New Rifle Came Today

[ThomasT]

I received my new purchase from the seller on GB today. This rifle is a 50 caliber made by Investarms. It looks for all the world to be a Cabelas Hawken. It has the same trademark patch box and all the same features. It is not marked Cabelas. Its not marked anything for any brand. Just the normal barrel markings.

I know Investarms has made this same gun for many different sellers. IIRC Charles Daly, Kassnar and a couple of others I fail to remember. Now to the part that makes this gun unique and why I bought it.

The seller listed it as having a 1/60 twist instead of the usual 1/48 twist. So I measured it and sure enough that seems to be correct. I makes almost 1/2 of a rotation in the 28" of barrel I can measure. This is the same as the Great Plains rifle everyone likes for a RB shooter. One thing the seller didn't catch was the barrel lands. I have 3 other Investarms rifles, a 54 Cabelas Hawken, A lyman GP rifle and a Lyman 50 caliber Trade rifle flint lock. All 3 of these guns have five land and groove barrels. This new gun has a 6 groove barrel.

So this gun should shoot RB loads just as well as my Lyman GP rifle and do it in a shorter, lighter package. And so far as I can tell this rifle has never been fired. If it was ever fired it wasn't much and it was cleaned very well. But I can find no blast marks on the bolster, nipple or hammer. And of course the barrel is perfectly clean. Any wild guesses or theories on who this gun was made for?

 

[rodwha]

Very nice!

 

[ThomasT]

Here is the auction with the pictures the seller posted.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/785592743

Like I said. Just plain ordinary Cabela's style Hawken with a twist.

 

[arcticap]

With a date code of 1985, my wild guess would be that it was made for or sold by Gander Mountain.

Although as you say there were a number of possible importers, I have an ASM SS 1860 that I think was a special run
and the original price tag on the box says Gander Mountain.
They also had a special run of rifles made for them by Traditions such as the Frontier Gander .36 percussion.
Gander Mountain was a large mail order outfit back then.

There's always the possibility that it was a rifle sold by Cabela's before they started putting their own label on it and it was sold as one of their exclusives.

 

[ThomasT]

Thanks Arcticap I never thought of that. The seller I bought this from did have a large selection of BP rifles for sale. Now I think he is down to one. Maybe selling off his own personal guns. If thats the case he bought them but didn't shoot them much if at all. The gun is clean. I have been shooting BP since the early 1990s and can tell when a gun has been fired but I see no evidence this one has been fired. The other gun I bought recently, A TC Renegade had never been fired either. Seems like a lot of people buy BP guns but for some reason never shoot them.

The real puzzle to me is the 6 groove barrel. I have seen a lot of Investarms guns but all have had the 5 groove barrels. The one exception is the Cabelas Hawken in 45 caliber I built from a kit back in the 1990s that has a 12 groove barrel. It almost looks like a Micro-groove Marlin barrel but with deep lands and grooves. And its a shooter too. Its also my most shot BP rifle. I am guessing I have sent around 800 balls and bullets down its barrel and it still looks like new.

 

[ThomasT]

Arcticap how did you come up with a date code of 1985?

 

[daboyleroy]

AN on the barrel

 

[arcticap]

To the left of the serial number is a 2 letter proof date code of "AN" in a box.
AN corresponds to 1985.

 

[arcticap]

The one exception is the Cabelas Hawken in 45 caliber I built from a kit back in the 1990s that has a 12 groove barrel. It almost looks like a Micro-groove Marlin barrel but with deep lands and grooves. And its a shooter too. Its also my most shot BP rifle. I am guessing I have sent around 800 balls and bullets down its barrel and it still looks like new.

I wonder if that's one of their older models that had a chrome lined bore.
It has a slightly more frosted silver color than polished steel does and the chrome coating was as hard as nails.
Their chrome lined bores had mixed reviews with accuracy ranging from very good to not so good.
My friend had one, but don't rememeber if it was a Hawken or not.

 

[ThomasT]

Arcticap no it does not have a chrome lined bore. Thanks for the chart. I now have it saved in my archives.

 

[ThomasT]

Since you mentioned chrome lined bores and accuracy I thought I would relate this. My bud has a Pedersoli Tyron rifle with a chrome lined bore. He has complained from day one about the bore cutting patches. To be fair his thoughts were that since the gun was allowed a 120gr charge thats the only charge to use.

He bought this gun before I got into BP and was one of the reasons I resisted BP guns. His frustration was enormous with this gun because it cut the patches. He blamed the chrome bore and sharp rifling. So he lapped the bore over and over again. He finally in frustration used a brass or bronze bore brush and ran it up and down the bore until he made circular marks in the bore. As far as I am concerned he ruined the bore.

After I started shooting BP and learned more about it I tried to encourage him to try lighter charges. I told him a 120gr charge was not needed. He now shoots lighter charges. Reluctantly. But his accuracy is never real good. His gun is a very pretty gun with a blue/purple look to the curly maple stock. It was built from a kit by a custom BP rifle builder who I saw build a custom Wheel Lock rifle. No problems with the build. But he has to use 520 balls in a 54 caliber gun because the chrome lining makes the bore too tight to use 530 balls.

I wish he would sell me this gun. I would send it off and have it bored out to a 58 caliber. But that will never happen. He likes the gun. But it does show to me at least that yes, chrome lining could be a problem.

 

[TheDr]

Sure looks like the cabelas rifles from when I was a teen.
Same rifles that investarms made for Lyman and daly, just no name.
Look on other boards and you'll see that investarms claims it's a 1:48,but a few people got them with 6 lands and grooves,and a measured 1:60.
Never fired it's worth more than what used are selling for,and used is bringing 200+.

 

[ThomasT]

Well it is definitly a 1/60 twist. I have been measuring twist rates in barrels for a long time. I really thought the seller had it wrong but he didn't. I would have thought this was just a shortened GP barrel but the 6 grooves means thats not so. When I can get a chance to shoot it I will report what I learn about it.