The hand cannon nerf hurt the Hawkmoon way more than the Thorn because the Thorn kept the same DOT. Before the nerf, the Hawkmoon seemed to kill more consistently at range for me. Now I rely on the the Thorn's DOT to do that for me.
What are you guys talking about? Hawkmoon is still a sniper on disguise. I prefer Hawkmoon over Thorn and probably my gameplay has adjusted to it. Thorn is very good, it was my main PvP weapon before I got Hawkmoon it has a fast rate of fire and DoT is a pain in the ass.
I don't know why but after the update I feel they tweaked a bit the hand cannon accuracy or the range because before, my first shot would often miss if I was too far away but now I can get precision hits more easily.
That said, TLW has really grown on me and is becoming my second favorite PvP weapon. I don't use it in open maps like Shores, Blind watch but in Burning or Anomaly it's really great.