BLACK POWDER: CARSON’S OLD HAWKEN RIDES ANEW

BLACK POWDER

CARSON'S OLD HAWKEN RIDES ANEW

Author Mike Nesbitt’s .54-caliber “Ol’ Carson” was fashioned after what’s believed to have been Kit Carson’s final Hawken. It’s shown with its pouch and a buffalo horn.

Inspired by a frontiersman's famed rifle and with a stock blank that spoke to him, a muzzleloader and his buddy set out to build and shoot a replica.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT

After wanting one for several years, I finally got a rifle similar to Kit Carson’s Hawken, which is said to be the last rifle Carson ever got. At least it was the last Hawken that he got, built by Sam Hawken rather late in his remarkable gunmaking career. Shortly before his death, Carson gave the rifle to the Montezuma Masonic Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it is still on display. This particular rifle is very fascinating because it is still in almostnew condition and it is outstanding in more ways than that.

While it can’t be assumed that all Hawken rifles were like this one in finish, one can see that the barrel shows evidence of being blued rather than browned. In addition, several of the metal pieces are color casehardened, such as the lock plate plus the breech plug and tang. While it might seem that this was a rather deluxe Hawken rifle, in those times all Hawken rifles were considered rather deluxe; that’s why they were more expensive than most guns found on the frontier. The extra expense was for the ruggedness of the Hawken rifles, which added greatly to their dependability.

THE RIFLE’S FINISH, plus the overall configuration of Carson’s Hawken, made me want one like it. There are some custom makers today who will build copies of the Carson Hawken on order, but mine had to be built closer to home. One of the parts for my gun was the maple stock blank that I got at an auction at the Washington Historical Gunmakers Fair a few years ago. This stock blank, already cut for a halfstock rifle, came from the shop of Ted Fellowes, a well-known muzzleloading gunmaker, after Fellowes had passed away. It isn’t a spectacularly pretty piece of wood – rather plain, actually – but when I got it, the thought came to me to use it for the wood on a rifle like the Carson Hawken.

A barrel for my version of the Carson Hawken was ordered from Charles Burton in Morehead, Kentucky. Burton is the barrel-maker I like to recommend these days because he has built more than one outstanding rifle barrel for me. This one, like the barrel on the Carson Hawken, measures just 31½ inches, and I asked for it in .54 caliber with .012-inch-deep flat bottom grooves, rifled with a 1-in-60-inch rate of twist. Also stipulated was the fitting

Allen Cunniff, the maker of this Carson Hawken, on the trail.

for the breech plug with a ¾-16 thread. Burton’s barrel-making business, Flintlock Construction, Inc., can be reached at flintlockcalb50@hotmail .com or 606-780-7709.

Other parts were ordered to get all of the necessary pieces, including the lock and triggers from R.E. Davis (redaviscompany.com), as well as the slanted hook breech because the Carson Hawken was a very late S. Hawken rifle. Other smaller pieces were collected as well, from sources such as Track of the Wolf (trackofthewolf.com).

WITH ALL OF the parts at hand, the assembly of the rifle was started in my friend Allen Cunniff’s shop. The only guidance Allen really had were some pictures of the original Carson Hawken, which did show that rifle in detail. Several of the steel parts for this rifle needed color casehardening and Allen quickly separated those parts so they could be sent to C. Sharps Arms (csharpsarms.com) in Big Timber, Montana. At C. Sharps Arms, Pat Dulin gave those pieces his best attention, using a technique for the finish known as pack-hardening, which is very attractive.

To go along with the color casehardened hardware, the barrel and under-rib on this rifle were blued. Allen has a good bluing tank, but the barrel on my Carson Hawken was his first bluing job. It turned out very well. The bluing “agent” was the Laurel Mountain Forge Barrel Brown and Degreaser, simply boiled in water to give the barrel a good rust blue. Laurel Mountain Forge Barrel Brown and Degreaser is available from Track of the Wolf.

The stock finishing was left for me to do and that was the only work I did on this gun. Allen had the stock all prepared, including applying the coat of stain, then I took it and gave it several coats of Tru-Oil – seven or eight coats, just to make sure the job was complete. Finally, it was returned to Allen for the final assembly.

The Hawken’s left side, showing details of the lock bolt escutcheon and cheekpiece.

WHEN FULLY ASSEMBLED, this rifle is a nice package that could almost be described as “small,” at least for an authentic Hawken. It weighs a trim 9 pounds and its overall length is just 48½ inches long. Its size makes it a handy rifle for carrying and I’m likely to do just that.

For sighting in, a powder charge of just 55 grains of GOEX FFg was used – that’s about 1 grain per caliber – under the .526-inch round ball, wrapped in a .020-inch lubed patch from Bridgers Best. The target was a small bull’s-eye on yellow paper, which was posted at just 25 yards. Shots were hitting to the right, although they were grouping very nicely.

One hit with a hammer on a brass drift moved the rear sight to the left and the shooting continued. I was very pleased with the rifle and that ended my sighting-in session.

The very next shots were fired in a match with the Paul Bunyan Club. Those were the first shots fired with this rifle while standing. When shooting from the bench, my shots had gone just slightly low, but when shooting offhand they were going a bit high. I can’t explain why that happened, it just did, and it goes right along with getting to know this rifle better.

You might be glad that I don’t intend to talk too much about that match because my shooting with this new rifle delighted me. The course

Note the color casehardening on the lock.

Nesbitt fires a shot on the trail with his new gun – a hit in more ways than one. of fire included 15 shots on paper targets and all of my shots scored, and generally scored rather well. There were five more shots on novelty targets, which included two shots on a steel “rabbit” at 35 or 40 yards, plus three more shots on Peeps, the colorful little marshmallow Easter candies, hanging from strings at 12 or 15 yards. My only miss was at one of those Peeps and that was my last shot. I could talk more about this match because I placed third and my prize for such doin’s was a pound of GOEX powder.

It was certainly the historical elements about this gun that helped me pick a name for it. That name wasn’t decided upon right away; actually, the thought of naming this rifle didn’t really come to mind until after it did so well in that match, with the pound of powder to its credit. The name, as you might guess, is “Ol’ Carson.” Maybe you’ll hear about this rifle again. 