Apache Astonishment in 1854

[dadams94]

Hello fellow Coonskin Cappers,

I came across this very interesting story while researching a buffalo hunting project I’m working on. Seeing that everyone on this forum fully understands that the only rifle that’s worth having only has one opening, and the bullet comes out the same way it went in. (The muzzle) Imagine the totally befuddled Apache Indians that captured a breech loading Sharps rifle way back in an 1854 ambush of U. S. soldiers. This new-fangled breech loading gun wasn’t like anything they ever saw before. Since it opened at both ends, they couldn’t figure out how to use it. So they did the next best thing, made a flute out of the barrel. The article doesn’t state what musical tune the Jicarilla Apaches played on their makeshift instrument, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t “Yankee Doodle!”

 

[Notchy Bob]

Great find!

At that date (1854), it would have almost certainly been a percussion Sharps, loaded from the breech with a paper cartridge but detonated with a percussion cap. I've often wondered if, in a pinch, one of those could have been loaded from the muzzle by simply leaving the breechblock closed. Maybe even loaded with a round ball. Pour the powder down the muzzle, ram down a projectile, then cap the nipple in the sliding breechblock.

There is an old flintlock rifle, which I believe is now in the collections of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which has a Colt Paterson rifle barrel. Apparently, the rifle was captured during the Second Seminole War, but the native man who ended up with it felt a simple, familiar flintlock firing mechanism would be more to his liking, so the barrel was removed from the Paterson, breeched, fitted with a recycled flint lock, and stocked by a Seminole gunsmith.

The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly had a short article a couple of years ago about an "elbow" type smoking pipe made from a trade gun barrel, and I saw a photo of a Missouri war axe that was hafted with a piece of a Harpers Ferry barrel. The native people came up with all sorts of ingenious ways to recycle things.

The rifle barrel flute is a new one to me, though. I've read that Indian people would cut rifle barrels by filing a groove around with a rat-tail file until the groove got deep enough to cut the barrel off. Files were common trade items. But drill bits capable of boring through steel? I don't know. I wonder how he bored the finger holes. Maybe heated the barrel in coals until it was hot enough for the holes to be punched?

Anyway, thanks for posting! You have uncovered some remarkable history in the course of your research.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[tenngun]

I recall the Story of tge death of Standing Bear, a Kiowa leader of the society of tge Ten Bravest. He was captured and being led to trial. He struck out and grabbed a troopers carbine. But apparently didn’t know how to use the gun. He was cut down having only shook the gun in the sky.
It may have been his staking out moment instead of ignorance.

 

[dave951]

Great find!

At that date (1854), it would have almost certainly been a percussion Sharps, loaded from the breech with a paper cartridge but detonated with a percussion cap. I've often wondered if, in a pinch, one of those could have been loaded from the muzzle by simply leaving the breechblock closed. Maybe even loaded with a round ball. Pour the powder down the muzzle, ram down a projectile, then cap the nipple in the sliding breechblock................


Best regards,

Notchy Bob

Sorry but no. The design of the chamber and breech block would make this very difficult if next to impossible. You can, however, load a ball in the breech, throw in some loose powder, close, cap and fire.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Sorry but no. The design of the chamber and breech block would make this very difficult if next to impossible. You can, however, load a ball in the breech, throw in some loose powder, close, cap and fire.

Thanks for that. I have an M1874 C. Sharps in .45-70, but have no experience with the earlier percussion models.

Notchy Bob