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Author Topic: Frontier Rifle Care  (Read 1563 times)

Offline 1Poet

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Frontier Rifle Care
« on: June 04, 2014, 10:59:33 PM »
This may have been covered in some way in the past, but I couldn't find anything on the forum.  Basically, I wonder how the early longrifle hunters and even the smoothbore homesteader, cleaned their flinters when not at home?  I've heard a lot of ideas, but if some of you "ol' flinters" can shed some light on this for this historical newbie, I think there are more than a few of us who might be better equipped to answer questions from those who watch us shoot. Do that make sense?  Also, how much, and what do you carry in your possibles bag when you are going hunting for the day and maybe overnight?
   Lloyd

Offline greyhunter

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2014, 06:33:09 AM »
Great question! Have wondered the same. Bear grease played a big part in shooting and maintaining early rifles and shotguns. As to how they cleaned them? I have read tow swabbing  with water using a ram rod worm. What's in my possibles bag? Too much! When hunting, flash pan tools, spare flints, leather strip for flint, patches, ball, jags, antler ram rod puller, high hopes.  :)
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Offline the Black Spot

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2014, 07:51:31 AM »
What greyhunter said.

In my bag: inside upper pocket-small bag of rb, tin of greased patching, small wad of cleaning patches. Main compartment-cleaning jag, ball puller, patch worm, forged turn screw, vent pick, pan brush, small tin of 50/50 beeswax/olive oil, small rolls of linen strips, small bag of flints, and a reproduction of a late 1700's compass

Offline 1Poet

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2014, 08:12:13 AM »
Greyhunter,
   What does an antler ram rod puller look like?

Offline Stormrider51

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2014, 11:42:55 AM »
I'm hoping Mario will chime in here.  He knows more about the historical aspects of this hobby than anyone I know.  The answers may vary depending on the time period and the situation the hunter was in at the time.  My suspicion is that working guns weren't cleaned all that often, at least not to the degree we modern shooters do.  I base that mostly on logic rather than any written record I have seen though.  Here's the points I base my ideas on.

Guns weren't fired all that often.  Powder and lead were valuable commodities and not to be wasted.  For a Longhunter in the wilderness, firing a shot could reveal his presence and location to unfriendly ears.  If a shot was fired the shooter needed to reload as soon as possible.  I'm guessing the gun got a quick wiping, if that, before being reloaded.

My second point is based on known historical fact.  Rifle barrels were "freshened".  I've had rifles that I know for a fact had fired thousands of shots per year for several years and yet I never managed to wear the rifling out.  But I have seen barrels that had rusted to a point that the only answer was to bore it out and re-cut the rifling.  I think the old rifles were "freshened" thanks to rust, not shooting.

As for what I carry in my bag, the answer is "nothing I don't need".  Here's two photos of what is ready to go with me.  There's even less to carry since I started shooting a smoothbore.  The same thin flannel patches work for wiping and to surround the ball.  Patch knife on bag strap.  Powder horn.  A number of balls will vary depending on what I'll be doing.  Vent pick.  Priming.  Powder measure made from antler to hold 75 gr FFg.  Combination musket tool.  Spare flints.  Not shown is a small metal whiskey flask that contains a 7:1 mix of water/Ballistol for wiping the bore.  For an overnight trip I'd add in a flint and steel fire starting kit.

Storm
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Offline greyhunter

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2014, 12:32:22 PM »
I make an antler ram rod puller from a chunky 8-9 in antler by drilling a hole near the center, slightly larger than my ramrod diameter. When you put too large a patch down the barrel and need a gripper to pull on the ram rod, slip it in the hole of your antler tool, cock it sideways a little, and you have a grip now on your ram rod as tight as vise grips. Have made many for my pals at  shoots who oversize cleaning patch and stick their ramrods.  :shake  As Turner Kirkland of DGW used to say, "there is no charge for this idea."
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Offline 1Poet

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2014, 12:34:57 PM »
Thanks, Greyhunter! I can afford that! :hairy

Offline the Black Spot

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2014, 07:50:42 PM »
Dont forget that when a gun was fired and reloaded, the lube patch took a lot of fowling down the barrel to the powder.

Offline mario

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2014, 08:04:29 PM »
I'll preface this by saying that I am almost exclusively an 18th century guy and I presently only shoot a smoothbore. But I do have a rifle in my future.


Quote from: "1Poet"
This may have been covered in some way in the past, but I couldn't find anything on the forum.  Basically, I wonder how the early longrifle hunters and even the smoothbore homesteader, cleaned their flinters when not at home?  

The same way they did when they WERE at home.  8)

Using a tow worm (looks like a wire hangar bent into a tornado shape).  Tow worms were available throughout the colonies from stores and from Indian traders.


The larger end was turned onto the end of the wood ramrod. The smaller end had a wad of tow (the leftover fibers from the linen-making process. Looks like really fine straw.) twisted into it.

Flush your barrel with warm water and run this wad of fiber up and down the barrel a few times. Flush again. Repeat as needed. May have to replace the wad of tow. It's easier with a smoothbore as you don't have all the grooves to hold fouling, but the whole process may take 15 minutes.

Soldiers and those others with metal ramrods had a worm that had a female threaded base to fit on the male threaded end on the ramrod.


