How much powder did they shoot?

[Tahquamenon]

How much powder and shooting did our forefathers shoot? Not counting war time periods.

 

[Cherokee]

some not enough

Sorry couldnt resist. I wouldnt mind hearing too.

 

[jaybeach]

Seems like I remember Davey Crockett (Fess Parker in the movie) pourin' some powder down the barrel - then lookin' up at the distance and then pourin' some more in 'cause it was a long shot. Kinda "by guess 'n by golly". I'm pretty sure that they used a powder measure some or most of the time, but I'll bet they did some dumpin' at times, too. :imo:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Somewhere I read that a British soldier (including those in the American Colonies) might be given five rounds for practice in a year.

Militia days for the citizen soldiers were much more of a shooting and drinking event. Much like the National Guard in the 1980's. :crackup:

Meat and turky shoots were very much a community event and skill doesn't come without practice.

A mountain man or longhunter would be pretty conservative with his lead and powder while in hostile territory or away from re-supply.

 

[jim gray]

I can't help thinking that the report of a rifle fired in the Cumberland Gap in the early days of it's exploration could have drawn a lot of unwanted attention (and arrows).

 

[nit wit]

I believe they use to hold a ball in their hand and pour enough powder to cover the ball.

Nit Wit :m2c:

 

[Tahquamenon]

I also agree that folks out in the frontier, where survival was one of the key elements to daily life, did not shoot any more than they had to.
Also I'm sure shooting was restricted for many do to economics.

Wonder what they would say regarding the pounds and pounds of powder that many of us shoot every year and all of the weapons and equipment that we have and have access to??

We sure are fortunate. I feel fortunate.

 

[Darkhorse]

I think they would say "here, take this old Hawken. I want one of those automatic rifles".

After all neccessity is the mother of invention. We shoot and use Muzzleloaders because we want too, and seldom is anyone or bunch of anyones with scalping knives shooting back at us.
It makes walking in the woods with a one shot flintlock a lot less life threatning.

 

[BrownBear]

Talking to my great granpap who lived his life in the Kentucky hill country, at least in the mid- late-1800's you never shot anything you could just as well trap or snare. That was economics rather than scalp preservation, but it would make sense that they did the same when avoiding attention the century before his youth. Talking to my dad and granpap about the depression, you didn't waste even 22 ammo on things like squirrels and rabbits. Snares.

Deer are pretty easy to snare too, so I'm willing to bet that in the good old days powder was used for hide preservation rather than for filling empty bellies. Lots of cagey trappers around, and there wasn't much they couldn't trap while saving noise and powder.

 

[Tahquamenon]

Thanks Brownbear! And trapping. Excellent point! Another thing I forgot
about.
My father and grandfather trapped just about everything for food during the depression. Also fishing.

:hmm: Memory is slipping some I suppose. Guess that daily vitamin is not working!

 

[jaybeach]

Taq - You'd better get some of that Ginko Baloney - or whatever it is. They say it helps the memory. All you have to worry about is remembering to take it :crackup:

 

Or we could quit speculating and guessing and look at the historic record.

The Bledsoe brothers came into the Cumberland Basin and 9 men shot 2600 deer in less than one year!

Casper Mansker shot 14 deer in a 400 yard streach between two creeks in less than an hour.

Phillip Demonbrian's hunters "wiped out" hundreds of buffalo at Bledsoe Lick and left the bones to bleach. One year before the buffalo had been so thick you could walk for a mile on their backs.

In December, 1780, 20 men went up the Cumberland to the mouth of the Caney Fork River and killed 5 bear, 75 buffalo and more than 80 deer.

Being a hunter in the 18th or 19th century was considerably different than being a "broke country boy" in the depression of the 1930s. The depression actually occurred due to the loss of the frontier. There was no place to go and start over, no safty valve.

The frontier hunters seem to have shot the powder when they had it. They started their hunts with plenty of powder and when they ran out they went and got more. The only time I can see that they worried about their noise alerting Indians was when Indian sign was evident or the woods was swarming with them.

If you check the records you will find that snares and makeshift tools have always been the domain of the child hunters in any culture. The children often supply 25% of the protin value in any rural society using their crude devices. During hard times the adults will often fall back on their childhood knowledge to stay alive.

People went to the frontier looking for a better life, not a worse one. Their hardships were usually due to warfare, acts of God, or city bred stupidity.

:m2c:

 

[Tahquamenon]

Those are certainly some fine historical examples.

 

[jaybeach]

OH! I thought the question was, "How much powder did they shoot (in each load)?" Not, "How much powder did they shoot (in a given period of time)?" Sounds like they had a lot to shoot when they needed it, doesn't it? :hmm:

 

[Tahquamenon]

My bad for not being more specific.
My thoughts were how much (often) did folks of the past shoot as compared to folks today? Many folks today shoot several to dozens of pounds of powder each year.

I was curious as to what forum folks thought the differences might be. Sure, contract and for hire hunters did a huge amount of shooting.

I was more curious about the average person, not the "buffalo & deer slayers". I knew those folks shot a bunch.