The Hawken

The Hawken rifle has been claimed by many to be the most beautiful rifle of all time. It has even been referred to as the "Stradivarius of firearms". Its beauty lies not in fancy engravings or finishes, but in its graceful flowing lines and simplicity. Never before or since has a rifle reached the perfect convergence of form and function. Like the steam locomotive, the Hawken rifle occupied only a brief window of time in American history, until it was passed on by improved technology and quietly forgotten. The Hawken rifle was made popular in the seventies by the movie “Jeremiah Johnson” starring Robert Redford, and is based on a true story about one of the original mountain men.

During the 1840’s the settlers and trappers such as Kit Carson and Jim Bridger were moving West across the Mississippi River into uncharted wilderness and living off the land in extremely harsh conditions for several months, even years. The rifles at the time were slim and graceful, of the Kentucky and Pennsylvania type, and of relatively small bore. Many were ordained with German silver furniture, ornamentation and engraving. What the mountain man needed was a shorter more powerful rifle that was also a very dependable and utilitarian tool. The St. Louis gun shop of Samuel and Jacob Hawken answered the call for such a rifle, as well as other less known gun makers such as John Gemmer or Horace Dimick. These guns were handcrafted one at a time, before the advent of interchangeable parts. Like the pistol that was developed by Henry Deringer, many small handguns became generically known as “Derringers” when technically they were not. The same became true with the plains rifle being called “Hawkens”, when another gunsmith could have made them.

The plains rifle is usually a percussion, not flintlock, black powder firearm. It has a large bore, normally .50, .54, or .58 caliber, with a massive 1” octagon barrel from 28 to 36” in length, (which at the time was shorter than the 40” barreled guns from the east). Because of the heavy barrel and large bore, the plains rifle could hold huge charges of black powder and was very powerful, capable of killing any animal on the North American continent such as Buffalo, Grizzly Bear, Elk and Deer. It was also known for its accuracy and extreme reliability.

At Restoration Firearms we have recreated this beautiful rifle for you, handcrafted one at a time, using the finest materials available. These rifles are made by a professional craftsman in either an exact replica, or a custom version more suitable for hunting.