Twist rate?

[wormbobskey]

Can anyone tell me what the twist rate is a T/C Hawkin rifle in .50 caliber? Shot mine today with 5 different bullets and most shot pretty good, but the poly patched round balls and the sabot .44's shot the best. Thanks, Worm.

[Semisane]

If it's the original TC barrel the twist is most likely 1:48.  But they did make some 50s in "deep button" 1:66 twist specifically for patched balls.  You don't see many of those.

Here's TCs chart on the rate of twist for their guns.   http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/chart_muzzleloaders.php

[wormbobskey]

As far as oridginal goes it's stamped Thompson/Center Arms 50 cal Hawken. The hammer didn't line up with the nipple just right so I took a stainless steel washer and filed the round hole square and installed it between the lock and the hammer. The #10 caps went on real hard and unless I carefully set the hammer down on the primer and pushed it down on the nipple it wouldn't fire on the first try, but always on the second. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the nipple, but I will most likely replace it anyway.  How can I tell if I have the deep button or the cut, hawkin? Worm

[necchi]

The standard 1/4 x 28 nipple for T/C uses a #11 cap,,that's why your having trouble with the #10.

 Don't know why the hammer was bent,,lot's of guy's think they want a scope mounted on the thing and bend the hammer to make it fit,,and 3/4 of those guy's make a mess of the job .

 The slow twist barrels are marked with a stamp on the barrel <Roundball Twist>,,some of the very old t/c's hawkins had a slow twist.

Here's a quote I found here about twist rate measurement;

""  Screw a cleaning jag tightly on a cleaning rod and just start it down the barrel with a cleaning patch on the end of it.You will need the barrel pretty well locked in a stationary position for this.  Place a vertical mark towards the top of the
cleaning rod, and another mark at the muzzle.

Start pushing the rod down the barrel, allowing the rod, jag, andcleaning patch to follow the rifling. If the vertical mark rotates a full 360 degrees before the jag bottoms out, place another mark on the rod at themuzzle. Pull the rod out of the barrel and measure the distance between both the marks you made at the muzzle. If it's 20", guess ya know what
ya got.

On the other hand, if the jag bottoms out long before the vertical markmakes a 360 degree rotation, start over. This time, place your second mark at the muzzle when the vertical mark rotates only 180 degrees, andpull out. If the distance between the marks is now 14", you have an acceptable 1:28 twist. ""

Now of course this is for a faster twist, most barrels for 1-48 or slower aren't long enough to get a full revolution. So with carefull marks and measurement you can expect to see a 1/4 revolution of the mark and get either 12" or 15" travel

[wormbobskey]

Well at least I don't have to replace the nipple just yet. As to the hammer being bent, I'm not sure it is. Before I shimmed out the hammer the hammer had barely any clearance where the recess is in the hammer. The washer might have moved it a 1/16 of an inch, which in my opinion is enough to work. Now that you mention it though the case hardening does look a lot different than on the lock. My first assuption was that the barrel had been replaced at some point, but than again it may have been the hammer or lock that could have been replaced. Anyway you look at it, I have a very nice looking rifle that delivers acceptable accuracy with a wide range of bullets. I know there are better rifles out there, but I'm easy to please and right now I'm pleased to have it.