CVA Hawken Pistol Kit

[Prof Young]

what size percussion cap?

Well, I thought I was done with this thread but nope!

I'm thinking from everything I've read that this pistol takes a#11 percussion cap. I tried to confirm that by measuring the diameter of the NIPPLE. But alas, long internet searches have not revealed the out side diameter of a #11 NIPPLE! The size of the percussion caps themselves and the various sizes of the threads on the nipple, those I can find. The diameter of the nipple itself . . . nope.

Help!

Life is good.
Prof Young

 

[4V50 Gary]

Prof Young - check out the image in Post 1 and then Post 10. You might want to put beavertails after the lock (and on the opposite side). The stock was changed from a simple apex to having a small beavertail at the apex of where the lines meet. This also required contouring the stock down narrower on the sides to make the lines more pleasing and to get rid of the flat appearance.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/anybody-have-a-trade-gun.923863/

 

[Prof Young]

Beaver tail . . .

Gary: Hitting the link provided, post one is a wood pile and all the other pics look like rifles to me. I think I understand what you mean by a Beaver tail, but I don't think there is enough wood there to create one. Thanks for the suggestion.


Life is good.
Prof Young

 

[4V50 Gary]

Prof. Young - you need only 1/16-1/32 of an inch of wood to have a high thumbprint relief. I think those guns have too much wood. Compare them to pictures of the originals. Schlitz45's image shows me there's more than enough wood. The first image shows the gun I am working on. Study the area around the lock. The wood comes to a point which is common. Then study the other images. I changed it by slimming the wood around the wrist down while leaving enough wood to carve the thumbprints/beavertails. All three image are of the same gun.

You can draw it with a pencil, then use a very sharp knife (Jim Chambers taught this to us) to trace the drawing and then a straight chisel to slowly remove the wood around the drawing. Then use several rifler files to clean up the lines and the chiseled wood. I use files to remove a lot of the wood and then as I get close, file and then scrapers.

Here's an intro video: https://youtu.be/5ltlSI1tP68?si=uvaQkUH6gWKEWpIE

 

[Hawg]

Gary: Hitting the link provided, post one is a wood pile and all the other pics look like rifles to me. I think I understand what you mean by a Beaver tail, but I don't think there is enough wood there to create one. Thanks for the suggestion.


Life is good.
Prof Young

There's a rifle in front of the woodpile. If that kit is anything like the one I had there's plenty of wood there. It's just a lot of work to get it there. Those kits make fat chunky guns compared to anything original unless you're willing to do the work it takes to slim them down.