The Hawken Rifle

Old "Bill"

Built by Ernie Woods Jr. 18 April 1981

Building the Hawken Rifle

Step by step.

The rifle above is my fathers rifle, it is a Bill Large JJJJ barreled full stock Hawken that sets the standard for all rifles I build. It is the most accurate, best handling rifle I have ever held in my hands.

After years of shooting Traditional black powder rifles, I decided to build my own Genuine Hawken Rifle. Following in the footsteps of my Father, for he is the one that got me started into gunsmithing back in 1981 when I was just a boy, watching him building his .50 caliber Full Stock Hawken Rifle.

Two years ago, my Dad gave me "Ol Bill" and is the rifle that I use now for most of my hunting and all of my match shooting.

This is a step by step picture gallery of my Hawken Rifle build as it goes. The pages will be under constant construction until it is done.

I can not think about taking my Dads rifle "Ol Bill" to the woods in the rain. The rifle I am building will be my hunting rifle, I will shoot some long range matches with it for fun, but mostly, this will be my hunting rifle, it must be accurate.

That is why I chose the Goodoien match barrel. It is a straight barrel with no taper .58 caliber. It will hold true offhand, shoot center, and will hit like a freight train. The design will be a Late Hawken Jim Bridger, hook patent breech. Most of the parts I purchased from Track of the Wolf.

My Mentors for this build were of course my Dad, the greatest muzzleloader builder ever. Mike Fitzgerald from Massachusetts, and a fellow shooter Kevin Battson of Missouri. Mike has many Hawken builds under his belt and does some of the best work I have ever seen. I met Mike on www.muzzleloadingforum.com and it was QUICKLY evident that he knew what he was doing around Muzzleloading rifles. Kevin is one of the nicest guys and one of the best blackpowder shooters I ever met or have shot with. He builds his own rifles and although he is a Flintlock shooter, he knows his way around a Hawken. Such mentors will save me a lot of tears.

So with all of the introductions, let's get started, we have about 150 to 200 hours labor ahead of us. Don't worry customers, I only work on it when I am caught up in the shop!

Rifle Started ...(September 10th, 2008)

Fitting the Breech, Hook, and Tang

The first step is to fit the breech plug to the barrel. The Barrel makers name must be indexed to the bottom, and the breech plug threaded into the barrel with the nose of the breech plug all the way up against the barrel on the inside. Then of course, the breech plug itself must make close contact with the rear of the barrel.

Then, the Breech plug hook, and tang must be fitted together. These parts are both cast, with a lot of casting marks and access. This must be carefully removed with needle files and sand paper. Go very slowly using machinist lay out fluid to identify all areas touching. When you are done, you should have a good close fit like seen here.

Once the fit is satisfactory to you, it is time to temporarily BOND them together. I used JB Weld for this. JB will release at 600 degrees F for removal. But for the time being, it will need to be bonded together for inletting of the stock.

Now that the hook and tang are bonded together, the entire barrel, breech plug, hook plate, and tang get drawfiled. I used a brand new Nicholson Black Diamond Mill file for this. Clean the file VERY often and take your time to remove all tool marks and castings. When you are done, it should look like this.....

I had a little extra time, so I roughed in the area around the nipple hole. Although not finished, this will save me time later.

All of the metal under the tang was filed with roughly a 5 degree draft all the way around the UNDERNEATH side of the tang. Be very cautious to not allow your file to cut into the top of the tang. This step will make life a lot easier when we inlet the tang into the stock.

For the next step (Inletting) Click here.