Quote from: "1Poet"
 Also, how much, and what do you carry in your possibles bag when you are going hunting for the day and maybe overnight?

Well, I don't have a possibles bag, but I do have a few shot pouches/shot bags.

In my main one, I have a small pouch of #6 shot, about 25 .600" balls, some tow for wadding and cleaning, a tow worm, small rag (like 3"x3") and a few flints. That's it for a day, night or week. Anything else I need is carried somewhere else.

Shot pouches of the 18th century were mighty small. The earlier known ones (none can be definitively dated to the 18th century, but there are some good candidates) are 7"x7" or so, single pocket. Not a whole lot of room there.

-------------------------------------------------------------

As for soldiers:

"It should be insisted on, that a soldier at all times keeps his arms in such a state of perfection, as never to be ashamed to shew [show] them- by having the inside of the lock well oiled, the outside of it (even to the smallest screw-pin) with the barrel, brasses and bayonet, not only clean and bright, but highly polished."

Capt. Bennett Cuthbertson- A System for the Compleat Interior Management and Economy of a Battallion of Infantry, 1776


"...taking [the barrel] out of the stock and putting the breech in water, leaving the touch-hole open; then with an iron ramrod and worm, with a piece of toe [tow] or rag, draw up and down the barrel till it becomes quite clean; when dry, rub it with another piece of rag, and the outside of the barrel with buff leather [to polish]."

Thomas Simes, A Military Medley, 1768

Soldiers in the British Army were issued "sweet oil" aka., olive oil and brick dust to polish the steel on their muskets.

------------------------------------------
While some guns were freshed out due to rust, I think most were simply worn down. Gun barrels were not made of the same steels they are today and were much softer, metallurgically speaking.

And to that some rifles that were bored out smooth simply because it was more practical at the time.

Rifles were quite expensive at the time. Up to 6 months wages in some cases. Something that expensive and that meant the difference between eating or not eating, killing an enemy or being killed, IMHO was taken care of. Used to death, maybe, but taken care of.


Mario

Offline mario

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2014, 08:08:18 PM »
FYI- Ramrod pullers are/were unneeded. Since the cleaning jag is a modern invention, no stuck patches!

And they loaded their rifles with a looser patch/ball combo than we do today. So if you need to pull a ball, it would be much easier. Unloading a smoothbore was/is REALLY easy because there was no patch. Use the worm to pull the wad(s) and just dump the ball & powder out.

Mario

Offline RobD

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2014, 09:12:48 AM »
well into the wooded wilderness, having any manner of water where and when ya need it (hot, warm or cold) to clean out a tube might not be all that handy.  perhaps urine was used to make do.  the rest of the cleaning regimens are fairly well documented ... and varied.

after many years of going afield with a flintlock, one hopes to learn what to bring and what not.  everything i need is in or about my possibles purse.  lately i prefer my .45 rifle, using 3f for both the tube and pan and carried in me horn and attached is a drilled out cow horn tip for measuring the powder charge ... the outside of the bag has a sheath for the patch knife, leather holders for a ball starter and vent hole picks, and a pan brush ... inside the bag is a ball bag with a wad of patch cloth to keep the orbs in place, a flint wallet, cock "key", 6:1 water:ballistol dry lube patch strips, dry cleaning patches, moose milk in a flip top bottle, ball screw, extra cloth for patching and cleaning, hand sanitizer and band aids.  i made the bag, patch knife, sheaths, knapped the flints, cast the balls, etc.  half the fun is getting "involved" in yer kit.  8)






Offline prairie dog

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2014, 03:18:32 PM »
Not entirely historically correct but this is what the shooting bag for my smooth bore contains.
 

Every thing I need to load the gun with ball or shot for a day of hunting or a smooth bore match at a rendezvous.

Pan primer, vent pick and brush, short starter, balls and patching, frizen stall, small leather bag containing cleaning jag, ball puller, & flint tool, turn screw, flint wallet with extra flints and leathers, sliver tobacco box to hold the lubed wads, over powder cards and over shot cards.

The patch knife, powder horn with brass measure, and shot snake with measure are worn on my person.

A possible bag is a separate bag.  It carries items not related to loading the gun. (Lunch, dry socks, or anything else I might "possibly" need.)  The correct name for possibles bag is "haversack".
Steve Sells

Offline mario

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2014, 12:59:33 AM »
Quote from: "prairie dog"
The correct name for possibles bag is "haversack".

I beg to differ. A haversack was a bag of stout material (linen early on, then cotton in later years) used by soldiers to carry issued rations.

"Possibles bag" is SUPPOSED to be a mountain man term for a catch-all bag, but I have yet to see any documentation on the matter.


Mario

Offline RobD

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2014, 05:41:02 AM »
Quote from: "mario"
Quote from: "prairie dog"
The correct name for possibles bag is "haversack".

I beg to differ. A haversack was a bag of stout material (linen early on, then cotton in later years) used by soldiers to carry issued rations.

"Possibles bag" is SUPPOSED to be a mountain man term for a catch-all bag, but I have yet to see any documentation on the matter.


Mario

+1 :wave

Offline prairie dog

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Re: Frontier Rifle Care
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2014, 08:44:06 PM »
Well, I learn something every day.  Now I gotta go do some more study on the situation :) .
Steve Sells