What kind of black powder rifle do you have?

Answer 1

Answer

Thanks for asking.

Years ago I bought a Hawken Rifle that was made in Italy and sold under the brand name of Richland Arms. I was planning to buy a Thompson Center version but at the last minute I saw this rifle and the price was about 25% less. (The brass guard on the T-C is too far from the grip.) Of course it is not an authentic replica of a Samuel Hawkin rifle, but it has some of the same features.

My Hawken is a .50 caliber rifle with a 28-inch barrel that has a hooked breech which allows you to pop it out for easy cleaning. I've shot one deer with it---the bullet went clean through both shoulders---ruining my shoulder roast cuts.

I decided I wanted a historically authentic rifle and wanted a Pennsylvania-Kentucky type. I selected the design that I wanted and began buying parts to make it myself. After 8 years and contracting out some of the workmanship, the squirrel gun was completed.

This rifle is a Pennsylvania .36-caliber rifle made of the Bedford County style. It has a 44-inch long barrel and a percussion lock firing mechanism. It is loaded with a .350 inch round ball with a 0.010 inch thick patch. The stock is made of curly maple, about medium grade, and has silver Fish inlaid at the barrel pins. The nose cap is also silver but the thimbles for the ramrod is brass. It has the "Hoop-and-loop" brass patchbox and the lock and hammer common to the Bedford County rifles. These rifles were very small in diameter and looked more like a woman's rifle. The barrel is octagonal and only 13/16 inch wide. Sights are steel fixed sights. Fun to shoot. I've shot several squirrels with this including a Black Squirrel.

I bought my first black powder gun in 1973: a Ruger "Old Army" pistol. Since then I have owned and sold a couple of guns. I used to have a replica of a Civil War .58 caliber Zouave. I could never get the right bullet and load for that gun.

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