TC Hawken carbine project

[tacotime]

Landed a rusted TC .50 Hawken rifle. Mostly surface rust, discoloring the finish, some light pitting outside, inside bore appears the same. Stock a little worn, missing the barrel rib, rod, rod thimbles and front sight.

Thinking of making this a carbine brush hunting rifle, maybe a 17 inch barrel. A bit rough to make it worth having a gunsmith shorten the barrel. Any suggestions or comments on a barrel cutting and crowning as a do it yourself job? Fairly handy with metal finishing. Mainly I need a good square, flat cut on the metal. Not much to lose here.

What about a metal cutting blade for the 10 inch mitre saw?

[waksupi]

I wouldn't go shorter than 22". I've done some with a hack saw, then a fine bastard file. That will depend on how good you are with a file, as to how square you get things. I then break the edges with a fine needle file, and finish with several grades of sand and emery paper. As long as you have things pretty even, it will shoot okay.

I do full scale muzzle abuse on some rifles, and they still shoot great!
71825

[KCSO]

Use a good machinists square and make sure it's square on all ways. I break my crown with a big brass ball on a shaft and emery. The ball was a valve for an old faucet. I have seen less than 20" on buggy rifles but they were small caliber and for close range target shooting.

[Good Cheer]

I wouldn't go shorter than 22". I've done some with a hack saw, then a fine bastard file. That will depend on how good you are with a file, as to how square you get things. I then break the edges with a fine needle file, and finish with several grades of sand and emery paper. As long as you have things pretty even, it will shoot okay.

I do full scale muzzle abuse on some rifles, and they still shoot great!
71825

Now that's a right handsome muzzle.

[starmac]

I haven't got to work with it much, but I'm pretty sure the barrel length on my TC Scout is 20 in and it is 54 caliber. I'm seriously thinking of sending that barrel off to have it changed to 58.

[bubba.50]

white mountain carbine barrels are 21in long & the ones I've had shot good. don't know if i'd want'em any shorter than that though.

[starmac]

I've got to say that is a good looking muzzle.

[drhall762]

Brass ball technique works well once it is all square.

[tacotime]

You mean no shorter than 21 inches because the powder burns slow and will leave a lot unburned?

[tacotime]

Barrel now at 18 inches. Leaves two screw holes for a shortened rib. Muzzle via hacksaw, flat file, finish file, 220 grain and 600 grain paper, looks flat and reasonable. Took off most of the barrel patina, some minor pitting. Bore mainly surface rust, little pitting. I think I will shorten the forearm about 2 inches and reinstall the brass end cap.

Now I need a good screw on front sight. Anyone have suggestions?

[Green Lizzard]

i shortend a 50 cal bobcat to 18 in, didnt lose much vel with swiss 3f. checked it with my chrony dont recall the numbers,but i was happy with it. by the way taco i filed in a new dovetail with a triangle file pretty easy

[rodwha]

I bought my .50 cal Deerstalker as a carry rifle for the brush. But I've wondered if knocking off 6", which would be a fair amount forward of the first barrel, wouldn't make it better, especially were I to need to track a wounded hog down. Hopefully I won't need to do much tracking, and if I do it ain't moving much when I find it. Not sure if it's worth all of the effort and cost (I don't have the proper tools or know how).

[tacotime]

Lizzard, that dovetail may be the idea I needed. I was figuring how to get a front sight on there myself - find the right height part, do the drill and tap, hope it's right. I can probably manage the dovetail file job myself, now that you said that...

[Green Lizzard]

yeah its pretty easy,if you are careful you can even use a cutoff wheel in your dremmel to take out the bulk then use a triangle file with a safe side to finish up undercutting it

[tacotime]

That is my plan and I bought the sight today. I'm handy with a Dremel. Not sure I have the right wheel. I have the cut off barrel piece as a visual guide for the cut.

My slight error on length was that I should have gone about 1 to 1.5 inches longer on the barrel, so I could mount a rod thimble near the muzzle. Currently the mounting hole is only about 1/4 back of the muzzle and too far forward. But at this length, there is not much need for a thimble really. Only about 4 inches of the rod is out of the stock.

The stock forearm is needlessly long for the now-carbine barrel. I may shorten it 2-3 inches and that might then call for a thimble, since the rod then will be 6-7 inches out of the stock. I would have to re-inlet the stock for the metal end cap, but I think I can do a fair job.

The gun had a ruined finish and missing rib, rod, thimbles, screws and sights and so this is really just a project for fun now.

[Green Lizzard]

stack 2 or 3 cutoff wheels together

[bigted]

don't mean nuttin without photo's...need some pictures if possible.

[Junior1942]

don't mean nuttin without photo's...need some pictures if possible.+1 on what bigted said.

[tacotime]

The rib, thimble, screws and front sight are in hand. I'll see how it goes and try for the pics...