Well there is a lot of old information there...,
There were no established "season" for hide hunting. Some "long hunts" lasted a full year. There were times when the hides were thinner, but to suggest a season "closed" is to suggest there was some sort of agreement or law enforcement on hide hunting. See Sons of a Trackless Forest, by Mark Baker
How odd then that the Native Nations established what we call the Ohio Valley as Can-Tu-Kee, a massive game preserve, before whites made contact, and it was this area where the long hunters trespassed for hide hunting. There was no settlements there by Natives except on the Western border, which was the Mississippi River.
Actually a rifled gun ran between ₤6-₤7 on the Illinois frontier in 1768, with a used rifle costing ₤3, and a "French gun" aka a fusil costing 32 shillings (₤1/12/_). (Baker) Monthly base wage for contract hunter was normally ₤4 per month, so the rifle was about 6-weeks' wages. Two month's wages would put a hunter not only into a rifle but also all the gear needed to use it and to maintain it. Common laborers were paid about half that of a hunter, so that would only be three months wages, and of course a fusil (smooth bore trade gun) was less than a month's wages, but smooth bores were a lot more expensive to shoot.
In addition, it was the colony that decided what the militia requirements were, not The Crown. Which is why Virginia's system was a mess with many men claiming to have no gun, while Maryland operated its own arsenal(s), and Pennsylvania had no militia law, and had to rely on volunteers. The men of Virginia were well armed, but admitting that meant they were subject to "call up" and 90-days service. PLUS the cost of the powder and ammo IF they got into a fight. So claiming not having gun ownership (and there was no penalty for decades for such a claim) would at least have caused The Commonwealth of VA to pay for the gun and the ammo. Maryland had high fines for those ill equipped, and would often issue a musket, cartridge box, and bayonet.
Actually as the rifles and the riflemen were excellent shots documented out to several hundred yards, their hunting was normally done at less than 100 yards. Over the years the details of the shooting prowess has been muddled. I know if the famous documented shooting contest for VA riflemen which was to hit a "nose" drawn with charcoal forming the outline of a man's head, as a target at 200 paces, which is about 160 yards. Still an amazing feat, especially as some claim it was shot "offhand".
As for actually hunting deer, or regularly shooting past 160 yards, likely not something they often did, and it was often luck they scored a hit or a kill at such a distance. The reason we know this is physics. The rifleman is reportedly to have used a load that would "crack" when heard from a short distance by a person standing to the side. We know today this was the bullet going super sonic, 1100 fps. We also know that the extant long rifles from the 18th and pre-ACW portion of the 19th century had what we today call "low sights". Any rifle from .45-.54 that is shooting a round ball at 1200 fps, (giving them 100 fps more than the minimum to break the sound barrier) is going to experience more than a 3-foot impact drop at 200 yards, and twice that at 250 yards. They simply could not see the target if they elevated their sights high enough to compensate for that. Add 50% to the velocity, so with a muzzle velocity of 1800 fps, and the drop is still more than two feet at 200 yards and more than 4 feet at 250 yards. (Assuming a zero sight setting at 100 yards.)
Now it's true, in an open area, at a stationary target of a man sitting atop a horse, a rather large target, riflemen scored some amazing shots, but these were not documented on the first try very often, and some were from elevated positions within trees. I submit the shooters were smart when not elevated, and picked out the top of a tree behind the mounted target as an aiming point. Those elevated in trees knew they didn't need to adjust, which might explain why they went up into the trees in the first place AFTER Gen. George Morgan told them to fire at a specific officer on the British side.
OH and the telescopic sight was invented in 1776 by famous portrait painter Charles Wilson Peale. It included cross hairs, and fine adjustment via the mounting system, but it failed and was not perfected until 1835-1840 by John Chapman and Morgan James. Peale's problem was eye relief, and the rifle recoil caused the scope to give him several black eyes over the several times he tried to make it work.
