Build Your Own Muzzleloader With A Traditions DIY Black Powder Kit

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I’m a sucker for nostalgia and an avid do-it-yourself guy. As long as I can remember, I used to stare at my dad’s Thompson Center (TC) St. Louis Hawken muzzleloader hanging on the wall. To my young mind, the oiled walnut stock with tarnished brass fittings and octagonal barrel of that muzzleloader meant that it must have been at least 100 years old. When he told me it was a kit he built, I was shocked and decided to someday build my own.

First Hunts with a Muzzleloader

Fast forward 20 years, and I was invited on a javelina hunt in Arizona for the Handgun, Archery, Muzzleloader (HAM) hunt. My buddy Steve was a veteran of many HAM hunts and preferred a St. Louis .54 Hawken he’d also built from a TC kit years ago. I borrowed my dad’s TC and cleanly missed a javelina at 63 yards with an adrenaline driven shot. Two years later, I borrowed a coworker’s modern muzzleloader to try again. It was ugly as sin. The trigger was heavy, and the balance was off. It was nothing like my dad’s Hawken. I didn’t get a shot opportunity that year. The pigs must have felt the same way I did about being near that muzzleloader. I began looking into options to purchase my own Hawken. Unfortunately, TC doesn’t offer their DIY kits anymore. To buy a complete Hawken rifle from any number of manufacturers started around $800 and went up from there. Budget wise, those just weren’t an option. Then I discovered the Build-It-Yourself Kits from Traditions Performance Firearms. The Build-It-Yourself Kits include all of the parts you need to completely assemble your own unique muzzleloader. The kits feature beechwood stocks, brass accents, and locks cast from original designs. On Traditions’ website, prices range from $385 to $1,135, depending on the model. I ended up going with, of course, the .50-caliber St. Louis Hawken. With a MSRP of $472, The Hawken model blended the classic aesthetics with a much more budget friendly price. Through muzzle-loaders.com, I found the kit for $409.

Assembly: Not for the Faint of Heart

Upon opening the package and dry-fitting the parts together, I soon realized I had my work cut out. Thanks to the step-by-step instruction manual, I at least knew the order and location of each part to be installed. I used a lot of sandpaper with grits varying from 60 to 400. I also used a sanding drum mounted in my Harbor Freight drill press for faster removal of excess material. I used a drift pin and mallet to set the tenon into the dovetail in the bottom of the barrel. Once installed, brass plates on either side of the forestock guide a steel wedge into alignment with the tenon. The rear of the barrel hooks into a tang, and when wedged into the stock, it creates a solid mount for the barrel. I traced the metal parts onto the wood stock, planning to sand it down to the pencil line. Some of the brass pieces had been roughly sanded, so I knew I’d need to clean those surfaces as well.

I trimmed and sanded until wood transitioned to metal. Not wanting a mirror finish, all brass surfaces were wet sanded to a dull sheen with 400-grit paper. The hammer, lock, and trigger mechanism already had a color case-hardened appearance, which I intended to leave alone. I then mocked up the full assembly to see how it felt. The heavy octagonal barrel and hardwood stock balanced great in hand and even better on the shoulder. The next steps required me to blue the barrel and age the brass. Years ago, my dad had used sulfur-heavy smoke bombs from his local fireworks stand to age the brass. He also polished his barrel and sent it away for hot bluing. My local sporting goods store had a tube of Birchwood Casey gun-bluing paste. I figured it was worth a try. I wiped the barrel down with acetone, let it dry, and began applying the gun-bluing paste. I coated the barrel, let it sit for a minute, and wiped it off, rinsing in cold water. The stuff worked fast. A second application brought the barrel to a jet-black color. A moment of curiosity spurred me to try the bluing paste on the like-new brass. Within a couple minutes, it looked decades old. A small sample-sized can of Varathane wood stain would be my go-to for changing the light-colored stock to a darker shade. I applied the stain with a rag, waited the prescribed amount of time, and wiped off the excess. Repeating this process got me the color I desired. I chose to use a paste-wax finish for the topcoat as it would not only protect the stock but could be easily repaired. Once assembled, the muzzleloader was ready for sights. These kits are made in Spain and use the CVA pattern on their dovetails. I ordered a set of Williams Fire Sights from MidwayUSA for $35. The aluminum sights were delivered in less than a week. I had to take material off the bottom of the sight dovetail to match the height of the cut on the barrel, but pretty soon, I had it drifted it into place. The rear sight screwed into one of the threaded holes in the top of the barrel, and a drop of blue Loctite ensured it wouldn’t come loose.

Testing

I picked up Hodgdon Triple Seven FFG for my powder and a pack of CCI No. 11 percussion caps. For projectiles, I went with 176-grain Speer lead round balls. The rest of the accoutrement came from my local sporting goods store. Now that everything was put together, off I went to my local range. The first thing I had to do was scrub the bore, as the packing grease was laid in thick. Cleaning also cleared the flashhole. Choosing to play by the 13-yard-zero rule, I got to work. When zeroed at 13 yards, a 175-grain round ball with 90 grains of powder should be about 2 inches high at 50 yards. It should land back on zero around 75, falling slightly low at 100. Javelina are small, and I had no plan to shoot one beyond 60 yards, so I figured this would be a benchmark worth testing. Before long, I had a 13-yard zero. Firing at 50 yards, my impact was almost exactly 2 inches high. To ensure it wasn’t a fluke, I reloaded and sent another two balls downrange. The three shots yielded a 1-inch group. This showed promise. Checking again at 75 and 100, the 13-yard rule held true. It was now up to me to do my part.

Third Time’s the Charm?

Leading up to my third HAM hunt, I practiced as often as I could. The hunt takes place in February in the Sonoran Desert where mornings are cool but warm up to 65 degrees during the day. Steve’s preferred hunting method is to scout for fresh tracks off dirt roads. Once fresh sign is found, we follow the tracks to the javelina. The morning of the third day, we drove onto a narrow ranch road and split up from there. I had hiked my way south when my wife began waving at me. As best as I could tell, there was a herd of javelina somewhere in the cactus below me. Thus ensued a comical game of hunting charades. After walking for what seemed an eternity, certain I had to be close, I checked in a final time for her update. She held out her hand, palm toward me, her fingers spread wide. Great, that must mean that five of them. I pressed on. But she was signaling me to stop, because I was right in the middle of them. Muzzleloader heavy in my hands, I soon recognized my mistake. A flash of silvery brown caused me to stop. The biggest in the group was disappearing behind a bush, while the rest of them milled around the cactus. Another large javelina came out into a clear line of sight and stopped, perfectly broadside at 15 yards. I slowly but deliberately moved my muzzleloader to my shoulder. Lifting it to my eyeline, I cocked the hammer and set the hair trigger. My sights settled low on the shoulder, and I touched off the shot. Boom! The report echoed off the hillsides around me, and when the smoke cleared, the javelina was down. That evening, I carved a notch into the beech wood stock. It’s the first of many, I hope. Back in our home state, the javelina is used in various delicious dishes that Jessica whips up. My Hawken, built with my own hands, sits in a well-earned spot in our gun safe, ready for our next adventure.

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