Spanish Moss Wad Materiel

[John Hurt]

Anyone using this as a wad materiel

 

[tenngun]

Not a lot here but I’ve picked some and only ran a few shots. Worked like tow

 

[hanshi]

Good way to kill chiggers, too.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I have used it. As @tenngun said, you can expect results a lot like using tow.

Bear in mind, "green" or living Spanish moss, with the gray, velvety pulp on it, does not really burn. On a fire, it just sort of smolders and smokes. The dead Spanish moss, or "black moss," is made up of the black fibers that are left when the gray pulpy stuff rots off. This black moss burns very well, and in fact, I use it for tinder with my strike-a-light. It works great. The point being that if there is any risk of starting a wildfire, the live Spanish moss, with the pulp intact, may be a better choice.

The Bevel Brothers write a column in Muzzle Blasts magazine every month in which they compare or evaluate various shooting products and practices. Earlier this year, they did a comparison of shooting shot in a muzzleloading smoothbore using commercial or punched wads with natural materials such as tow or leaves. With all else being equal, the results showed a substantial loss in both velocity and pattern density when shooting the loose, fibrous wadding, as compared to shooting with proper wads. They didn't try Spanish moss, but I would not expect it to behave much differently from other natural fibrous wadding materials.

I have not seen any historical reference to using Spanish moss for wadding back in the day. It was mentioned in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' book, The Yearling, but this was a work of historical fiction, and we can't really consider it a proper reference. However, I doubt the author made it up... She must have heard it mentioned by some old Cracker.

We do know that palmetto fiber was used for wadding. There was an old trade musket pulled out of the Suwannee River in Florida a few years ago, still loaded. If I remember correctly, the lead ball appeared to have been a oversized, and apparently whittled down to size. Analysis of the wadding revealed it was palmetto fiber. Interestingly, palmetto fiber also makes first-rate tinder for fire starting. It is a little more troublesome to collect than dead or green Spanish moss, which can be literally picked up off the ground, ready to use.

Anyway, if you want to try it, by all means do so! If you are seriously interested in using it for a hunting load, it would probably be smart to shoot onto a patterning board, and maybe do your own comparison of different wadding materials. Let us know what you find!

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[George]

I have not seen any historical reference to using Spanish moss for wadding back in the day.

Essay by Moore, Francis, in A Voyage to Georgia, Begun in the Year 1735. London: Jacob Robinson, 1744.
“I observed here a kind of Moss I had never seen before; it grows in great Quantities upon the large Trees, and hangs down 3 or 4 Yards from the Boughs; it gives a noble, ancient and hoary Look to the Woods; it is of a whitish green Colour, but when dried, is black like Horse-hair. This the Indians use for wadding their Guns, and making their Couches soft under the Skins of Beasts, which serve them for beds. They use it also for Tinder, striking Fire by flashing the Pans of their Guns into a handful of it, and for all other Uses where old Linnen would be necessary."

Spence

 

[Notchy Bob]

Spence, you're the best, buddy! That's exactly what we need to know.

I discovered the flammable properties of dead Spanish moss when I was quite young, and I believe there was reference to its use as tinder in Wallace & Hoebel's book about the Comanches. The tribesmen apparently collected it during their forays into east Texas. However, good as it is, that book is a secondary reference, while the quote you have kindly provided is a primary source.

In addition, we note the use of flintlock arms as fire starters. There was some question and comment about that practice in another thread here recently.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[George]

In addition, we note the use of flintlock arms as fire starters.

Daniel Trabue, Westward into Kentucky
Taking shelter in a rockhouse during a rain in 1779-1780:

"There was Dry leaves and sticks under our shelter. I stoped the tuch hole of my gun with tallow and then did ketch fire and we made up a fire and Dryed our selves."

Spence

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I have used it. As @tenngun said, you can expect results a lot like using tow.

Bear in mind, "green" or living Spanish moss, with the gray, velvety pulp on it, does not really burn. On a fire, it just sort of smolders and smokes. The dead Spanish moss, or "black moss," is made up of the black fibers that are left when the gray pulpy stuff rots off. This black moss burns very well, and in fact, I use it for tinder with my strike-a-light. It works great. The point being that if there is any risk of starting a wildfire, the live Spanish moss, with the pulp intact, may be a better choice.


