Finally
 

Well maybe you guys can remember way back when when my neighbor said he had a ML that he bought and never shot. I finally cornered him Friday and he brought it out to show me. It is a T/C Hawken .45 cal flinter. Bore looks in pretty good shape except for some dust. There is some minor surface rust on the barrel from not being oiled I assume, and the brass is dull from sitting. But the lock and triggers are in excellent working order. He is selling it to me tomorrow as soon as he gets the "long brass scope", bullets, powder and "all the other crap" he got with it.
Once in hand I will take some pics and let you know how much it cost me.

Nice find.:happy0001:

Holy jumping jehosaphat! What a find you lucky dog Bronko. I hope you get it for a great price.

Wish I could find a deal like that. But I would want a 54 cal.

A .45 can be a nice deer gun.

That sounds sweet. Good luck.

OK gentlemen brace yourselves. I got the aftormentioned rifle. The bore appeared to be clean but when I swabbed her today I found out it had just some surface rust. Nothing to worry about. I few oil patches, a little work with JB and some more oil and dry patches and she is as good as new.
Now you can see the brass needs to be buffed up a bit but otherwise the rifle is in like new condition. Even has the old iron sights - not them new fangled fiber optic ones. The brass scope was still in the box in the plastic bag, unopened. It's a Tasco replica. I was hoping for a Malcolm but I can't complain.
I got everyting in the pic plus a couple packs of patches, a pack of flints and a box of balls. Everything came to a whopping total of - now I hated to do this without kissing him - but all for $80.

Wowwww!!!!!!!! What a bargain !!!

You know Bronko, it's becoming difficult not to dislike you intensely. :devil:

How can you come here and tell tall tales like that and expect to be believed? :s2:


CONGRATULATIONS! What a buy!

It's amazing that people don't know the value of a Thompson Center side lock. I bet he could have gotten no less than 4 times that much, if not from you, from someone.

Way to Fire,Bronko! Some people just want to get rid of them. I never find anyone who does.Great find!

I'm about ready to throw up. Why can't I have that luck. I need to move to a state that has a muzzleloader season. Can't find deals like that in Montana.

Actually guys, in about 40 yrs of MLing, this is only the 2nd really good deal I ever got (on any kind of gun). I also picked up an old Knight at an online auction for $50 a couple yrs ago. That rifle is very accurate.
I just got done polishing all the brass and waxing the stock on this rifle and I was just about ready to put it all back together when I noticed it had the original slotted flash hole liner. And of course as it happens when a gun sits too long an gets neglected in the corner, it was rusted in. So getting the Wheeler gunsmith screwdriver set out and finding the correct slotted bit and a good deal of elbow grease, I was able to get it out. Good thing too because I saw something in the bottom of the flash hole. It turned out to be a patch?!?! The rifle would have never fired. Took me about an hour to work it out in pieces. How it got in there I'll never know. But its out now and the rifle is all ready for its debut on the range this weekend - weather permitting. And she's lookin a whole lot prettier now that she's all cleaned up and ready to dance.

Here's a before and after

Before After