Thompson is the best by far as old school black powder. The gun Marlin has and I too have one are ok not real bad but not great either. Most of the cheap guns are made in Itally I have a few, the Cabela's hawken that me and Marlin have are made in Itally.

If you are trying for the old school hawken I personally would just buy a T/C hawken. Most brand names like Knights, Omega are modern day I don't know for sure if they ever made old school rifles. CVA is another great brand check with them.

The cheapest I would go is with the Cabelas hawkin they are not bad, it's just if I brought my Cabela's hawken and my T/C hawken to a shoot and let you check them both out you would understand how much superior the T/C is.

I still hunt every year with my Cabela's hawkin because out to 100 yrds I can hit anything. (plus I have been too damn lazy to play with the T/C and find a good acurate load.)

Edit to add since I am an idiot and cant ever get it right the first time ops:

The problem with BP KC is there is no regulations buying one is like buying a loaf of bread. No 4473 no back ground check, hell you can mail order them all day long. There are so many companies that make them and a lot of them are junk. Stay with a name brand like T/C, CVA ect. let me know what brand the one your looking at is.