The Traditions Hawkin muzzleloading kit goes together easily. With just a few hours of work, Coffield transformed it into a unique, personalized rifle.

It was back in the 1970s, and there was a lot of interest in traditional muzzleloading firearms. I had a gunsmith shop in the foothills of western North Carolina, and at the time, it was just about the only shop catering to blackpowder shooters in that part of the state. Needless to say, I saw a lot of muzzleloaders.

Every year around February or March, two or three guys would come in with long boxes that usually held most of the components of a partially completed muzzleloading rifle. More often than not, the kit had been a Christmas gift.

The quality of these kits was just about always at the bottom of the barrel. At the time, that was saying a lot because there were some really poor quality kits being sold. I saw bores that were only partially rifled, barrels with off-center bores, kits missing major components, and stocks made of material that would’ve embarrassed an orange crate.

In most cases, my business partner Wayne Spears and I were able to salvage enough parts to put together a reasonably decent rifle, and the customers always seemed pleased. I’ve often wondered how many of those guns were later proudly exhibited as the handiwork of the owner.

How times have changed.

In personalizing his rifle, Coffield chose to remove the spur from the trigger bow.

Very recently, I was given an opportunity to try out a new muzzleloading rifle kit from the folks at Traditions Performance Firearms in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The offering is what the company calls a St. Louis Hawkin in .50 caliber; it’s a traditional half-stocked percussion rifle suitable for deer hunting or recreational shooting.

Upon receipt of the kit, the first thing I did was to look it over to make sure everything was there and to get an idea about the quality of the parts. Remembering those kits from back in the ’70s, it was evident that this kit was far better than what I encountered years ago. Not only is the material quality superior, the buyer gets much better designed and constructed components. A good example of this is the lock, which is the heart and soul of a muzzleloader.

The lock furnished with this kit incorporates two features that were virtually never available in kits years ago. It comes with a fly. This is a mechanical device to keep the sear from dropping into the halfcock (safety) notch when the gun is fired. Having a fly makes it easier to adjust the lock for a safe, reasonably light trigger pull. The lock also incorporates an adjusting screw to control the amount of sear engagement. This also aids in tuning the lock. If you can turn a screwdriver, you can adjust this trigger.

I should mention that this kit was made in Spain. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, a lot of cheap, poorly made guns were imported from Spain, and anything bearing a Spanish label was suspect. That’s not the case today. The Spanish currently produce some very fine quality firearms. This kit is not at all like the junk I saw years ago. Now, don’t get me wrong. The Traditions Hawkin kit sells for just a bit less than $300, and it’s definitely an entry-level kit. Keep in mind there are a number of kits available today from other makers that sell for close to $1,000 or more! In this kit you’ll get what you need to construct a good, safe, reliable gun—no frills; nothing fancy; just a good, basic gun.

Along with the kit is a nice little loading and shooting instruction booklet as well as assembly instructions. The instructions are detailed and extensively illustrated with drawings and photographs. These are some of the best kit-gun instructions I’ve seen in quite a while. The folks at Traditions are to be commended for putting the time and effort they did into these instructions. Detailed, well-written instructions can make a world of difference for the first-time builder. You just can’t give a guy too much help on his first project.