Rifles and humidity

[oldwood]

Iron Jim.....My source material for the historical program I give is from many places. The only material that's computer researchable is about the Moravian Brotherhood. The material about Pennsylvania's Quaker government mostly comes from a book about Conrad Weiser's life as the liaison between the Penn family and the Iroquois Indian nation. Mentioned in a number of sources is the fact that due to the Penn family's Quaker belief in nonviolence , it took many years of suffering at the hands of angry , displaced Indian raiders for the Penn,s Quaker government to move a few Colonial mandated militia troops from the outskirts of Philadelphia to the edge of the frontier in the Susquehanna River valley. Classic case of Indian depredation is the Wyoming Valley massacre. No matter what the other colonial govts. mandated about militia service , the Quaker Penns decided to drag their feet until things got very messy on the frontier after about 1740. Early on , the govt. of Virginia was very much out in front with standing Colonial Virginia militia units being sent west to begin forcing the French out of the Ohio River Valley. George Washington's records cover these actions in detail in the early 1750's. Back to rifles on the Pa. frontier...The number of rifles in the frontier didn't increase over night. There was a time of "transition" between European design rifles and the classic longrifle we know best. A classic well known "transition" rifle is the "Indian Walk Rifle" of I think 1738 or 1748. (can't remember date) . It has a shorter European barrel length , an early larger caliber , and robust stock w/sliding wood patch box. Half Central European , half American longrifle. Doubt there were many of those on the frontier at the time. .....................Hope this helps. I'm old and my memory can't store dates well..............oldwood

 

[toot]

here in the NORTH EAST, it humidity, raise's cane with BP, weapons.

 

[tenngun]

I grew up in New Mexico where I first started shooting. Was in California in the navy and shot there with some nice clubs. Went to Wyoming after getting out of the navy. Then moved to the Ozarks.
Ozark is an old Indian word meaning ‘to thin to swim, to hot to walk’
I was surprised how humidity effected powder. From swabbing once every twenty shots I had to swab every five, now I swab every shot. Just easier that way.
I wonder how much style has effected this. Although it was Germans who were making the rifles early on it was English, Dutch buying them while in the south there were a lot of Celts and French.
If there was a marked preference for smoothbores in the south was it style?
Many Celts and French Hugonaughts came to America already familiar with arms.
Today people will stand in line for some days to get the latest cell phone. Back then people were a little leery about new.
And some cultures more conservative then others.
In spite of the advantages of rifles Canada and French/American areas remained smoothbore country.
Manual Lisa, who was wealthy enough to have the best rifle in a place where he could have got a rifle easily, carried a officers style ‘Brown Bess type fusil.