New Rifle

[Tascosa Joe]

I found an old Western Arms of Santa Fe Hawken rifle in a shop here this last week.  As I recall the Santa Fe Arms and Western Arms were the first importers of an Italian copy of the Hawken back in the late 70's.   I think John Beard was a big supporter in his Buckskin Report.  It appears to be a pretty good rifle for $300.

[Tsalagidave]

Sounds like you got a good price Joe. Let's have a look at er'.

-Dave

[ChuckBurrows]

If it's in good shooting condition you got a steal - What caliber? The reason I ask is they made an interpretation mistake on the originals and wound up boring the barrels to .530 caliber rather than the true .54 caliber of the original thus one needs to use a .520" or .525" ball which can be hard to find either pre-cast or moulds for that caliber - custom moulds are available from a couple of different makers at reasonable prices, such as Jeff Tanner and Larry Callahan.


The late John Baird (not Beard) along with gunsmith Ed Weber of Big Timber, MT did play an early role in getting these rifles started in production, but the company wound up cutting corners and not making the replica as originally Baird and Weber were led to believe would be built based on Ed's prototype of an original J & S Hawken in Montana. It's a convoluted story and enough said. Despite the differences the rifles were still of good to very good quality and many were excellent shooters.

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[Books OToole]

I have one I bought as a kit.  And it does shoot a .520 ball.  I got one of the Dixie molds made.  (Many years ago.)
It is a gooood shooter.

Books

[Tascosa Joe]

It is probably a .52, I bought another one a couple years back that was marked Santa Fe Arms and it is a .52.  I should have looked on the Spine of my Baird book and spelled his name right.  That is what happens when you hurry.
I am not much of a picture taker or poster.

[Gabriel Law]

Congrats on a great find!  I had one of the rifles too, back in the 70's and used a .526" Lyman mould to cast my balls.  It was a super shooter.