Well, funny but I seem to not be able to find any other post's here..I wonder if mine will be the only one ever.
Any way,I purchased a Hawken rifle from "The Hawken Shop" in Oak Harbor Washington.They claim that they now hold the patend to the hawken rifle after purchasing it awhile back, so in essence , if you buy one of their guns you now own a real Hawken gun. It comes in a kit and retails out the door for approx. $1195.00 including tax. From any resources I have found with actual photos of a hawken...there's seem to be lacking, They claim their kit resembles a rifle currantly on display at the Smithzonian institue...Hmmm? IDK.
the barrel is a Rice barrel, the lock looks like somthing out of Track and the stock is not done well at all....I think I bought a " pig in a poke " But if all I have is S. Hawken on the barrel......well I guess it's a hawken for real as long as they hold the patened.
Sincerly,
Picker

Picker, I live near St. Louis and remember when Art Ressell operated the Hawken Shop there and later sold it to the people in Oak Harbor. I believe that all the parts for the current Hawken rifles are supplied by other companies and "assembled' into a kit or finished rifle, in house. I would not worry too much as that is exactly what was happening in the original Hawken shop in its later years. There are original Hawken rifles that are stamped on the inside of the lock "T. Gibbons". Gibbons is listed as a St. Louis gunsmith in the mid 19th century. There is also a receipt for rifle barrels shipped to J&S Hawken In St Louis, in possession of the MO Historical Society. I recently was able to examine an original S Hawken rifle and the barrel keys are of the "captured key" type, that is they have a slot in them where as a pin is put through the slot under the key plate so the key will not come all the way out and be lost BUT there is no pin or evidence that the keys were ever pinned. This is how the English shotguns of the same time period were made during the same period and suggests that these keys were purchased from a supplier. It is not really know how many part were made "in house' or how many were purchased from other suppliers. All in all I do assume though that you paid about $400 extra to have that "original" Hawken stamp on the barrel, was it worth it?? I guess you could hold out for an original, a nice one recently sold on the net for $47,000.00 !!!!!

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