Thompson Center Arms Hawken freed from layaway!

[Junk Yard Dog]

350 Chevys we could sell every week, they end up in everything from T buckets to pickups.

[Junk Yard Dog]

$400 for a 455 Pontiac, oh man, up here that wouldn't even buy a core and five years ago or now.

[ponycarman]

I'll have to dig some stuff out. Probably have to clean some of it up though. My parents garage has some water issues and some stuff was on the floor. Now some is rusty. Lol what else is new, its just more money down the drain

[ponycarman]

It is a 400 but they are pretty much the same as the 455. I tossed aroubd the idea of turning it into a 462 but that was out of my price range.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yea, even a 350 Pontiac V8 would sell, only one we can't move is the 301.

[Junk Yard Dog]

1:28 and now my lunch arrives at last, thought I was going to starve to death, Have fun

[ponycarman]

The 301 was a garbage little engine. Kinda like the 403. But at least the olds engine had the cubic inches. Enjoy your lunch. About to eat mine myself.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Rainy day Chinese food, all gone now I have one good running 301 in a '80 or 81 Lemans. Frame rotted off the engine, when it's gone there are no more core or otherwise. Reminds me of the 260 olds, or the 267 Chevy. Two more from that era that we just couldn't sell.

[ponycarman]

Hmmm how did we get so far from black powder

Just finished cleaning up the rifle. Doesn't look too bad. Nice shine in the barrel now. With a caplock and flintlock without a removable breech plug how do you tell if you've got it good and clean way at the action side of the barrel? Its very difficult to see way down in there.

[Junk Yard Dog]

You can shine a light down there and see if you see a reflection, or you take a Mosin cleaning rod and drop it down into the bore and listen to it ring against the breech plug indicating that it is not hitting packed on fouling.

[ponycarman]

It looks alright to me. I believe I got all the rust out. Bore looks good. I can't see any pitting so the rust more than likely wasn't bad. I have to look into finding some replacement screws for it sometime. There are a few that don't look like they belong or aren't sized properly.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[ponycarman]

Finally got to shoot this and my cap n ball revolver yesterday. It was fun but I had a issue with the hawken. First shot was great. Second not so much. The patch and ball would not load. Luckily I had my cleaning kit with a stronger ramrod because I literally had to hammer it in. Shot good. Just the loading was horrible. Maybe I used too thick of patches? Also how do yall clean your 1951 colt style revolvers? And what rust preventive do yall use?

[Junk Yard Dog]

Use thinner patches, or a smaller ball, and lubricate the patches with bore butter, or similar BP lube. You should have a ball starter to start the load an inch or so down the pipe, then you ram it the rest of the way with the ramrod.

[ponycarman]

Patches were lubed with bore butter, used a ball starter to start it and the short starter to get it down about 4-6in. But when it came to the ramrod I thought I was going to break it lol. Had to use a stronger brass one and still hammer it in. Had to be the patches were a bit to thick. Especially after the first shot fowled the bore.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Yes, see if you can find thinner patch material, and look into a real ramrod, the one on the rifle is good enough for a field reload if you are hunting, but there are better alternatives for bench shooting.

[ponycarman]

Yeah I used a brass one from my cleaning kit. It was fairly tough but I would prefer a one piece rod. The patches I used were made from old blue jeans. Would an old t shirt work? I was told that the fabric may have been too loose of a wovel material.

[bunkysdad]

I missed this entire post. Such a gorgeous rifle. Yes you need a range rod. And maybe run a brush between shots or every few shots

[Junk Yard Dog]

Jeans material is too thick, Y shirt material, or even rifle cleaning patches would be much better.

[ponycarman]

Alrighty I'll give that a shot next time and see how it does. I was told somewhere that if it was well worn jeans it would work. Guess they weren't as worn as I thought lol.