Notchy Bob

As I am heavily into primitive fire starting and the use of various natural tinders the risk of starting an accidental fire immediately came to mind. Natural materials such as shredded cedar bark can be harder to extinguish than to catch a spark. Glad to see you raised this concern.

 

[Notchy Bob]

Daniel Trabue, Westward into Kentucky
Taking shelter in a rockhouse during a rain in 1779-1780:

"There was Dry leaves and sticks under our shelter. I stoped the tuch hole of my gun with tallow and then did ketch fire and we made up a fire and Dryed our selves."

Spence

Great! Also, Noah Smithwick mentioned it in The Evolution of a State: Or, Recollections of the Old Texas Days, as did Granville Stuart in Forty Years on the Frontier.

Thanks!

Notchy Bob

 

[Notchy Bob]

As I am heavily into primitive fire starting and the use of various natural tinders the risk of starting an accidental fire immediately came to mind. Natural materials such as shredded cedar bark can be hard to extinguish than to catch a spark. Glad to see you raised this concern.

Thank you.

It is sort of a conundrum that many of the natural materials that make good wadding also work very well as tinder. Here in Florida, dead Spanish moss, palmetto fiber, and shredded cedar (actually juniper) bark serve both purposes very well. I have tried them all, both as wadding and tinder, and all three work better than flax tow as tinder, in my opinion.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[54ball]

Spanish Moss was my preferred load in the Carolina Gun. You have to understand the material.

it is of a whitish green Colour, but when dried, is black like Horse-hair. This the Indians use for wadding their Guns,

Living Spanish moss is useless. You might as well use green pine straw.
This is what I do to make a proper wad...
I harvest the brown (dead) moss. It can be found on the ground under the tree or you can find dead strips hanging. I prefer it to be pretty fresh. The rotting piles on the ground can be too rotten.
Once I have a mess of dried dead Spanish Moss I process it by pulling some out of the mat and rolling it in my palms to make a bigger than bore size ball of moss. The stuff is dark brown to black and does look like horse hair. When you roll it in the palms, most of the dirt and sticks will crumble out of it leaving you with a really good tight wad. You can use like this as a over powder wad and a over shot/ball wad.
One thing I have done it to wipe these wads in some waxy lube I had in a tin. This is not necessary but I got into the habit of doing that.
My son killed a big boar at 75 yards with that Carolina.

Like I said, the green living moss is useless.

“I observed here a kind of Moss I had never seen before; it grows in great Quantities upon the large Trees, and hangs down 3 or 4 Yards from the Boughs; it gives a noble, ancient and hoary Look to the Woods;

I'm really funny about Spanish Moss. It is not a parasite. It takes nothing from the host. It does not feed off the tree. It only grows on hardwoods, mainly oaks in select areas. I don't like to kill the stuff because it is so beautiful. It takes many many years to make those long hanging strips. When you pull some from a limb, no telling how many years it took it to grow like that.
So, I will absolutely not harvest, Green living Spanish Moss!

We do know that palmetto fiber was used for wadding. There was an old trade musket pulled out of the Suwannee River in Florida a few years ago, still loaded. If I remember correctly, the lead ball appeared to have been a oversized, and apparently whittled down to size. Analysis of the wadding revealed it was palmetto fiber. Interestingly, palmetto fiber also makes first-rate tinder for fire starting. It is a little more troublesome to collect than dead or green Spanish moss, which can be literally picked up off the ground, ready to use.

This is a hypotheses but I feel it has merit....
The palmetto palm was a primary roofing component of Creek/Seminole/Choctaw housing. I'm sure it had other uses as well.
This suggests that the Carolina Gun found loaded with palmetto wadding likely came from a town/camp where the palmetto was being used.

It's interesting to note that the Gun recovered from the Suwannee River had a rear sight close to the breech like pictured above.
The SE American Indians were quick to adopt the gun. If you look at period accounts the British counted the population of Indian Towns by the number of....Gunmen.