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| Me and Cindy sewing patches on for hunting season |
I
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| Leather wrapped ball from europe |
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| clasp knives |
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| more clasp knives to use as short starters |
really have nothing to support the lack of information posting. On the plus side I’ve been officially diagnosed with A D H D so that’s kind of awesome. It proves my lack of posting wasn’t simply due to my lack of really giving a crap about just what people thought of my posts. So to put life in perspective I’ve started shooting with an awesome black powder club at the “Sinking Valley Rifle and Pistol Club”
Shooting
with these guys has been a beyond humbling experience. Shooting with the Guys
who consistently make up the Pa Rifle team puts you in your place. “Im 7th
out of 18 shooters”using a smooth bore Sawheeeet! “I’m 6th out of 12
with a rifle…I am a god!”…. These guys are good. I keep doing my thing in using
100% period stuff and its been a massive learning curve. I can’t recommend joining
a local club enough I’m angry at myself for waiting as long as I did.
So I
recently did a talk on 18th century hunters for the club for their
October shoot and it led me to just shut up and post something already. Time to
quit faking out my brain that I was going to actually try and send all my weird
researched thoughts out to Muzzleloader (sorry Jason I keep trying…do ya really
care?) Anyway this was an actual thought
I tossed out to guys who hunt (honestly Mark Baker and Ehrin Elehart tossed
ideas back at me on this. It was a nice confirmation I wasn’t totally crazy…I wasn’t
a punk rock band I was New wave)
So Here
we go…Pre patched ball was a thing and it might be a reason for the lack
of Bullet boards.
Bam!
did I blow your mind? Do you really care?
Have you become bored and disillusioned by the state of the hobby of sleeping in the woods in an 18th
cent mindset? Have you shot with me and can no longer take anyone seriously who
misses as much as I do? Is Tony’s hatred of the Duane an idea that can unite
all of us into a block of people who say No to Dutchness?
Honestly I got
nothing. If you are reading this it has already shown you have a skewed view on
history and twisted sense of humor. Congratulations we agree Duane sucks…
So
looking for period descriptions of people loading pointed me towards some odd
ball Info from Jesse Maines back in the
day (Jesse Maines is a mythical creature to anyone who has entered the hobby
after 1999. I assure you he exists and is angry at me for mentioning him)
Anyhow this led to this idea from an 18th century source…
“ a rifleman on
service should have a small leathern bag fixed to his belt, with about thirty
balls, tied up in greased patches”
This
was from a british officer who had fought against American riflemen during the
Revolution. Pretty good idea in the abstract and something to think about. Then
Jesse added this noise and tossed it all into chaos:
“Esq George crooks tells of one
Abraham Hornback that covered his bullets very neatly with buckskin in starting
to go out in the late war & and that he killed an Indian with one of them.
He only went out for 5 or 6 weeks to be in one battle”
A guy in the backcountry pre
patching his ball with leather patches. So add to this idea the idea from
hundreds of miles north but around the same time the leather patches from fort
freeland. Ok crazy right…then add to this thousands of miles away the use
existance of pre patched leather ball by Rifle troops!
So here ya go. Yet another idea and
practice that points towards the idea of the loading block being a way later
idea then the 18th cent. Facts…not “ideas” the only idea I would add to this is what Ive
been doing.
In the boone description of loading
a rifle this idea stands out.
“he blows through his rifle to
ascertain that it is clear, examines his flint, and thrusts a feather into the
touchhole. To a leathern bag swung at his side is attached a powder-horn; his
sheathed knife is there also; below hangs a narrow strip of homespun linen. He
takes from his bag a bullet, pulls with his teeth the wooden stopper from his
powder-horn, lays the ball on one hand, and with the other pours the powder
upon it, until it is just overtopped. Raising the horn to his mouth, he again
closes it with the stopper, and restores it to its place. He introduces the
powder into the tube, springs the box of his gun, greases the patch over some
melted tallow or damps it. Then places it on the honeycombed muzzle of his
piece. The bullet is placed on the patch over the bore, and pressed with
the handle of the knife, which now trims the edges of the linen. The
elastic hicory rod, held with both hands, smoothly pushes the ball to its bed;
once,twice,thrice has it rebounded. The rifle leaps as it were into the hunters
arms, the feather is drawn from the touchhole, the powder fills the pan,which
is closed. “Now I am ready”
Ok so Ive seen this Idea led many
to the ramp that points toward a giant file knife with an antler handle that is
tapered to a ball starter. My response is simply “really?” I’ve been able to
simply use the common clasp knife (cuttoe knife) as a ball starter for..well a
long time now. Simply smacking the ball with the flat end of the knife has
started it enough to use the ramrod to drive it down.
So here we have two period ways of
loading a gun intersecting and showing that the idea of a loading block is
simply not in general practice for a number of years. I mean come on man. What
is simpler then a flat side of a common clasp knife smacking home a bullet over
a greased patch? What more do you need from a period account? Step by step
instructions? Do you really care? Honestly I don’t because nothing can be as disappointing
as hunting with Duane. He is a terrible person and should be told that on a
daily basis. I’m also disappointed in my brother Just because he is that, and
anyone with that title should be working hard to shoot more deer. Welcome back
to the Buffalo trace my fiends I think it’s time we all got back to hunting and
full time sarcasam.
