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Have you still got this, Salty? Jay

If 90% of the reenactors you encounter are farbs, you’re doing the wrong events. Jay

We literally raised him in the museum- he’s been with us since he was 12. It’s gonna take a lot more than a gaggle of school kids or a regularly scheduled musket demo to rattle him! 🤣 Jay

Just finished getting my NC State Historic Sites certification for matchlock firearms. It doesn’t apply in Virginia, but no education is ever wasted, and even after decades of shooting these guns for demonstration and for competition I don’t think for an instant that I know everything there is...

That’s a good price on a great gun- I’ve had mine for almost 20 years and have always been very happy with her. She’s my primary deer hunting gun. Jay

On the markings, check this out: https://www.ancestryguns.com/shop/antique-civil-war-era-ball-williams-ballard-44-caliber-rimfire-carbine-scarce-carbine-likely-used-by-state-militia/ Jay

Well, the sugar killed her… 🤣

Nice to know “gluten free” is good for something! Jay

In colonial times they nearly wiped out the deer. Here in Virginia, the House of Burgesses passed a law in 1635 called “An Act for the Better Management of the Breeds of Deer,” which established specific hunting seasons and restricted hunting methods because they were concerned about the...

For our 15th anniversary, my wife and I got a cannon. It was shipped FedEx in a crate labeled as “Household Goods.” The delivery driver said “that’s really heavy,” and without skipping a beat, my Bride responded “we’re historic reenactors - it’s a lot of cast iron.” Had our 26th a couple of...

For years I have carried my birdshot in my pocket in a pouch I made- the body is buckskin I braintanned, the spout and plug I whittled from a young Albemarle Pippin apple tree the deer broke down in my orchard, and the cord is all linen I hand twisted. Yes, sometimes I go there. 🤣 I made the...

When I carry a bag it’s on a strap over my left shoulder. When I’m up a tree, like this morning, I usually have my flat horn in my left breast pocket, a few balls, several inches of patch cloth and my capper (or spare flint) in the right breast pocket, and my fixed measure on a thong attached a...

This is basically the method we’ve been using at Jamestown for the past couple of years and it works great. Our cord is HempTraders 9mm hemp, as it was far more common than cotton in England in the 1600s. Ours is twisted, not braided, and works fine for match but because it’s twisted backwards...

Historic oakum was pine-tarred hemp fibre, stripped from the worn-out standing rigging of ships, used for caulking decks and hulls. Modern caulking cotton does the same job, but is not the same thing. I suspect it would work great in one of those tube things. Real oakum would go up like a torch. Jay

My Bride and I just finished running the Ladies’ shoot at the 40th annual OVPR fall rendezvous. Running back to the flatlands on account of that dirtiest of four-letter words (w-rk). Back to camp tonight for teardown tomorrow. Didn’t even bother to bring a gun. Still, any rendezvous is better...

But that’s not actually the case. Ships’ biscuit was commonly reconstituted for use in making pies and other dishes at sea at least as far back as the 1570s. We’ve done it for years at the museum. You break it up into powder, add some fat and water, and it makes a dough like pie crust. It’s also...

Back in the day I worked at Fort William Henry for years as the head of the interpretive program. One of the kids who worked for me bought a Cabela’s Blue Ridge flintlock in .45. He didn’t have any powder so he nicked a couple of our musket rounds. Near as I can figure, he fired his first and...

$30 US? I’ll take it! Jay

My preference is for a thin but stiffer leather as seen on any number of original pieces - I make the majority of my pieces from a veg-tanned leather in the 3-6 ounce range and only recently replaced my first one from 1998. Jay

¡Bienvenidos de Virginia en los Estados Unidos! Me llamo Jay y yo trabajan en los museos desde 1991. Ahora yo apprendo Español- lo siento si mis palabras no estan los mejores. Jay