TC Seneca or Hawken 45

[leadball]

I have a chance to get a TC Seneca 45 at a very good price and is in excellent shape but have never held or shot one I have had Hawkens and Renegades and like both what are your thought in the Seneca vs the Hawken thanks

 

[Kdf22]

I’d get the Seneca. It be a handier lighter rifle. I use to have one in 45 and 36 caliber. The Hawken would probably handle hotter charges than the Seneca. Just don’t see them often and it would have a higher resale value.

 

[Chris in TN]

Ask yourself what you're going to do with it. I've had several Renegades over the years and one 1"/.54 cal Hawken and sold them all. I kept two 15/16" Hawkens and I shoot one of them *maybe* once per year.

I had a Seneca in .45 once and sold it. I wish I'd kept it. I got a wild hair about wanting a more accurate caplock for moderate distances (like 75-150 yards) so I sold the Seneca that didn't have a tang drilled for a peep sight. Then I actually shot my Hawkens (one factory .50 barrel, one GM LRH .50 barrel) with peep sights and realized that at the end of the day with my eyesight, open sights of any sort, even peep sights, in the deer woods in low light, are a 75-yard proposition at best, and I should have kept the Seneca.

At the end of the day the Seneca was probably the prettiest caplock TC ever made and they are light and fun to play with. They don't handle big powder charges but I don't think you need them at the typical ranges where they shine, or if strictly target shooting. Or hanging over the fireplace.

T/C caplocks are terrible reproductions of 'real' Hawkens but they are perhaps something even more interesting - living pieces of history themselves - if you count the 1970's as history.

I've been all over the world and hunted several states and shot elk and had adventures but none compare to what was in my imagination when I got those T/C catalogs as a kid. Cougars and wild boars and bears, oh, my.

 

[leadball]

I have decided to get the Seneca like there was any doubt I more than likely won't hunt with it it will be a fun target gun and mostly round ball loads but I want to play with MMP sabots to see if it will like light loads I think the brown sabots are for .400 caliber and the light blue are for .357 I may be wrong but no more than 50 or 60 grains powder I have about 6 pounds of Swiss 2f but no 3f I'll have to go get some have any of you tried the sabots in the 45 caliber 1 in 48 twist barrels?

 

[Chris in TN]

You're going to have to shoot something really short/light to stabilize in a sabot in a 48" twist. I don't have a twist calculator handy but I'm guessing something like a .40/155 pistol bullet, which admittedly would work fine on whitetail at close range.

 

[leadball]

You're going to have to shoot something really short/light to stabilize in a sabot in a 48" twist. I don't have a twist calculator handy but I'm guessing something like a .40/155 pistol bullet, which admittedly would work fine on whitetail at close range.

Ya that is my plan to try 155 .400 and 110 and 125 in .357 and see what happens if nothing else it will be a lot of fun

 

[Kdf22]

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