LD
There were no established "season" for hide hunting. Some "long hunts" lasted a full year. There were times when the hides were thinner, but to suggest a season "closed" is to suggest there was some sort of agreement or law enforcement on hide hunting. See Sons of a Trackless Forest, by Mark Baker
How odd then that the Native Nations established what we call the Ohio Valley as Can-Tu-Kee, a massive game preserve, before whites made contact, and it was this area where the long hunters trespassed for hide hunting. There was no settlements there by Natives except on the Western border, which was the Mississippi River.
Actually a rifled gun ran between ₤6-₤7 on the Illinois frontier in 1768, with a used rifle costing ₤3, and a "French gun" aka a fusil costing 32 shillings (₤1/12/_). (Baker) Monthly base wage for contract hunter was normally ₤4 per month, so the rifle was about 6-weeks' wages. Two month's wages would put a hunter not only into a rifle but also all the gear needed to use it and to maintain it. Common laborers were paid about half that of a hunter, so that would only be three months wages, and of course a fusil (smooth bore trade gun) was less than a month's wages, but smooth bores were a lot more expensive to shoot.
In addition, it was the colony that decided what the militia requirements were, not The Crown. Which is why Virginia's system was a mess with many men claiming to have no gun, while Maryland operated its own arsenal(s), and Pennsylvania had no militia law, and had to rely on volunteers. The men of Virginia were well armed, but admitting that meant they were subject to "call up" and 90-days service. PLUS the cost of the powder and ammo IF they got into a fight. So claiming not having gun ownership (and there was no penalty for decades for such a claim) would at least have caused The Commonwealth of VA to pay for the gun and the ammo. Maryland had high fines for those ill equipped, and would often issue a musket, cartridge box, and bayonet.
Actually as the rifles and the riflemen were excellent shots documented out to several hundred yards, their hunting was normally done at less than 100 yards. Over the years the details of the shooting prowess has been muddled. I know if the famous documented shooting contest for VA riflemen which was to hit a "nose" drawn with charcoal forming the outline of a man's head, as a target at 200 paces, which is about 160 yards. Still an amazing feat, especially as some claim it was shot "offhand".
As for actually hunting deer, or regularly shooting past 160 yards, likely not something they often did, and it was often luck they scored a hit or a kill at such a distance. The reason we know this is physics. The rifleman is reportedly to have used a load that would "crack" when heard from a short distance by a person standing to the side. We know today this was the bullet going super sonic, 1100 fps. We also know that the extant long rifles from the 18th and pre-ACW portion of the 19th century had what we today call "low sights". Any rifle from .45-.54 that is shooting a round ball at 1200 fps, (giving them 100 fps more than the minimum to break the sound barrier) is going to experience more than a 3-foot impact drop at 200 yards, and twice that at 250 yards. They simply could not see the target if they elevated their sights high enough to compensate for that. Add 50% to the velocity, so with a muzzle velocity of 1800 fps, and the drop is still more than two feet at 200 yards and more than 4 feet at 250 yards. (Assuming a zero sight setting at 100 yards.)
Now it's true, in an open area, at a stationary target of a man sitting atop a horse, a rather large target, riflemen scored some amazing shots, but these were not documented on the first try very often, and some were from elevated positions within trees. I submit the shooters were smart when not elevated, and picked out the top of a tree behind the mounted target as an aiming point. Those elevated in trees knew they didn't need to adjust, which might explain why they went up into the trees in the first place AFTER Gen. George Morgan told them to fire at a specific officer on the British side.
OH and the telescopic sight was invented in 1776 by famous portrait painter Charles Wilson Peale. It included cross hairs, and fine adjustment via the mounting system, but it failed and was not perfected until 1835-1840 by John Chapman and Morgan James. Peale's problem was eye relief, and the rifle recoil caused the scope to give him several black eyes over the several times he tried to make it work.
LD
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Most muzzle guns today will outlast us owners!
