Reviewing the Traditions Hawken Woodsman .50cal Percussion

This sucker if BEEFY compared to my Hawken Woodsman Flintlock version. I'll have to ask about that and see if they changed up the design a bit. " Yes, Traditions has re-tooled and beefed up the stock, but also left some extra, over sized lock panels to speed up the process and cut down cost at both ends "

Beefy is good!

The Traditions Hawken Woodsman is a serious hunting rifle. The Woodsman has the classic styling and handling of the time-honored Hawken while offering great performance and affordability. Both the percussion and flint models boast a hooked breech for easy barrel removal, click-adjustable rear hunting sight, double-set triggers in an oversized glove-fitting trigger guard with finger rest and an in-letted solid brass patch box. This model is .50 caliber and has a 28" octagonal blued barrel, 15/16th's across the flats,with a twist of 1:48. It is 44.5" in length and weighs 7 7/8 lbs. This particular model has a select (Beechwood) hardwood stock.

Maximum Loads:
110gr 2fg black powder or sub Max Load
105gr 3fg Black powder or sub, Max Load









Now lets take a look at the Percussion model VS my Flintlock model Hawken Woodsman. You can see how beefy the Wrist and Lock panel are on the Percussion Model.


The in-letting is nice and tight, especially around the lock as it requires you to loosen the screws and gently tap on them to help ease the lock out. You can see some light sanding scratches left over, but on a rifle of this price ($388), that will be expected and is no eye sore to me. Especially after a week hunting in the Colorado Oak Brush! Expect to find such light sanding marks on rifles that are 3x the price.


On most traditional muzzleloaders, we are used to seeing the barrel channel, completely hollowed out with a visible ramrod. Traditions leaves the barrel channel SOLID, with the exception of the Wedge Key/Barrel Tenon area as well as the Ramrod Retaining Spring. Leaving the wood in this area whole, was a very smart plan as it keeps the fore-stock solid, rather than hollow and easier to crack from an over tight wedge key. You simply can not squeeze the sides of the stock and watch them give inward like on some models I've owned over the years. SOLID set up!


Tight in-letting, no chipping or splinters where the lock panel was cut out. The wood finish however on the inside of the lock panel was left a little rough and so when fouling gets into this area ( Which it will ) the powder fouling will bed into the rougher texture and be a mess to clean out. I will spend 5 minutes with 150 grit sand paper and knock the roughness down before applying a thin coat of Frontier's Anti-Rust & Patch lube. This will make is super easy to wipe fouling out of the lock in-let at the end of the day.



87 yard shot with the new Traditions Hawken Woodsman .50cal! 160gr Reduced Recoil Thor sabot driven by 90gr Pyrodex RS. One shot, one kill, dropped on the spot.