What really captivated me about the Hawken Shop is that their rifles, whether they build them for you or you choose to take on the challenge of doing it yourself, is that they are not reproductions. We can purchase reproductions of virtually any historic firearm we can think of, from Brown Bess muskets to Civil War era Springfield rifled muskets to all manner of Kentucky Rifle. You name it, someone produces a reproduction.
These are not that - these are continuations, an important distinction. We can buy reproductions of immensely varying quality and authenticity from a number of manufacturers, right up to some as good as the originals. I own a couple, one from Thompson/Center, one from Lyman. Both eminently useful, quality rifles. Neither one all that faithful to the originals, but they are not intended to be. Others provide very faithful reproductions, but none are stamped "S. Hawken St. Louis" on the top barrel flat, behind the rear sight. It would be difficult to over state how important that is to me.
This arrived a few weeks ago in the mail. It took them longer to make this than it took me to make the rifle. I'm almost as proud of this as I am of the rifle itself. You don't get one of these if they build it for you, or if you use one of their recommended builders.
