Well we can talk of Alexander, Hector and Hercules, but them funny dressed fellers did save us from having to parle vous.
Howsomever I’m thinking in Tejas they’d ah still be speakin’ Spanish
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Flintlock Snobbery
- Thread starter Enfield58
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Howsomever I’m thinking in Tejas they’d ah still be speakin’ Spanish
If it hadn't been for the support of British regular soldiers during the French and Indian War, everyone west of the Appalachian Mountains would be speaking French or Spanish and hunting d'equireuil not squirrels in the East Texas woods. Thanks @tenngun, for reminding me that Tejas would have been Spanish territory.
Shooting a flintlock is an art form. The percussion cap and lock system is the triumph of technology over art. For the military having a lock that is easier to produce and not as prone to tuning and maintenance is a boon and can easily be understood as to why the percussion lock replaced the flintlock. Its the art I appreciate.
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Have you tried a pointy stick?
user 36911
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Have you tried a pointy stick?
Funny you should say that. My Lakota friend has hunted bison with a spear and got one riding a horse next to the running bison. He's done the same thing with a longbow. He uses a longbow for our elk hunt. A flintlock is as primitive as I want to get at my age. I did use a longbow when I was younger.
It’s a good point. I mean a half a dozen of us could surround a deer head, grab the sickest, oldest or youngest of the heard and wrestle to the ground and brain it with rocks. Or chase a heard off a cliff, check out flood areas for dead to process, maybe watch for buzzards and grab the dead.
Archers hunt on their own now like little gun shooters, through out history most archery hunters did so as a group.
The flintlock was really the first gun that that gave the common Joe the ability to go out and hunt on his own with a quickly learned skill.
The spread of flintlock with the French, Dutch and British hands made the courier de bois, and long hunters possible. I THINK the failure of putting such guns in ‘peon’s’ hands in Spanish America limited the ability of Spain to expand in to wild lands where there wasn’t a pre existing civilization to take over. So Texas, much of Florida, Arizona and Nevada/Colorado/Oklahoma areas blocked spanish advancement.
Archers hunt on their own now like little gun shooters, through out history most archery hunters did so as a group.
The flintlock was really the first gun that that gave the common Joe the ability to go out and hunt on his own with a quickly learned skill.
The spread of flintlock with the French, Dutch and British hands made the courier de bois, and long hunters possible. I THINK the failure of putting such guns in ‘peon’s’ hands in Spanish America limited the ability of Spain to expand in to wild lands where there wasn’t a pre existing civilization to take over. So Texas, much of Florida, Arizona and Nevada/Colorado/Oklahoma areas blocked spanish advancement.
user 36911
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Running a herd of bison off the cliff was done all the time by the Indians. The women would be at the bottom and when the bison landed they would run up to them and slit their throat. Then they did all the skinning and butchering. All the braves did was kill the bison. Mostly by riding next to them and shooting them but sometimes off a cliff if one was nearby.
Try and get white women to do that and see how far it gets you.
My wife did help me work up a deer when we first got married and my first chicken time when we got married. After that butchering was my job.
user 36911
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Yes, but that was your wife. Not the case with most of the Indian women.
I'm sure they knew if they didn't help, they didn't eat.
I suppose this raises the question, did any of them carry a Hawkens? I've been led to believe that the fur trade was most active along with buffalo hunters later than that. I realize there were trapping Beaver on the Missouri and Yellowstone not long after Lewis and Clark, though I don't believe much before that. The Beaver felt hat kind of ran its course by 1840 – 50.
Squint
I guess I'm one of the few who switched from flintlocks to cap Locks hunting. I don't need to prove That the cap lock is more dependable under most conditions and the availability of caps is still pretty good. My flintlock produces many hours of pleasurable shooting, especially in competition when I can do as good as those with cap Locks. I have noticed a certain amount of snobbery by some that shoot flintlocks, but the same people are kind of that way about pickups, tents, and clothing.
Squint
user 36911
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A tent snob? That's a new one for me.
I use what I like and don't give a lick what others use.
I use what I like and don't give a lick what others use.
Shooter1
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All but the bud light, but to each his own in our group. Barrel aged stout for me.
William Sublette
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Treestalker
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!Por Que Si!
Yes, by 1830 Rocky Mountain fur were sending some Hawkens to rendezvous. By 40 it represented about 10% of the rifles RMF was sending to ‘voo.
But yes it was the plainsmen gun instead of the mountain man’s choice.
Of course our concept of them mountain man period is arbitrary and had little to do wIth mountain men. The fellow that went trapping in 35 didn’t think him self less then a mountain man in 45 guiding wagon trains, or in 55 scouting for the army.
So if he had a Derringer in 35 a Hawken after ‘42 it was still the mountain man’s choice.
Just not the gun that most carried during the rendezvous period.
rdane
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I used to shoot a lot of competition. Seems caplocks had more trouble on the firing line than flint. I shot both and settled on flint.
user 36911
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The question of the Hawken wasn't so much .......were they available......... as much as who could afford one.
If you want to use a Hawken to re-enact the fur trade era. You're not wrong. It wasn't what the majority used but it was used. So, have fun with it.
If you want to use a Hawken to re-enact the fur trade era. You're not wrong. It wasn't what the majority used but it was used. So, have fun with it.
Just because caps were invented doesn't mean they were readily available, especially on the frontier. Flint was always available and still functioned if one's supply got wet. For example I saw pictures from a show that were of these TV screens-flat! One could mount it on the wall! This was 1978. Commonplace now. Invention does not equal availability.
True enough and lots of flint would continue west. It is important that we keep that in mind.
If we had a time machine to take us back to 1839 rendezvous I would bet most guns seen, maybe as high as 80% would be flint. Caps were sent west at MM times in pretty great numbers.
Smith had a three cap guns on him when he died in 31. Meek recorded a fight with indians where it was wet, and another man kept popping caps, without his gun going off.
I ‘think’ I would have wanted a flinter then but caps were to be had. I don’t know if they saw supply in the same way we do.
If we had a time machine to take us back to 1839 rendezvous I would bet most guns seen, maybe as high as 80% would be flint. Caps were sent west at MM times in pretty great numbers.
Smith had a three cap guns on him when he died in 31. Meek recorded a fight with indians where it was wet, and another man kept popping caps, without his gun going off.
I ‘think’ I would have wanted a flinter then but caps were to be had. I don’t know if they saw supply in the same way we do.
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