Deer skin patches

[smoothshooter]

I have used it.
Mixed results. Gets slimy after a few days with some lubricants, and sometimes recovered patches are shredded.
More experimentation needed.

 

[smoothshooter]

I would guess that .40 caliber balls were often fired in .43 or 45 caliber guns with thick leather patching, for example.
For hunting, their guns did not have to shoot like match rifles, just good enough to get the job done.
Most did not have the money, equipment, or eyesight to spend a lot of time experimenting and practicing like we do today to come up with the best results.

A gun that shoots 8" groups at 50 yards will still kill a lot of game.

 

[smoothshooter]

I have no doubt that at least some of the old accounts were exaggerated; some just to demoralise the British military.

 

[cynthialee]

I have no doubt that propaganda was used. I also have no doubt that some of the men of that period were on par with many of the expert shooters we see today.

Marksmanship was a big deal to allot of men before the days of anti gun hysteria. It is a sporting tradition in this country that goes way back.

Now in a formation of men shooting volleys of fire...sure there was (is) no need for expert marksmanship for the average Joe. Now the sniper shooting from a concealed position has always strived for perfect marksmanship.
So it is HC/PC to wring as much accuracy from your firearm as possible as there were men that strived for shooting perfection as far back as when rifles were first used.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Here's' something to think about.....

Residual tanning agents in the leather can cause steel to rust, so I would be hesitant to leave the gun loaded for any length of time if I was using leather patches....

 

[tenngun]

Accuracy, met something different back then then today. In 1775 one Virginia backwoods man left easterner showed off by shooting eight shots through a five inch by seven inch target at sixty yards, that won't win at Friendship. A eighteen inch group at two hundred yards removes an enemy from the battle field. A twelve inch group at a hundred puts deer on the table.

 

[George]

Accuracy, met something different back then then today.

And just like today, accuracy meant different things to different people back in the day. Here's what pleased one man.

Running Mad for Kentucky, Eislinger

Journal of John May, Saturday, May 17, 1788
"This afternoon I proved my [new] rifle gun----fir’d her 4 times and made excellent shot. 3 times out of 4 I put the ball within 2 inches of the spot which was the bigness of a dollar”¦."

Spence

 

[Artificer]

Does it say at what range he fired the new rifled gun?

Gus

 

[George]

No details, that's the whole item.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

Accuracy, met something different back then then today.

And just like today, accuracy meant different things to different people back in the day. Here's what pleased one man.

Running Mad for Kentucky, Eislinger

Journal of John May, Saturday, May 17, 1788
"This afternoon I proved my [new] rifle gun----fir’d her 4 times and made excellent shot. 3 times out of 4 I put the ball within 2 inches of the spot which was the bigness of a dollar”¦."

Spence

Nice quote but did he use leather patches? or is it a smoothbore vs. rifled comparison?

 

[George]

Neither, as you well know. It was an example for Cynthialee of someone who wasn't obsessive about accuracy in the 18th century.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

I do now!....Thank you for the clarification.

 

[Artificer]

No details, that's the whole item.

Spence

Shucks. I'm sure the author knew what he meant and was impressed enough to write about it, but it does not do us a whole lot of good without knowing at least the range. We also don't know if it meant a group size of just under four inches or if his group was tighter, but just two inches from the dollar coin size target.

OR the group the rifle shot was within 2 inches of hitting a Spanish Milled Dollar and could have been a tight group except for one "flyer." It was and remains impressive to this day when a new rifle actually shoots close to an aiming point.

Anyway, thanks for the quote!

Gus

 

[Artificer]

P.S. to my post above. In 1788, the author could well have been referring to a paper dollar instead of a Spanish Milled Dollar and if so, that could have meant an even larger group size.

Gus

 

[nkbj]

Wonder what kind of patches Jack Hinson used... http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/

 

[smoothshooter]

I was not saying that no-one experimented and practiced a lot, just that those activities would have been much less common than now.

 

[smoothshooter]

Yes, but at what distance, and how big was a dollar in those days, and was it a paper dollar or coin?

 

[nkbj]

That link has the only photo I know of that shows the rifling pattern in Hinson's custom made to his order long range round ball rifle. Gonna copy that and keep it for reference. Too bad it doesn't give the twist. If anyone does know of a reference for what he used for patches please speak up. I gave the book to my brother and will ask him if it said anything.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I was not saying that no-one experimented and practiced a lot, just that those activities would have been much less common than now.

I think I'm going to disagree with that assertion...
I think people did as much if not more practicing....The difference being that today we do it more for entertainment.
I also think that they did far more experimenting back then than we do today...This is evident by the history and development of firearms.

 

[tenngun]

Well there would have been no reason to adopt rifles if people were not trying to 'aim small hit small' back then. An employee of HBC pointed out that most game is taken in smooth bore ranges of sixty yards or less, saying at such range a fusil shot as well as a rifle. My first book on ml that I got back in the 70s had a story about a fellow that hunted with original besses, and having took all manner of North American game with it. Canadian Indians were still shooting fusil a long after they could get more modern arms, well into the 1930s.
Games of shooting the x, or King George's nose was common. On the other hand few people had corrected vision. There is no practical difference between a 12 inch group at a hundred yards and a two inch. A four inch bull is the edge of most people's eyesight with 20/20 vision. Half the people in the world don't have 20/20 vision. It seems eyesight wasn't any better then.
" the Candian or Indian reaches for a fusil, the American for his rifle' things that make you go hmmmm.