The National Firearms Museum (NFM) was on the road for a couple of weeks so they could show off their displays to those attending the Las Vegas Antique Arms Show, the SHOT Show, and SCI's 38th Annual Hunters' Convention in Reno, Nevada. One of those prominently under glass - held on the right by Senior Curator Phil Schreier while filming a segment of Curator's Corner - was an Italian reproduction of a Hawken Plains Rifle.

The Hawken rifle is a .45 caliber long gun in flintlock configuration. Originally manufactured between 1823 and 1855 by brothers Jacob and Samuel Hawken, it was a favorite of those hunting buffalo and other game along the Western Plains. When Samuel retired in 1859, he passed along the company to his sons who ran the shop (along with partners) for another sixty years. Oddly enough, the Hawkens usually referred to their guns "Rocky Mountain Rifles."

All part of the new "Son of a Gun - The Return of Reel Heroes" exhibit, which replaces the ever popular Guns West! display, the Hawken rifle was used in films like Mountain Men, Jeremiah Johnson, and Quigley Down Under. Ever the movie buff, Phil told us of a scene from Mountain Men where 28 individual rifles were quickly handed to Charlton Heston in succession as he fended off the bad guys.

For more on the Hawken rifle, join Phil Schreier tonight as Curator's Corner hits the airways at 10:20 eastern on NRANews.com or Sirius Patriot channel 144.