powder horn straps

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mgokey

Pilgrim
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
What is the correct method for securing a powder horn. The buckskinning series frequently shows short straps attaching the horn to the shooting bag's strap. Other sources and pictures support this. It seems that pre-revolutionary war the two were hung on seperate straps but then it was common practice after to have the two together. However it seems that with L&C and later, including the work of A.J. Miller describe the two hanging again on seperate straps. What is correct for someone in the PNW during the 1820's & 30's? Comments. Suggestions.
 
Some folks wear their powder horn high to reload on the run. It would be very difficult to use the horn if it was attached high on the bag's straps. This is more a longhunter thing than a mountain man. The mountain man was mostly on horseback and the Indians were often seen from afar in the open west and kept at bay from afar( of course exceptions exist)
In any event, The Plains Rifle by Charles Hanson has a photograph of a bag with the horn on the bag's straps and similar rigs were used in the East. On the other hand the Miller artwork pretty much shows everyone with bags and horns having their own straps.
I have used both set ups. After a while you get tired having the horn attached to the bag, it just seems to get in the way and its a little more bother to fill the horn. Much of this is a matter of personal preference. In any event, for me, I have gone back to a horn on its own strap.
 
I pretty much agree with Doc, but see it more as a personal choice. Horns were carried both ways, & somewhere I read of someone wearing the bullet bag on the righe & the horn on the left. I have used both ways in hunting, & actually prefer the horn on the pouch strap as it seems handier to me. Easier to reposition everything if I have to crawl on my belly, sit down, whatever. (Every try to crawl through the sage w/ all the stuff we carry? Good case for less is better.)
 
I have carried my horn on it's own strap and then changed to attaching it to my bag. I just changed back to having it on it's own strap again. I am also playing around with carrying my bag on the right and my horn on the left. To further complicate things for me I am left handed but right eye dominant which means I shoot right handed and do almost everything else left handed. I may even change so the bag is on the left and the horn on the right. I am experimenting to see what is the most comfortable for me.
 
"The buckskinning series frequently shows short straps attaching the horn to the shooting bag's strap."

Some of those "original" bags had the straps and horns added in the 1950s.
 
So the greater probability was that most carried the horn on a separate strap and only a few had it attached to the bag? I would think that would be more correct since I've never seen anything showing a sale of bag and horn as one item. But, you never know. That's the thing with being PC, things were probably done that were never documented.
 
The 95th Regt of the British Army and other units equiped with rifles carried thier powder horns on a cord that was attached by loops to the shoulder strap of their Cartridge Box.
 
There is another issue as well. There are very few original hunting bags left. A fairly high percentage do have the horns attached to the straps BUT where did these bags come from? They could possibly have been owned by those in fairly civilized areas, explaining why they are still around. In most of the painting of frontiersmen, far fewer bags seem to have horns attached, at least that's the way it appears to me.
 
Back
Top