Gourd Powder Horn Question

[Standing Wolf]

I'm new to TMA and was wondering if anyone knows how to make a gourd powder horn and if they was used and are historically correct.

                                                                                   Thanks,
                                                                                          Standing Wolf

[SAWMA]

They have a gourd that's called the powderhorn gourd, but i would think they would be pretty fragile and hard to repair for actual use.

[pathfinder]

Jim Webb's book on Appalation bags and accouterments show a couple. Really dont think it would hold up well in the feild,but for storage and occational use,I suppose it would be OK,if lined with bee's wax. They are correct for Southern gun's(yes,I am bias!,I live in the SOUTHERN U.P of Michigan!)

[Loyalist Dave]

There are hunting horns, and there are storage horns, etc.  So as pointed out, probably not the best idea for loading..., a horn is also pretty impervious to an odd spark from a fire or from the pan landing on it.., won't burn through, but a wood gourd and beeswax?  

Now maybe fine if you used it to store extra powder in a pack.  I use them for canteens or dry items, and line ONLY THE INSIDE with beeswax.  If you line both inside and outside, the gourd becomes very brittle, like an eggshell.  Not a bad idea (btw) for carrying grain, salt,  or flour when on a trek.

LD

[Uncle Russ]

Standing Wolf.........Welcome to the TMA!  

FWIW:
On a recent trip to New Mexico I saw a couple of leather covered gourd's that could "possibly" be used for Powder Horns, or Canteens.
The most interesting part of this particular gourd was the fact the seam on the leather that surrounded the gourd was sewn with an inside seam, and it appeared to be as  stout and sturdy as any horn I have ever seen...no clue as to how they got that gourd in that leather bag. But it was hard as a rock on the outside.

I am pretty sure that leather was soaked in something and stretched prior to the sewing, but the guy that was selling them obviously didn't know much more than I did. Or at least he didn't have any desire to tell me how it was done.
He hem-hawed around a bit but he finally did say it was likely done with the ashes from Mesquite, an old Navajo secret that few knew of....and he was obviously an Navajo himself just trying to make a dollar with his wares, as this happened in Gallup, NM.... and the outside of town is packed with Navajo street vendors.
 
I'm not sure of the truth in the story but I liked it, and I have since wondered just how it might be done. Or better yet, how I might go about doing it.

Years ago, back when I lived in New Mexico, Bollings Running Indian, a tourist trap that littered the highways of the state used to sell painted gourds, supplied by both the Pueblo and the Mescalero Apache Nations...these were simple painted gourds that were lined inside and out with Bees-Wax and touted as water vessels.  
I must have looked at several hundreds of those painted gourds over the years, they were done up nice but I could never afford one....and I would have never trusted one for anything other than an emergency source for water carry, maybe. They looked awful fragile.

But this leather covered gourd is a hoss of a totally different color...still to expensive for my blood, but I do think it just might have made a fair powder horn.

Uncle Russ...

[SAWMA]

My gourd canteen has a rawhide wrap that helps with strength, rawhide is like iron!

[Oldblood]

SAWMA
    If you have the time , would you mind posting more pictures of your gourd canteen?  I had been thinking about one like yours but wasn't sure how to connect the strape.
          Oldblood

[SAWMA]

Oldblood, i sent you a PM.  Thanks!