I finished up the rifle today! Yay! Can't wait to see how it shoots.
I've spent the last several days cold browning the metal parts that I wanted brown. This is the old "slow rust" process, wherein we apply a rusting agent and let the parts sit overnight. The next day we card off the fuzz and scale with 0000 steel wool, scotchbrite, or even a piece of rough wool, depending on how many applications into it we are. As it gets closer to "done", we use ever finer materials to card it off. Eventually the steel stops reacting to the agent, which means it's a brown as it's ever going to get. The result is a really nice "plum" brown, with a lot of, well, "plum" in the hue.
Here it is with my other two Hawken replicas. All three are .54 caliber. The upper is a Thompson/Center I built back in 1980, strictly for hunting purposes. In the intervening years, I think I have killed more deer with this rifle than any other I own. It's the only one meant to shoot an elongated bullet, which I felt I "needed" back in those days. I got into all of that at the start of this thread, so I won't bore everyone with it again.
The bottom one is my Lyman, built probably ten years ago. It's a patched round ball only shooter, and a much better representation of a Hawken. It is, however, very light, with its barrel being only 7/8" across the flats (the T/C is a full inch), which severely limits its ability to take a suitable hunting load.
The contrast between these two modern interpretations and the real deal is amazing. The real Hawken is simply a massive rifle, made ever the more apparent now that it is finished and can sit with its siblings. Its tapered octagon barrel starts out at 1 1/8" at the breach end, going down to one inch at the muzzle. As a result, it will accept a proper hunting charge. For comparison, the T/C can take 120 grains of FFg behind the 460 grain Lyman Plains Bullet that I use for hunting. The Lyman can only take 100 grains of FFg behind a 230 grain patched round ball. The new Hawken can take 160 grains of FFg behind that same 230 grain patched round ball. Not sure I'll go that heavy, but it's nice to know I can.
This shot shows the different finishes on the barrels. I finished the T/C with a hot browning solution from Birchwood Casey. Probably not a fair comparison, since it spent so many years out in the field in our wet Pacific Northwest. It's pretty much all worn off... The Lyman came with the barrel "blued", although it is actually pitch black. Not correct at all. The plum brown is correct for some Hawkens, but many were actually rust blued as well. I really like the plum brown.
Next stop, the rifle range. Should be some time next week.