From 9 years old until my late 20's I exclusively hunted with one of a pair of Thompson center Hawkins that my dad built from kits and one year a cva Kentucky long rifle that dad also built. Anyway I still have all three of those rifles but really like the looks of the Traditions Hawkins. I was thinking of getting one and was wandering what others thought of them.

they've treated me great. Taking my newest st.louis hawken kit to oklahoma with me for a hog hunt with a fellow forum member!

I have 5 traditions hawken/mountain rifles on the wall as we speak.

I have a flintlock and a percussion Woodsman Hawkens Rifle made by Traditions. The percussion is a 1-66 twist while the flintlock is 1-48. Both of them are excellent shooters and the lock time on them is excellent.

The only negative about the Trad flinters is their lock isn,t nearly as heavily designed and rugged as the the other makes.Just look at the weak main spring for example.

weak main spring? I don't think you know what you are talking about when you say weak main spring. Its the heaviest duty spring i've ever encountered. The real issue is the overly heavy FRIZZEN SPRING that needs lightening.

I have 3 traditions flintlocks on the wall, if they were bad, they wouldnt be there.

Yep. If they are bad you make them stand in a corner.

Most of them will fire off the pan powder ok. It's getting the main charge to go off that's the problem. I had a Jim Chambers White Lightning vent liner installed in my GPR and it made a world of difference. It fires every time now and damn near as fast as a caplock.

I'm confident enough to use it for bear hunting now.

getting the main charge to go off has never been a problem. Its forgetting how much pan powder this flinter uses, and this flinter, and the other flinter! They have their own personalities lol.