The ONLY problem with the Thompson/Center rifles was when Thompson/Center made the marketing decision to call their first rifle a "HAWKEN", instead of something else.
That's what p****d off the traditional muzzleloading community, because it truly bears NO RESEMBLANCE to a real Hawken rifle. By that time, 1976 (?), people were already crazy about Hawken rifles. Most muzzleloading people had never seen one, and even fewer had actually handled one.
I was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours with an original J & S Hawken in .52 caliber, back in 1977 when I was in the military. A Thompson/Center Hawken is NOTHING like it. A good gun, but NOT A HAWKEN.
Those who had, knew that the Thompson/Center Hawken looked more like an English Sporting Rifle, than a Hawken.
TO THIS DAY, that point is the very first thing that is brought up whenever a Thompson/Center Hawken is mentioned on any of the diehard traditionalist muzzleloading forums. Thompson/Center's "arrogance" in naming their first rifle thus sticks in their craw so bad that many of them refuse to even discuss any Thompson/Center rifle, and I have read where more than a few would like to BAN them, and anyone who dared to post about one, from their silly forums.
As I mentioned over at ALR just recently, all of Thompson Center's guns, even the later models with composite stocks, are extremely well made compared to all but the best of Pedersoli's guns. Under the finish of much of the walnut in their stocks, lies some beautiful wood.
Compared to most of what comes out of Italy and Spain nowadays, a used Thompson/Center rifle is a HUGE bargain. Even with a trashed barrel. Because here in the United States we are EXTRAORDINARILY, EXTRAORDINARILY FORTUNATE to have a Bobby Hoyt in our midst willing to work 5 days a week at 70-plus years of age, to re-bore & re-rifle our barrels. To save what would otherwise end up in a dumpster.
WHATEVER ARE WE GOING TO DO WHEN HE RETIRES, OR DIES?
As far as I know, there is no one to take his place.
