hawkens barrel

[izzyjoe]

well i finally got some time to shoot my T/C hawken that i bought back in the summer, i tried PRB awhile back with poor results, so a friend give me some maxiball's to try. and it shot better with the maxi's than the RB's, but i'm still not impressed with the results. it's shootin' about a 3'' group at 25yds, and about 6'' at 50yds. but i showed it too a friend, and he said look at that muzzle, it look's like it has some wear from a cleaning rod. well i did'nt think a wooden cleaning rod would cause wear, but it will. also it has some light pitting in the last two inches, which i did'nt think would hurt, but he said, it ain't helping either. so i think i want to replace the barrel with a new one, but wan't to stay with the 1-48 twist if possible. i looked at GM, and did'nt see one on there website, so does anybody make one. if i have to i'll go with the GM 1-70, but i don't know if that twist will still shoot maxi's very well, i'd also like to try the REAL's. just wondering what ya'll think?

[docone31]

Have you thought of crowning the existing barrel?
Get an one inch stone ball burr. Chuck in a drill and spin it around a few times. Then get an 1/2" carriage bolt. Dip it in Clover Lapping compound, then chuck that and spin the new cut shiney. Worked well for me. The internals with messed up rifleing didn't seem to have that much of an effect.
If you are going to try a new barrel, and the original did well, might as well try this.
Did well for me. I did two of them.

[mooman76]

I have heard of some barrels when they start to show ware, switching to a slightly larger ball can help. They may not have used a wooden rood to clean it but the wood rod will pick up dirt and such and if used allot over time, will ware some. That's why you see some with a range rod with (I forget the proper name) centering device on their rod. That way it doesn't touch the sides.

[izzyjoe]

i have thought of crowning the barrel, even thought of having it countersunk like the later hawkens. i have a freind with a lathe maybe he can help.

[wgr]

+1 on crowning the barrel. if the bore is rough you might have problems with prb but should . so i think the crown is messed up.shoot a lead bullet fine. you could also cut the barrel off down past the rough part. a new barre will cost 2/250. but you could get a slow twist barrel for rb that way. that gun at 50 yards should put what ever you shoot in to a 1in group

[izzyjoe]

i did'nt really want to shorten the barrel. does T/C sell replacement barrels for the hawkens, i know they still sell the rifles.

[Mr Peabody]

If you want a T/C barrel you can buy them all day long on ebay; in various condition. I just bought a Green Mt drop in for my T/C Hawken from Dixie Gun Works. It's a round ball barrel. You can get these Green Mt's in a faster twist for maxis'. They're called LRH I believe and they run about $225 plus freight. There is 4 or 5 mail order outfits selling them.

[bubba.50]

sent ya a pm.

[tomme boy]

If you want to get rid of that barrel, let me know.

[451 Pete]

Joe,
A couple of thoughts for you. Before getting rid of that barrel you might want to play with it a bit. Re-crowning is one option and a good one if wear is evident. You didnt say but you generally need to work up a load for a rifle. Try varying the ball and patch diameters and powder charge amounts. It takes a while and a bit of work but you will generally find a load that will shoot out of your rifle.
If you still decide to replace the barrel you should figure out what you want to shoot out of the rifle, a patched round ball or a bullet. The 1-48 twist is kind of a universal twist and will work fairly well for both but is not the optimum twist for either. The slower twist barrels work better for patched round ball and faster twist barrels work better for bullets.

Hope this helps .... Pete

[cajun shooter]

+1 on the post of trying different loads. The MZ will shoot one load into a 1 inch group all day but change from a .15 patch to a .10 and it won't shoot a 6 inch group.
You have to do more than try one load before saying it's the barrel that is the cause.
Many rifles with very bad dark bores that have bad rifling will still shoot good with the correct load.
You have to change ball, patch, lube and powder and charge to say the barrel will not shoot.
With MZ it's a long process to find that magic load.
The 1-48 twist is a middle of the road twist that is not perfect for PRB(1-60) or maxi bullets(1-32) so it's a one size fits all. You may want to try 2F or 3F instead of the one tested.

[izzyjoe]

well i forgot to mention, that i've tried .490's, .495's, pillow tickin' of various kinds, old blue jean pockets, old dress shirts, and lube from spit, to crisco, beewax/crisco. powder, i've tried 777, pyro rs, jim shockey gold. i don't have acsess to real black powder, but i don't think it would make a difference in this case, but i may be wrong. but if the muzzle is toast, it'll never shoot right. i've learnd that from old milsurp's!