Post by: rollingb on April 15, 2013, 06:53:17 PM
"… He blows through his rifle to ascertain that it is clear, examines his flint, and thrusts a feather into the touch-hole. To a leathern bag swung at his side is attached a powder-horn; his sheath-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 in 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 with some melted tallow, or damps it; then places it on the honey-combed 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 edge of the linen. The elastic hickory 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 touch-hole, the powder fills the pan, which is closed. “Now I’m ready,” cries the woodsman….
Post by: Trois Castors on April 15, 2013, 07:02:52 PM
Post by: Fletcher on April 16, 2013, 12:20:23 AM
Oh well - we are the decedents of these fine folk after all - guess it all worked out OK
Post by: rollingb on April 16, 2013, 01:54:45 AM
Quote from: "Fletcher"
Shore does sounds like an X act science to me!!! Speaks well of health and safety to.
Oh well - we are the decedents of these fine folk after all - guess it all worked out OK
:laffing
Post by: greyhunter on April 16, 2013, 08:10:33 AM
Post by: rollingb on April 16, 2013, 10:12:20 AM
Quote from: "greyhunter"
Took me reading this more'n oncet. "Honey comb muzzle" ???? Does he mean the octagon shape of the muzzle? Otherwise, an efficient, no nonsense way to load a muzzie to stand and deliver!
:rt th
"The rifle leaps as it were into the hunters arms, the feather is drawn from the touch-hole, the powder fills the pan, which is closed."
It sounds like the touch-hole was big enough, to allow the main charge to "self prime" the pan when the feather was withdrawn, also. :rt th
Post by: sse on April 16, 2013, 10:33:05 AM
Quote
we are the decedents of these fine folk after allThat would be descendents...we're not "decedents" just yet...
Post by: Uncle Russ on April 16, 2013, 12:37:06 PM
Back in the 1960's / 70's it was quite common to see some nimrod pouring powder over a ball in the palm of his hand...not that we lacked the learning, we already had a book, maybe even two, for reference at the time, and that was exactly what they said to do, so we had to be doing it right.
Then another nimrod comes along and tells us we should be pan-weighing, off of a balanced beam scale, if we wanted real accuracy, and that is when we discovered weight by volume is a bit different than weight by scale, and we also discovered something else, something entirely new to argue about, because we also discovered that Volume Measurements in that day varied a bit between manufacturers when it came to actual scale weights.
Yep, the good old days, indeed!
Quite a few of us survived the good old days with all the never ending advise from the subject matter experts, because we were hungry for information, but few of us were astute enough to notice a great deal of improvement when it came to accuracy from the ol' riflegun, no matter what the technique used in loading.
In fact, given a .54 cal ball, in the cup of my hand, then covered in FFg powder, weighs by scale or volume, right at 60 grains, a 'recommended' load back in the day. I know because I have measured them.....many times.
Now, 60gr of FFg is by means my favorite load in my .54 as I prefer 75gr FFFg...but you get the picture.
I have always thought, in the back of my mind, that I could manage fairly well without a powder measure.
I prefer a volume type measure, but I could probably get along well enough without one.
Every reason in the world to believe a lot of the old writings and sayings did have merit.
Uncle Russ...
Post by: sse on April 16, 2013, 01:15:28 PM
Quote
descendents
Oops...that should be descendants... :oops:
Post by: Spotted Bull on April 16, 2013, 02:57:06 PM
Quote from: "rollingb"
I love these old quotes! :hey-hey
Me too! Is there a good place to find such quotes as this on the internet?
Post by: rollingb on April 16, 2013, 04:06:56 PM
Quote from: "Spotted Bull"
I don't know,... but it would be great if there was.Quote from: "rollingb"
I love these old quotes! :hey-hey
Me too! Is there a good place to find such quotes as this on the internet?
Post by: Uncle Russ on April 16, 2013, 05:53:37 PM
Uncle Russ...
Post by: mario on April 16, 2013, 07:34:31 PM
Most of mine are pre-1800 and deal with smoothbores, but if folks are interested, I'll start a thread.
As with most of my research, you just find bits here and there.
Mario
Post by: rollingb on April 16, 2013, 08:20:26 PM
Quote from: "mario"
Cool!The same here,... it takes a lot of reading to glean a few historical quotes.
Most of mine are pre-1800 and deal with smoothbores, but if folks are interested, I'll start a thread.
As with most of my research, you just find bits here and there.
Mario
Post by: Fletcher on April 16, 2013, 09:27:17 PM
I guess I musta had Captchees spel checkr runnin on thet one
Post by: greggholmes on April 16, 2013, 09:32:43 PM
http://youtu.be/SJMbxZ1k9NQ
The History of Washington County
1789
"Duncan McArthur was a noted indian fighter and one of the best shots on the border, where there were many crack marksmen. He had learned the art of loading his rifle while running, a feat which few men, red or white could perform with the old muzzle loaders."
Post by: greyhunter on April 16, 2013, 10:12:02 PM
Quote from: greggholmes
this is how you load a brown bess, and a hang fire..
http://youtu.be/SJMbxZ1k9NQ
. :rotf :rotf , Best demo of holding on target, not, with a hang fire I have seen! My wife thought I had lost it when the last shot went off. Good laff, thanks for posting.