The Death of the Bullet board and my attention span

 

Me and Cindy sewing patches on for hunting season

I

Leather patch from Fort  freeland

Leather wrapped ball from europe

clasp knives

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 7^th out of 18 shooters”using a smooth bore Sawheeeet! “I’m 6^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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.