GAHUNTER60
Senior Member
I recently broke the trigger sear at the range on my TC Hawken. Unfortunately, it was the day before opening day of muzzleloader season. Desperate, I got on the phone and found a gunsmith in Cleveland, GA that had a bunch of TC Hawken parts. An hour later, I was in his shop and he was installing a sear from a cannibalized Hawken lock. It worked -- sort of!
Turns out ,with the new (old) part, after you set the trigger, the sear only releases the hammer about 60 percent of the time. The rest of the time, when you try to touch her off, all you get is a "click," and the hammer hammer falls about a 1/10 of an inch and stops. However, if you leave the hammer in that position and reset the double set trigger a second time, she fires 100 percent of the time. When I took her back to the smith, he didn't have another sear. So he tried disassembling the lock and polishing the sear he installed. Now, the hammer falls about 65 percent of the time!
So, I've been hunting with it this way. What I've done to ensure ignition is to get in my stand, and with an uncapped and cushioned nipple, cock the hammer, set the trigger and pull it. If the hammer falls, I repeat the process until I get that 1/10" fall. At this point, she's ready to hunt! (Like I said, I get 100 percent ignition when the hammer is in this position on a second trigger pull.)
The first day I hunted like this, I started off sitting with a capped nipple, making dang sure to keep her pointed in a safe direction. Finally, I decided that this was just too dangerous! I don't know how much of the notch in the hammer is being held back by the sear. And, God forbid, should I drop the rifle from the stand (It DOES happen -- never happened to me, but I know folks that it has happened to), it is guaranteed to fire upon impact.
So, I uncapped her and started holding the top hat musket cap in my fingers of my right hand, ready to place the cap on the nipple when a deer appears. Over the last four weeks, I've gotten good at being able to quickly cap her at the first sign of a deer approaching. I'm pretty selective about what I shoot, so I get a lot of practice "cap on; cap off; cap on; cap off." (My apologies to Mr. Miyagi)
So it was under these conditions with the buck I shot last Saturday pictured in the separate thread. It worked, but it ain't right! I want it right.
I've done a little research, and found out that TC manufactured this rifle with two different sears -- an early rifle version, and a later rifle version. It does no good to contact TC to find out which sear mine had, because a fire at the TC plant years ago wiped out all serial number records. I suspect mine to be the earlier, and least common, sear, since I bought my gun new in 1976 (they stared making them in 1970). Unfortunately, Gun Parts Corp (Numrich Arms), only has the more common "later sear" in stock. There are a few private sellers online who say they have an early TC Hawken sear, but there is no way to know if what they have will work.
So, after all the above, I need to find a gunsmith, preferably one in north Georgia, who can either make the sear I have work, or tell me where I can get one. Any smith who does a lot of muzzleloader work should be able to help me. If push comes to shove, I will buy a hole new lock, but TC made three different locks for their Hawken, so which one do I buy?
Anybody know a good muzzleloader smith?
Turns out ,with the new (old) part, after you set the trigger, the sear only releases the hammer about 60 percent of the time. The rest of the time, when you try to touch her off, all you get is a "click," and the hammer hammer falls about a 1/10 of an inch and stops. However, if you leave the hammer in that position and reset the double set trigger a second time, she fires 100 percent of the time. When I took her back to the smith, he didn't have another sear. So he tried disassembling the lock and polishing the sear he installed. Now, the hammer falls about 65 percent of the time!
So, I've been hunting with it this way. What I've done to ensure ignition is to get in my stand, and with an uncapped and cushioned nipple, cock the hammer, set the trigger and pull it. If the hammer falls, I repeat the process until I get that 1/10" fall. At this point, she's ready to hunt! (Like I said, I get 100 percent ignition when the hammer is in this position on a second trigger pull.)
The first day I hunted like this, I started off sitting with a capped nipple, making dang sure to keep her pointed in a safe direction. Finally, I decided that this was just too dangerous! I don't know how much of the notch in the hammer is being held back by the sear. And, God forbid, should I drop the rifle from the stand (It DOES happen -- never happened to me, but I know folks that it has happened to), it is guaranteed to fire upon impact.
So, I uncapped her and started holding the top hat musket cap in my fingers of my right hand, ready to place the cap on the nipple when a deer appears. Over the last four weeks, I've gotten good at being able to quickly cap her at the first sign of a deer approaching. I'm pretty selective about what I shoot, so I get a lot of practice "cap on; cap off; cap on; cap off." (My apologies to Mr. Miyagi)
So it was under these conditions with the buck I shot last Saturday pictured in the separate thread. It worked, but it ain't right! I want it right.
I've done a little research, and found out that TC manufactured this rifle with two different sears -- an early rifle version, and a later rifle version. It does no good to contact TC to find out which sear mine had, because a fire at the TC plant years ago wiped out all serial number records. I suspect mine to be the earlier, and least common, sear, since I bought my gun new in 1976 (they stared making them in 1970). Unfortunately, Gun Parts Corp (Numrich Arms), only has the more common "later sear" in stock. There are a few private sellers online who say they have an early TC Hawken sear, but there is no way to know if what they have will work.
So, after all the above, I need to find a gunsmith, preferably one in north Georgia, who can either make the sear I have work, or tell me where I can get one. Any smith who does a lot of muzzleloader work should be able to help me. If push comes to shove, I will buy a hole new lock, but TC made three different locks for their Hawken, so which one do I buy?
Anybody know a good muzzleloader smith?