Investarm Gemmer Hawken Rifle

With Lyman getting out of the black powder business, Muzzle-loaders.com has taken over as an importer of Investarm guns. I had a 10% off coupon from them that expired at the end of last year, so on 12/26/23  I put it towards a left handed .54 flintlock Gemmer Hawken. It arrived this past Wednesday. The Gemmer Hawken is the current incarnation of the Lyman Great Plains Rifle, which for decades has been very highly regarded for a production muzzleloader.

Back in the 1990s I had a LH flint .54 Lyman GPR but sold it off after a few years. At the time I wasn't hunting and my shooting interests were more along the lines of milsurps and S&W revolvers. I wish that I had kept it. Let's just say that the Investarm rifles made today are not as nice as those made even 10 years ago, much less my old GPR. In particular, the triggers were horrendous. Rough, difficult to set, and so heavy when unset as to be unusable. So, I ordered a Davis Deerslayer from the Log Cabin Shop and it arrived today. The Deerslayer was originally designed for use in  the T/C Hawken and Renegade, rifles but it also works in similar guns like the GPR/GH.

Installation was painless and while the instructions mention removing wood, that wasn't required. (Doing so may be required on a T/C.) The rifle now has an easy to set trigger that would be usable even when unset. Dry firing it feels like I'm holding one of my custom muzzleloaders. In my opinion the Davis triggers are worth the $80 asking price (although it shouldn't be necessary to replace the triggers on a factory rifle to get something usable).

Pic before installing the new triggers:

Yesterday I added a couple coats of clear Watco Danish Oil to the stock, which is some unspecified European hardwood that was lightly finished. Older Investarm guns, including the Cabela's Hawken I took a big doe with in 2022, had walnut stocks. I also replaced the vent liner with an RMC unit that uses an Allen wrench for removal. It's coned internally as well on the outside so it should help ignition.

The lock sparks well even with the cut agate flint that it came with. L&R now makes left handed RPL replacement flintlocks to fit the GPR/GH but I'll give the factory lock a solid workout before thinking of replacing it.

The only other modification I have planned it to put slots in the barrel keys and install pins held in by the escutcheons so they can't fall out and get lost.

I may not be able to shoot it until next weekend, due to the weather. I'm hopeful that it will shoot well with 70 - 80 grains of 3Fg and a patched .530 ball. I'm also going to try some .526 balls which should make for easier loading in the field. My reason for getting a .54 is to improve my chances of a complete pass-through on the large whitetail deer up in Tioga County, compared with the .50s I've been using.

As an aside along those lines, I'm hoping to work up a good conical load for my percussion Cabela's Hawken .50 that I can use during the early antlerless season. I have some Hornady Great Plains bullets that should shoot well in the gun and be really effective on deer.

Aside from the larger ball, the Gemmer Hawken will give me a flintlock rifle that's easier to handle inside a deer blind, since it's significantly shorter than the longrifle I toted last week.

More to follow after I shoot it ...