gun myths

[hanshi]

It's silly to be superstitious. For instance, I'm not superstitious because it's bad, bad luck. :shocked2:

 

[Zonie]

In the early days of muzzleloading it was believed that being shot with a triangular shaped bullet would curse the dead mans spirit to Hell.
They were quite popular in wars against the Islamic people.

Round balls were associated with heavenly objects so were thought to be Godly.

The spin due to rifling caused the spherical balls to fly true. The demons couldn't keep their grip on the spinning orb.

 

[Poor Private]

never shoot a deadmans gun

In that regards we shouldn't fire original guns or rifles since they are all dead :haha:

 

[smo]

Come on, you people, that's all a bunch of superstitious nonsense. Why mess up a perfectly good gun? All you have to do is carry a buckeye in your shot pouch to ward off all sorts of hexes, guarantee success in the hunt and protect you from any and all evil influences. Like this one I have carried for many years, and I can testify personally that it works.


[url]
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/ac20/Spence_2010/occasional/Bag1copy_zps5b3c0805.jpg[/url]

Guaranteed to curl your hair, sweeten your breath and make childbirth a pleasure. Try it, what do you have to lose? :haha:

Spence

I got one I carry in my pocket it ain't help my shootin' none. :idunno: I have several on ground here on the farm here so I hope it will continue to ward of the evil spirits. :thumbsup:

 

[George T.]

Well considering that I inherited all of my Grand Fathers guns It may explain the way I shoot! I do enjoy shooting them though. I do not shoot all that much better with the guns that I bought though! Geo. T.

 

[Richard J.]

This topic really made me smile. A long time ago I knew an old man that carried a sack while hunting. When he would find a place to set for awhile he scattered all kind of junk ( to me ) on the ground. Made some fancy signs to ward off evil spirits then he would proceed to hunt. One time I kicked out a buck to him, which he shot. He them proceeded to drag out more stuff to put on the deer and went thru a ritual to bless the deer. Thought it was pretty cool. He seemed to always kill a nice buck to. Enjoyed meeting him for many years till he finally passed away.

 

[Carl Fowler III]

You happen to get any of that old guys lucky charms....what worked for him would help you too! This thread is a bunch of hooey...if you hunt hard,learn from mistakes,practice shoot'n often and keep the wind in your face...success will follow! Of course it dosen't hurt if you have your lucky knife with you that has been blooded by a previous kill! :rotf:

 

[George]

Would a horse chestnut work?

Probably, and maybe even more powerfully. I've read that the same belief in the magic power was held by people in northern Europe early on, but for the horse chestnut, a close relative of the buckeye, and that the belief might have been transferred to the buckeye by immigrants.

Spence

 

[mooman76]

A lot of original guns had stars or other marks applied to the muzzle of the barrel around the bore. I have heard them called "Hex" marks. I don't know if they do any good or not but I put them on some of my guns as well.

I had a buddy build a gun up for me. He inlet a Fish and a Hunters Star on the stock. When I asked about them he told me that the Fish was for good luck and the Hunter's Star was to keep me from getting lost.

Many Klatch

I picked up an old squirrel rifle and it has 8 dots punched in the muzzle around the bore. It shoot surprisingly well still.

 

[kjmillig]

I was born in Ohio and my granddad always called me Buckeye. Does that count? I also have a couple of them laying around somewhere that my dad gave me many years ago. Hard to find in Texas.

 

[Rifleman1776]

It's silly to be superstitious. For instance, I'm not superstitious because it's bad, bad luck. :shocked2:

:thumbsup:

 

[Rifleman1776]

For those interested in this subject, I really encourage reading the book on Ozark myths and legends by Vance Randolph.
I'll tell a true story I experienced. It was inspired by my reading the book and the fact I live right where Randolph lived and had his experiences. Unfortunately, the story does not end the way I had wished.
I have a friend who lives in what we call 'the forest' in my county. It is now a national forest but has long been the place of intrigue, legend, and not just a little law breaking. He is definitely an Ozarks original, his family settled in the area many generations ago.
Reading Randolphs book, he mentions that, in the Ozarks, practioners of the local witchcraft were usually men. Known as 'male witches', they could perform many services, some for healing others for hexing or de-hexing. One of the services they could perform would be to permanently protect a new rifle from being hexed. They did this by writing some secret symbols and/or words on a piece of paper that would be inserted into a hole drilled in the butt stock. The butt plate would be mounted over the hole and the rifle would be protected.
Planning on having a rifle built, I approached my friend and asked if he could introduce me to a male witch to get this service. Now, Ozark witchraft is reportedly still practiced but seldom talked about. When I asked this, my friend stopped talking and would not even acknowledge I had asked the question. Outsiders are not welcome into this world. Sad for me because this is a part of local customs and culture I would like to experience. I am not superstitious but do respect that others are. I wanted this 'service' only as part of my personal experience to preserve a bit of local history and culture. But, it is not to be. And to this day I have never met a male witch. At least as far as I know.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

A lot of original guns had stars or other marks applied to the muzzle of the barrel around the bore. I have heard them called "Hex" marks. I don't know if they do any good or not but I put them on some of my guns as well.

Well that is interesting. Three years ago I bought a 36 caliber rifle, for a song, with a Golcher back action lock on it.

It has a mixture of brass and nickel silver furniture on it, home made stampings on the furniture, and a wedding ring at the muzzle. I just rechecked it and it also has the hex marks on the muzzle.

How fun!

 

[hoochiepapa]

I had a friend that did the same thing-he would drag small skulls, bones, crystals, and some unidentifiable things out of his bag when we set up for elk. He never talked about it.
He had spent time with the Tiger division of the South Korean army in VN, saw much bloodshed and atrocities, and eventually killed himself.

 

[tenngun]

my longest gun has a 42 inch barrel.Thats much shorter then guns of the old days that often had 60 inch barrles and more. They made them long so when they traded to Indians(First People)they made the Indians pile furs as high as the gun.Those poor Indians didn't know they were being riped off....Whats your favorite modren gun myth? :grin:

 

[necchi]

Quite the opposite,
The poor white man didn't know he was getting ripped off becasue he was trading a rifle for just a pile of fur skins.

 

[MSW]

perhaps the goodiest one i've heard was that the flintlock is so slow that if you see the flash of the pan, you can just step to the side and the ball will pass harmlessly beside you.

i allowed as how i really didn't want to have anything to do with the test of that theory.

:youcrazy:

 

[pargent]

Though it would make good viewing watching the experts prove that one,as a side line it would strengthen Darwin's :rotf:

 

[Horseless Trooper]

I don't know about warding off evil spirits but my grandfather would throw his muzzle loader barrels in the fast moving stream behind his house and leave them overnight after shooting. Said it did most of the cleaning for him. Maybe he was killing two birds with one stone.

 

[Captjoel]

My Granddad, when he was just a boy became a gun builder on a count a finding gun barrels just laying around in the creek he used to fish in. He thought that God had given him a sign! :hmm: