used to do the Green River area Rondezvous over in Mountain view / Lyman/ Ft Bridger area of Wyoming, Just off interstate 80 at west end of state regularly
and did the one up in the hobacks.
Just gotten too old to do the traveling now as I am at east end of state now.
By 1840 many had started buying new Percussion guns, or converting flintlocks. But there were still a lot of flintlocks.
The long gun was on it's way out. the newer mountainman had converted over to the Hawkens design.
There really is no true absolute Hawkens today. Actually never was as a Brand or model type, except for what the Hawken kin made.
Basically what he did was listen to the fur trappers coming back to St. Louis from the Rockies.
They wanted a more quickly manageable gun with in a heavier caliber.
Pronghorn were about the size of the Whitetail back east. But they were running into Muleys 1/2 again bigger, and Elk lots of elk, and then of course the Griz!. Required heavier bullets to take them down.
This meant the barrels had to be heavier. And they had longer distances to shoot and prairie winds to deal with.
But to lighten the overall gun, they did the half stock, and shortened the barrels to make it easier to carry rough terrain and long distances. Plus the shorter barrel would swing on target quicker. They also changed the rate of twist to assist in better accuracy with the other changes.
So almost any traditionally styled rifle would pretty much fit in.
Highly polished brass is pretty much a fallacy also,
The sunlight gleaming off it could spook game, and or give his position away.
Blue jeans and sneakers are out, didn't exist back then.
And Cell phones are a big no no too. Same with todays sunglasses.
You can get period correct frames and plain lenses and just smoke them.
But prescription ones are allowed.
