Use of fine shot in colonial America

[Capt. Jas.]

The title of this thread was "Use of Fine Shot in Colonial America" I'm just assuming that "Fine" would not include swan shot or cut shot.

It shouldn't as swan shot was cast and a pretty good size also.

 

[French Colonial]

True. But when you get down to it, what is the difference between shooting a hopping squirrel, standing deer, etc., and shooting a duck swimming on a pond?

Not much when your hungry.

 

[andy52]

It shouldn't as swan shot was cast and a pretty good size also.

Correct, Most of the Swan shot I've seen would be considered a smaller buck shot by today's standards.

 

[Tony Rothrock]

If the are using metric weights it is not that old. The English used pounds feet and miles. Today they still mix metric and English to some extant

The "K" in this instance does indeed stand for "Kilo". But not the kilo you are thinking of (kilogram). "Kilo" is Greek for 1000, and "K" was and still is used to indicate "1000" of whatever measurement you are talking about. Jet fuel, for example, is measured this way, in pounds. This Bill of Lading was indicating 450,000 pounds, or ounces or drams of shot being shipped to New Boston.

 

[Iron Jim Rackham]

Small shot was absolutely widely available:
“At first, single shot was used for target-shooting and four-footed game; by the 1540s multiple shot was also used, at this date cut from lead sheet. By the end of his life Henry possessed 41 such “Haile Shotte peics”, clearly used for birds. These were obviously pretty deadly, as an Act of 1548 at-tempted to ban the “shoting of hayle-shot wherby an infinite sort of fowle is killed and much gaym therby distroyed” and lamented their uselessness to military training. These weapons, loaded with shot, can be regarded as the remote ancestors of the modern shotgun.” https://www.thefield.co.uk/shooting/history-shotgun-shooting-26590

“In 1686, Richard Blome’s “The Gentleman’s Recreation” became the first English publication portraying the shooting of flying birds. By the early 18th century, overhead shots were becoming a fairly common practice.

In 1776, the first recorded use of the term “shotgun” arose in a Kentucky publication called “Frontier Language of the West” by James Fenimore Cooper. This term separated the smoothbore shotgun from the rifled musket as advancements in technology greatly changed firearm barrel designs.” https://blog.gritrsports.com/the-history-of-the-shotgun/

Jay

Hmmm? James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789.
Rifled muskets weren't devised until the invention of conical projectiles in the mid 19th century.
I believe William Watts developed the first shot tower in England in the 1780's and patented the process. Prior to his patent shot was chopped or larger sizes cast. The type of shot we use today in sport shooting; water fowling and upland game hunting was unknown before the American Revolution.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Hmmm? James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789.
Rifled muskets weren't devised until the invention of conical projectiles in the mid 19th century.
I believe William Watts developed the first shot tower in England in the 1780's and patented the process. Prior to his patent shot was chopped or larger sizes cast. The type of shot we use today in sport shooting; water fowling and upland game hunting was unknown before the American Revolution.

You also need to add Rupert shot to that. Much prior to the American Revolution.
Here's some out of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge

https://www.qaronline.org/blog/2021-04-01/artifact-month-rupert-shot

 

[sheriff john]

People shot anything they could with whatever they had. "Punt Guns" harvested waterfowl by the cart load with one shot. Game was sold to feed hunters' families. Netting spring waterfowl was an accepted means - when molting or nesting. It was a business as well as subsistence living in those early days. Pigeons were so plentiful they darkened the sky and were "hunted" with sticks.

Even some of the "man portable" waterfowl guns were so large they had to be rested on shooting sticks, tripods, or such. The really large "waterfowl guns" (punt) fired charges weighing pounds, not ounces and sometimes took up a lot of the boat space as well. Different world than today.