• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Historical Coach Gun Loads

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Walkabout

40 Cal
Joined
Apr 12, 2022
Messages
404
Reaction score
321
How were coach guns of the mid 19th century loaded? What types of wads, charges, and ammo was typically used in these guns? Thanks
 
Just exactly what is a coach gun? Blunderbuss, double barrel fowler, regular fowler, a brace of pistols?
Something like this. original_ec8faec8-6b34-451f-b511-a6163a394f1d_20240314_161622~2.jpg
 
The correct answer is whatever they had to fit down the barrel. But historically it was buckshot type shot. Was what I read in the past was they used pre-rolled undersized paper cartridges rip one end, dump powder, rest goes in on top of it shove down and the rolled paper holds shot in place - prime and fire. The author stated it was close range firefights with a moving coach being guarded from horse mounted outlaws. It was not so much about accuracy as most shots were close it was about rate of fire, and getting a quick spread with lead to make up for accuracy. This was why many coach guns had shorter or cutoff barrels. They were easier to faster to load on the move, easier and faster to shoot, and shot spread quicker. Hope this helps. If I run across the book I'll share details with ya. But I been out of the cowboy shooting stuff for a while now.
 
Last edited:
Not a coach gun but ive had a lot of fun blowing stuff up with my 10ga. with 15 #1 buck and 80gr 2f.
 
While I won’t be cutting down my Pedersoli Classic 12 gauge (she’s a lovely, old, wispy thing, and light as a feather) I will some day own a 10 gauge and carefully cut the barrels down for a percussion street sweeper. I’ll wait for a beat up copy.
 
Back
Top