The heading tells it all, I was checking out a pawn shop and saw a .50 caliber Hawkens cap lock made by a company called Monarch sitting over in the corner. It has a 3 diget serial number and was probably made in the late 60's. The poor thing had been Bubba'd a little bit, the brass nose piece had been replaced with wood, the trigger guard was a piece of flat stock instead of the ornate brass that came with it and the butt plate had been replaced with a piece of flat steel and a rubber pad. The trigger guard looks OK, just not very fancy and to make the butt plate fit Bubba had cut the end of the stock flat, ouch. The good news is that the rifle has a double trigger set in it and looks like it was only fired a few times. The nipple looks new, it dry fires nicely and I picked it up for only $50.00 out the door which is all it is probably worth. The barrel has been browned instead of blued and has a nice patina to it and the rifling is good when I look in the muzzle. Now I need to decide what to do with it. Should I keep the orignial stock and turn it into a trade type gun? With the shortened stock and odd ball hardware all I need to do would be to decorate the stock with some brass and copper nails along with a primitive leather sling. I could use the sling to hide the bubba'd butt end of the stock, got plenty of leather and stitching so it would be pretty simple and it would go with one of my re-enacting outfits. My other option would be to restock the metal, I've plenty of slab walnut which I cut back in '85 and could shap a nice piece of wood into a new stock sans patchbox. Already have a nice Hawkens flinter which I built from a Cabella's kit so I don't really need another show piece plus I would need to buy a lot of hardware to complete the job properly. Even with power tools restocking would take a bit of work and time to get it right. Any thoughts? I'll post some pictures of what Bubba did to the poor defenseless thing when I get a chance. Can't wait to fire it
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This project is fascinating because it is illogical.
I would decorate it with brass nails and leather slings in the style used by the Redskins or the trappers & mountain men.
A 50 caliber muzzle loader is fun to shoot and while it is not a pipsqueak calber it is not too punishing like the :69.
Post some pictures,please.
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Best thing to do with it is get a load and shoot it in the postal match we're having on this forum. It's a lot more fun to shoot em than to sit and stare at em.
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Yep shoot it! See how it shoots and then decide what to do with it.
RB
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Spent a couple hours in the reloading/gun room taking the rifle apart and going over it with a fine tooth comb and lots of gun oil. Bubba spent a lot of time and effort removing all the brass from it but beside that there is nothing wrong with the rifle except that it need the wedge plates for the barrel and there is a lot of miss matched screws (drywall screws holding the trigger guard on). Already made a pair of wedge plates out of some scrap steel and need to relief them in. Don't want to fire it without the barrel wedge mounted in properly. Looks like this rifle is a carbine model, the barrel is about a foot shorter than my flinter Hawkens. The barrel doesn't look like it was shortened and the crown is in real good shape so I'm guessing it came that way. Bet 60 grains of 2F will really make a real boom with the short barrel. Going to shot it as soon as I get the wedge plates in and find some percussion caps. I have a pesky pine log that keeps running out of the shop into my back yard, makes a great target for test firing. You would think the log would realize that it gets shot every time it leaves the shop. I'll start with a light charge around 30 grains and work up till the neighbor's get excited or the log falls over.
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geeeeze ... youse guys are having way too much fun with your muzzle loaders !!
i think i need to apply for a fun ticket .... hmmm . i see that midsouth has GP kits in stock ...
maybe my wife would like to give me a very very merry xmas ... a good winter project would keep me out of trouble ...
and i found a source with BMZ in stock ...
ken
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Here are some pictures,
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Looks like a good score to me. $50 and you're already having fun. What's the twist?
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Don't know the twist yet, probably 1 in 48 for a .50 caliber round ball. I'll run a patch down it to check.
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Weekend followup, got the wedge plates in along with correct screws. Started with a test load of 20 grains of 2F, it shot well, went to 40 grains with no problems and rocked the log. Tried one shot with 60 grains 2F, lots of noise, hit the target, looks like a winner. Need to find #11 caps for more shooting, can't find any in the area.
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Here's the finished product after a little leather work and copper tacks
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That looks like a nice gun to carry in the woods. Is that a turkey beard off of the butt pad?
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No Turkey beard on the butt pad, just some black twine to represent horse hair or whiteman scalps depending on the outfit I'm wearing at the rendevous.
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