. It came with black ramrod thimbles and it looks better imo than the brass ones. I'm a happy guy! 20220618_102402.jpg 20220618_102531.jpg 20220618_102823.jpg 20220618_102659.jpg
 
That's pretty deep rifling for a round ball gun. Loading a patched ball should be interesting.
 
You will love it. Round ball riflingshould be deep. I’d start with a .490 or .495 ball, pillow ticking with the first and possibly the second. The tighter the better. Mine worked with anything from 60 to 100 grains of ffg GOI. As
 
Does it have a normal breech compared to the weird flash channel in the TC breech? If so, what a winner. Yes, looks great.

Funny that you could not find a used TC barrel. I was given a TC with a trashed barrel (still can't figure out what someone did to it) and they were quite common on ebay. About a year or two ago. I found an early barrel with no "cautions" or "black powder only" on it. I then stripped the factory finish off and did a nice hand-rubbed multi-layer/coat oil finish on it, and it turned out very well. Although I prefer ball, mine likes the 385 grain Great Plains (I think that's what it is) bullet over 85 grains. She packs a punch!
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Does it have a normal breech compared to the weird flash channel in the TC breech? If so, what a winner. Yes, looks great.

Funny that you could not find a used TC barrel. I was given a TC with a trashed barrel (still can't figure out what someone did to it) and they were quite common on ebay. About a year or two ago. I found an early barrel with no "cautions" or "black powder only" on it. I then stripped the factory finish off and did a nice hand-rubbed multi-layer/coat oil finish on it, and it turned out very well. Although I prefer ball, mine likes the 385 grain Great Plains (I think that's what it is) bullet over 85 grains. She packs a punch!
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I think the green mountain breech is a bit more straightforward. That said, I’ve never had any trouble with the TC’s either. Rice makes a really great patent breech!
 
woodnbow said:
I think the green mountain breech is a bit more straightforward. That said, I’ve never had any trouble with the TC’s either. Rice makes a really great patent breech!
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Right, cleaned, prepped and loaded properly the TC breech will work. Neglected, or in the hands of Bubba, or long strings of target shooting and they can have iffy ignition. Clean TC with no oil or crud in the breech is reliable. However, what were they thinking???????
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Right, cleaned, prepped and loaded properly the TC breech will work. Neglected, or in the hands of Bubba, or long strings of target shooting and they can have iffy ignition. Clean TC with no oil or crud in the breech is reliable. However, what were they thinking???????
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They were thinking, “how do we manufacture these plugs to this price point?” Guaranteed.
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Dang. A drum and nipple would have been better on both counts.
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Maybe, although I’d never trust to contain the higher pressure generated behind big bullets. Which is admittedly about 1/2 of 1% of the rifles intended use. If that…
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Right, cleaned, prepped and loaded properly the TC breech will work. Neglected, or in the hands of Bubba, or long strings of target shooting and they can have iffy ignition. Clean TC with no oil or crud in the breech is reliable. However, what were they thinking???????
Click to expand...
Actually Sauce, that’s probably a boon for us gun cranks. When bubba gets done we get to dig through the pile for survivors!
 
Ugly Sauce said:
Truth. I swear, that TC I got for free...I am baffled as to what Bubba did to the bore. But new/used ebay barrel for $100 bucks and presto! Good serviceable rifle.
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I once happened across one in a pawnshop. A sad little 54 renegade. An obstructed bore, discovered after I ran home for a ramrod, triggers didn’t function at all, missing rear sight. They wanted $200.00 for the artifact. I listed everything that was wrong and likely to go wrong if they shunted it off on an unsuspecting Bubba ll… liability may have been mentioned. In the end I helped them out with 85.00 (probably about 35 more than they gave for it.
Pulled the load and lock and triggers, just a gooey mess of black tar in there, it functioned fine after lube and resetting everything. I scrubbed the bore and it still looked bad but better. Did my first fire lapping experiment with black powder, small charges of 3f under abrasive coated patched ball and then a couple of Buffalo bullets rolled in the stuff. Cleaning every time before the next one. PIA, but it did work pretty well. I gave her to a poorer buddy and he’s hunting with it, lo, these 20 some years later, taking elk with it more times than not. These days I probably would have just bought a hundred dollar barrel off eBay but it didn’t exist back then. Well maybe not, I hate to waste good barrel steel, plus, I love to tinker.
(Sorry folks.Us old guys get blathering…)
 
Shanghai McCoy said:
I think that the myth of not having to clean with pyrodex was responsible for most of the rusty barrels in the TC rifles found in pawnshops.
YMMV...
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I wonder, this barrel seems to have a fused on substance, pretty much black in color. I am not new to barrels, and I tried about everything on it. I have not tried a lapping compound, or valve grinding compound. It's hard to see, but I can see rifling. Not even Navel (Naval?) Jelly will touch it.

If I could get the rifling to show better, the barrel would be a good candidate for a short carbine barrel. Would be cool to have long and short barrels to swap in and out at the press of the key.

So that is a good possibility, fired with Pyrodex and left for years uncleaned. ?? It is not just rust or corrosion from black powder neglect, that is for sure. It's a rock hard layer of...."something". Seems to be infused right into the metal. The cool thing is, the replacement barrel I got is a very early one, with no "warnings" or even "black powder only" or "Hawken" on it. Very cool.
 
I have resurrected several "pitted" TC barrels by lapping with JB SafeTPaste on a tight patch. Most of the pits were very slight. A slightly pitted bore can shoot right with a good one. Plan on a couple hundred strokes, however, and several patch changes.
 
Gus Chiggins said:
I acquired a TC Hawken lock and stock a couple of years ago from a fellow that I was buying some parts from. I tried to find a barrel to no avail and ordered a Green Mountain drop in replacement barrel in .50 from Track of the Wolf. It was on backorder for ages and I'd kind of given up on it. It showed up last week! I haven't taken it out to sight in yet. It's 1/66 twist which should be great for patched roundball. I've only had 1/48 ones before so it'll be interesting to see how it compares. The rifling is quite more pronounced than original TC rifling. It's also beautifully devoid of any writing or markings. It came with black ramrod thimbles and it looks better imo than the brass ones. I'm a happy guy!View attachment 1084868View attachment 1084869View attachment 1084870View attachment 1084872
Click to expand...
Great barrels. I don’t think you can go wrong with them.
 
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