Gemmer Hawken

[Buckbrush]

I'm looking at buying a new muzzloader
And I would really like to buy one from the
Hawkins shop but 1600.00 is out of the budget.
Was wondering about personal experience with
The Gemmer hawkens kits and their quality and accuracy.
? I'm using a cell phone apparently this web sight
Isn't user friendly for that.

[dondiego]

I'm looking at buying a new muzzloader
And I would really like to buy one from the
Hawkins shop but 1600.00 is out of the budget.
Was wondering about personal experience with
The Gemmer hawkens kits and their quality and accuracy.
? I'm using a cell phone apparently this web sight
Isn't user friendly for that.

I realize that price seems like a lot of money but save up and buy the good, quality, stuff. It will seem like it was cheap in a few years!
I am speaking from experience and a lot of lost opportunities. Buy the best that you can afford now!

[elmacgyver0]

I realize that price seems like a lot of money but save up and buy the good, quality, stuff. It will seem like it was cheap in a few years!
I am speaking from experience and a lot of lost opportunities. Buy the best that you can afford now!

I tend to agree with this, but out of budget is out of budget unless you have the ability to print money.

[LAGS]

All I use on this site is my phone.
I don’t seem to have any problems.
Have you looked at Dixie Gun Works ?

[dondiego]

I tend to agree with this, but out of budget is out of budget unless you have the ability to print money.

I wish that I had not bought the cheaper stuff (and I often did) and waited and saved for the better quality pieces. They ALWAYS performed better and returned more financially........ALWAYS!

[Gtrubicon]

The Gemmer Hawken is the exact same gun as the Lyman Great Plains rifle. Investarm made them for Lyman. Investarm made guns I own are very good guns IMHO.

[elmacgyver0]

I wish that I had not bought the cheaper stuff (and I often did) and waited and saved for the better quality pieces. They ALWAYS performed better and returned more financially........ALWAYS!

I appreciate the sermon, but buying the best is not always an option, especially on recreational items.

[Delkal]

A Gemmer Hawken / Lyman Great Plains is not a cheap kit and uses quality parts. It takes a lot of work to finish a kit but when you do you will have a quality rifle you can be proud of.

Can a custom manufacturer make a more accurate rifle for another $1000? Maybe but you are mostly paying for their name and their time.

[HWooldridge]

They haven’t been made in a long time, but if you can find a Jonathan Browning Mountain Rifle, I can guarantee you won’t regret buying it. One of the best handling replicas around, and many came with a nice single set trigger. A good friend of mine owned one and I dearly loved shooting it. I had a Uberti Santa Fe Hawken at the same time and it was a club, compared to the BMR.

[Buckbrush]

Thank you guys for your opinions. I just don't think
I'm in a position to spend that kind of money when
I could also buy a Kibler kit for 500 dollars cheaper.
I would have liked to buy the Peterson hawken but they want
As much as the hawken shop. I was just don't shoot muzzload ears
That much and only hunt with them if I can't draw a rifle tag.
I would rather spend the money towards a old Winchester or marlin
But don't want to buy something worthless also.


or marlin

[Buckbrush]

I think you're right. Buy once cry once

[Boerrancher]

Don’t buy a Gemmer Hawken especially in a kit. All of their garbage parts go into a kit and unless you know how to build a lock and a trigger group from scratch it will never be right. I built one last Nov, a 36 cal. Starting with the stock, they put the blank in the machine crooked. So that when the barrel channel was cut, along with the mortise and patch box everything was cut at an angle. Luckily someone noticed it and took it out of the machine before too many passes were made on the barrel channel or I never would have been able to have fixed it. I have more hours fixing their stock than it would have taken me to carve a new one by hand.

The lock was a nightmare. I had to make a new tumbler for it because the one that came with it was too small and had no notches cut in it for half cock or full cock. Someone, just like with the stock, saw it was messed up and tossed it in a parts bin for kits. While I was making a new tumbler, I took everything apart and had to polish all of the burrs and booger’s off the rest of the parts just so they would move. Forget about function. The sere, fly, and everything else was so rough it would not move, until it was re worked.

The double set triggers were the same. You couldn’t pull them. Some of the parts were bent others were just rough. Remade the bent parts and polished the others. So the triggers would work. Even the holes in the barrel for the under rib and sights were not right. None were drilled deep enough, and one was drilled and tapped a size larger, so I had to hunt down new screws and grind some, and others re drill and tap completely. There was nothing about this gun that didn’t have to be reworked in a major way.

It is one of my favorite rifles, and an excellent shooter. I had it out the other day at 30 yards and shot it until the barrel was too hot to hold on to, about 15 or 16 rounds as fast as I could load in the summer heat, and all of them were in a space you could completely hide with a quarter. I was testing it out for hickory nut time in about 2-3 more weeks. My suggestion is if you are going to buy any foreign made gun buy a David Pedersoli Rifle, and for black powder revolvers stick to Aldo Uberti. Anything Spanish made is garbage anymore.

[indian joe]

Can a custom manufacturer make a more accurate rifle for another $1000? Maybe but you are mostly paying for their name and their time.

Custom looks the part and if its built for you willl handle much better, but actual accuracy ? takes a top 1% shooter to pick the difference

[indian joe]

Don’t buy a Gemmer Hawken especially in a kit. All of their garbage parts go into a kit and unless you know how to build a lock and a trigger group from scratch it will never be right. I built one last Nov, a 36 cal. Starting with the stock, they put the blank in the machine crooked. So that when the barrel channel was cut, along with the mortise and patch box everything was cut at an angle. Luckily someone noticed it and took it out of the machine before too many passes were made on the barrel channel or I never would have been able to have fixed it. I have more hours fixing their stock than it would have taken me to carve a new one by hand.

