Post by: Muley on December 24, 2015, 01:03:32 PM
Cut at muzzle with prelubed cloth, or lubed during loading?
Loading boards?
Precut patches either prelubed, or lubed at loading?
Any of the above, but spit patched?
Post by: Muley on December 25, 2015, 12:09:37 PM
Post by: ridjrunr on December 25, 2015, 09:40:53 PM
To yer question though, I think there were as many methods as there were trappers,much like today. Everyone has there favorite method on how they like to load. And really even my own methods change ,always trying for a simplified method that doesnt sacrafice accuracy.
Some things I hear of seam gimiky and I dont go there but others swear by them ( daisy patches) as an example. My current method of loading my Pedersoli is deadly accurate and consistant so I wont mess with it. But I do work towards attaining same with all my long guns no matter how long it takes. Thats part of the fun!
My .36 half stock flint is on deck! Got skwerls to get!
Post by: Muley on December 25, 2015, 11:26:33 PM
Go get them skwerls.
Post by: ridjrunr on December 25, 2015, 11:32:51 PM
I think of that often and slowly am going in that direction.
Post by: Muley on December 25, 2015, 11:56:14 PM
Post by: ridjrunr on December 26, 2015, 12:09:13 AM
http://rockymtncollege.proboards.com/th ... ding-block (http://rockymtncollege.proboards.com/thread/141/loading-block)
Great site
Post by: Muley on December 26, 2015, 09:42:59 AM
My persona is a hunter. That's what I am now, and I would have been back then if I lived then. I'm thinking as a young hunter for a brigade during the fur trade era, and later as a hunter supplying meat for a fort. Then later for myself and family, but always as a hunter. Let's say from 1830-1860. The JBMR I just bought fits in with owning a plains rifle. I'll carry a ball board, horn, fixed antler powder measure, belt pouch, knife, and possible bag. Dress will be buckskin and cloth. Capote when cold. I'll use pillow ticking cut at the ball board, and lubed with bear tallow. Green River will be my knives for skinning and butchering.
My style of hunting will be as it has been all my life. I'll still hunt the timber, and timber edges with no modern gadgets. Meaning no binos, GPS, Goggle Earth, etc. Just my own skills against the natural instincts of the game.
(http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/firearms/nosworthy-002.jpg)
Post by: ridjrunr on December 26, 2015, 02:31:33 PM
curious about the jbmr,have you shot it much yet?
Post by: Muley on December 26, 2015, 02:38:03 PM
I need to order some Goex, and other stuff for it. Might be a little while before I shoot it. Definitely a stout gun, and no lightweight, but I like it already. Single set trigger is nice, but pulling the hammer back is a workout in itself. No weak main spring on this gun.
Post by: ridjrunr on December 26, 2015, 09:23:03 PM
Post by: Muley on December 26, 2015, 09:26:52 PM
Post by: Muley on December 26, 2015, 09:53:16 PM
Post by: ridjrunr on December 26, 2015, 10:12:33 PM
Post by: Muley on December 26, 2015, 10:19:31 PM
I'll shoulder it a few thousand times, and she'll feel light as a feather.
Post by: cb on December 27, 2015, 01:55:53 PM
"Barking off squirrels is delightful sport, and, in my opinion, requires a greater degree of accuracy than any other. I first witnessed this manner of procuring squirrels whilst near the town of Frankfort. The performer was the celebrated Daniel Boone. We walked out together, and followed the rocky margins of the Kentucky River, until we reached a piece of flat land thickly covered with black walnuts, oaks, and hickories. As the general mast was a good one that year, squirrels were seen gamboling on every tree around us. My companion, a stout, hale, and athletic man, dressed in a homespun hunting-shirt, bare-legged and moccasined, carried a long and heavy rifle, which, as he was loading it, he said had proved efficient in all his former undertakings, and which he hoped would not fail on this occasion, as he felt proud to show me his skill. The gun was wiped, the powder measured, the ball patched with six-hundred-thread linen, and the charge sent home with a hickory rod. We moved not a step from the place, for the squirrels were so numerous that it was unnecessary to go after them. Boone pointed to one of these animals which had observed us, and was crouched on a branch about fifty paces distant, and bade me mark well the spot where the ball should hit. He raised his piece gradually, until the bead (that being the name given by the Kentuckians to the sight) of the barrel was brought to a line with the spot which he intended to hit. The whip-like report resounded through the woods and along the hills in repeated echoes. Judge of my surprise, when I perceived that the ball had hit the piece of the bark immediately beneath the squirrel, and shivered it into splinters, the concussion produced by which had killed the animal, and sent it whirling through the air, as if it had been blown up by the explosion of a powder magazine. Boone kept up his firing, and before many hours had elapsed, we had procured as many squirrels as we wished ..."
As related by J.J. Audubon, from Life & Times of Col. Daniel Boone by Cecil B. Harley
The original account in the Audubon journals (Vol. 2, page 460 of 1972 reprint) is the same as above but adds this at the end:
"...for you must know, kind reader, that to load a rifle requires only a moment, and that if it is wiped once after each shot, it will do duty for hours. Since that first interview with our veteran Boone I have seen many other individuals perform the same feat."
On page 492 is the mention of using the feather. Audubon watches his host prepare for a night of raccoon hunting:
"… 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: Muley on December 27, 2015, 02:17:23 PM
Thanks.
Post by: cb on December 27, 2015, 02:42:56 PM
Post by: Muley on December 27, 2015, 03:31:22 PM