Loading block for roundballs

[Elnathan]

i thought there was a documented case of a bullet board dated to 1757? seems like it was in a 600 piece collection from the revolutionary war era.
anyone know of this? thanks in advance.

The jury is still out on that one. Furthermore, they aren't mentioned in period sources, which wouldn't be a big deal given the characteristic lack of information on such things except that there are multible references of people carrying rifle balls in their mouth (and at least in one case between their fingers) when expecting to fire rapidly. Balls with the patches sewn on are also documentable. In sum, there are at least three known methods of carrying balls ready for firing quickly used in the 18th and early 19th century, but bullet blocks aren't one of them. Not conclusive, but suggestive, at least to my mind...

 

[qcpidoc]

The topic of loading blocks has been a discussion for years on both the frontier folks and historic trekking forums (check both of their archives) without anyone being able to come up with a period (pre-1800) reference to them or a documented loading block pre-1800, it's even hard to prove any from the early 19th century. Short starters and loading blocks don't seem to appear mostly till the late 1800's and really popular with the resurgence of muzzleloading in the 20th century along with priming horns.

That said, if you like them and want to use them, you should and enjoy. They can be real handy.