The lock was a nightmare. I had to make a new tumbler for it because the one that came with it was too small and had no notches cut in it for half cock or full cock. Someone, just like with the stock, saw it was messed up and tossed it in a parts bin for kits. While I was making a new tumbler, I took everything apart and had to polish all of the burrs and booger’s off the rest of the parts just so they would move. Forget about function. The sere, fly, and everything else was so rough it would not move, until it was re worked.

The double set triggers were the same. You couldn’t pull them. Some of the parts were bent others were just rough. Remade the bent parts and polished the others. So the triggers would work. Even the holes in the barrel for the under rib and sights were not right. None were drilled deep enough, and one was drilled and tapped a size larger, so I had to hunt down new screws and grind some, and others re drill and tap completely. There was nothing about this gun that didn’t have to be reworked in a major way.

It is one of my favorite rifles, and an excellent shooter. I had it out the other day at 30 yards and shot it until the barrel was too hot to hold on to, about 15 or 16 rounds as fast as I could load in the summer heat, and all of them were in a space you could completely hide with a quarter. I was testing it out for hickory nut time in about 2-3 more weeks. My suggestion is if you are going to buy any foreign made gun buy a David Pedersoli Rifle, and for black powder revolvers stick to Aldo Uberti. Anything Spanish made is garbage anymore.

I had CVA kits (last century tho) none of em were NOT that bad - the barrels are as accurate as anything else out there and if you put em together right they worked fine - big problem with kits guns 90% of the people building them dont know how stuff is sposed to work .

Yeah Pedersoli builds decent stuff - I dont love the style of most of the muzzleloaders I have seen but they work ok

[Boerrancher]

I had CVA kits (last century tho) none of em were NOT that bad - the barrels are as accurate as anything else out there and if you put em together right they worked fine - big problem with kits guns 90% of the people building them dont know how stuff is sposed to work .

Yeah Pedersoli builds decent stuff - I dont love the style of most of the muzzleloaders I have seen but they work ok

I love my Pedersoli Frontier 32 cal rifle. Very little brass, just butt plate, and rod pipes. It has A big heavy lock In the style of the Original Pennsylvania long rifles, that throws a huge shower of sparks, and a beautiful walnut stock is that of a slim Pennsylvania Rifle. It is something one would expect a common man to be carrying back in the 1700’s. The best thing about it is that it will shoot better than I can shoot it. Minute of squirrel head at 25 yds is all I need it to do. It consistently shoots under a quarter 15 shots before it needs swabbed.

[greyhawk]

I love my Pedersoli Frontier 32 cal rifle. Very little brass, just butt plate, and rod pipes. It has A big heavy lock In the style of the Original Pennsylvania long rifles, that throws a huge shower of sparks, and a beautiful walnut stock is that of a slim Pennsylvania Rifle. It is something one would expect a common man to be carrying back in the 1700’s. The best thing about it is that it will shoot better than I can shoot it. Minute of squirrel head at 25 yds is all I need it to do. It consistently shoots under a quarter 15 shots before it needs swabbed.

most I have seen have the roman nose stock - I hate that ! (for no good reason I spose - but we allowed to have preferences)

[greyhawk]

I had CVA kits (last century tho) none of em were NOT that bad - the barrels are as accurate as anything else out there and if you put em together right they worked fine - big problem with kits guns 90% of the people building them dont know how stuff is sposed to work .

Yeah Pedersoli builds decent stuff - I dont love the style of most of the muzzleloaders I have seen but they work ok

that shoulda read 'none of em were that bad'

[charlie b]

If a first kit I'd just get a Traditions. Learn a bit about how to build and then you end up with a serviceable gun. It won't be a tack driver and may take some extra fitting but it will work for you. I had a Navy Arms (long time ago) kit for my first ML and it was fun to work on and shoot. A CVA kit followed that one and it took several mule deer back when I hunted. Then a Hawken kit. Another fun one.

After you shoot it a while and find you like it you can decide on what more expensive version you want. You could even go to places like Track of the Wolf and buy individual parts to assemble and/or carve your own stock.

Right now I have a Lyman Great Plains Hunter and it does really well.

I do not agree with the old adage about 'cry once' when you don't know if you will enjoy it or not.

[LAGS]

My first kits were the Thompson Center back in the ‘70s
They were easy but not just a Screw Kit.
The Traditions is basically a Screw Kit.
Like lots of the old Spanish ones were like Jukar.
But with some experience and a little Fine Tuning they were pretty good for a basic low cost gun.
The Lyman . Or investarms is a little more involved to build , but in the long run , worth it.
I build custom rifles from scratch sometimes.
But I would like to try building a Kibler sometime.
The reason I haven’t done a kibler yet is because that isn’t the style of rifle that I am into. Yet
I have only done Re Builds on CVA rifles
To me they seem pretty darn good for the price I bought them for at the time.

[waksupi]

I'm looking at buying a new muzzloader
And I would really like to buy one from the
Hawkins shop but 1600.00 is out of the budget.
Was wondering about personal experience with
The Gemmer hawkens kits and their quality and accuracy.
? I'm using a cell phone apparently this web sight
Isn't user friendly for that.

Ask them how much the completed rifle weighs. Then ask yourself, how strong are you, and how far could your stand to carry it?