The Hawken rifle was a brand of black powder long rifle used on the prairies and in the Rocky Mountains of the United States during the frontier days of the Mountain Man. It has become synonymous with the "plains rifle", the "buffalo gun", and the "fur trapper's gun". Born in the 1820s, it was eventually displaced by breechloaders (such as the Sharps rifle) and lever-action rifles which flourished after the Civil War. During the 1970s a boom in popularity of muzzle-loader hunting resulted in many reproduction Hawken rifles, many of which were greatly simplified from the originals.
