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Daniel Boone casting Roundball

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rafterob

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Was watching the Men Who Built America last night and there was a lot of focus on Daniel Boone and the war for Boonesborough. They were melting down the flat ware to cast for round ball and showed him quenching it in water before removing from the mold. Would that be something that needs to be done with harder metals than lead? Or just uninformed media representation?
 
The errors in this show are legion. From a bearded, leather-clad Boone--WRONG, to Enfield percussion and Sharps rifles--WRONG, to settlers wearing Levis-- WRONG, the details of this show were so badly done it was really hard to watch. You can bet the family farm Boone never dipped his bullet mold in a bucket of water as shown.
 
Just got done watching the first episode in the series, read the posted opinions, mostly negative so far, and thought I’d toss out my views. Most importantly the story line is historically accurate. It focuses on the early life of Boone and how he established Boone’s Borough. Narration and scenery were well portrayed.
Boone is portrayed as a young man and yes he does have a beard. Can anyone really say for sure that he never had one? Who knows! I don’t believe any of us were around then. I’m pretty sure though that back then the frontiersmen didn’t shave every day and hygiene and proper grooming were not a top priority! As far as the clothing goes yes there were some pocketed pants that were briefly viewed but who cares. All things considered the clothing wasn't bad at all. The majority of the firearms looked great. In all, a great show that entertains and teaches some good old American history. If the rest of the series is this good it will be a great watch.
I hope that we as members have not become so entrenched in accuracy that we find it hard to watch a show of this quality! Were some mistakes made yes, but not many, and it was a true lesson in American history. Share this series with a youngster! I’m sure this is not the American history taught in many of our schools. Not only will he or she leave with a great history lesson, but perhaps they will develop an interest in Muzzleloading and become future members!
Art
 
Just posted this elsewhere before fining this thread,

"Was honestly very disappointed. It was almost boring and just seemed to skim over a lot of stuff. And there was a lot of "facts" thrown around I'd never heard before or that always seemed in need of corroboration. I found some of the costuming questionable, but I'm no expert. And it seemed suspect to me that when they show him about to shoot the elk, just as he is about to be captured, they have him shooting a musket instead of a rifle.
Anyone have more info on that, or on the soon to be besieged people of Boonesborough making their own black powder?"
 
At Boonesbourgh I don’t know if they made any powder or not Boone did make powder at times as did many Frontier post.
I will watch this through and I did grumble about the lack of rifles, at least one percussion, lots of crappy clothing, an 1870s style oil lantern, dipping the mold in water and leaving out so many key details.
I also got a little miffed about the raid on Chillicothe. The Shawnee were going to burn Boonsbourgh down and kill most of the people in the station, but it was cruel when whites did the same thing to Chillicothe????
Was also a little miffed that it wasn’t pointed out that the Shawnee didn’t live in Kentucky, only a passing reference to the fact that Chillicothe was across the Ohio river. :shake:
 
Ghettogun said:
Was watching the Men Who Built America last night and there was a lot of focus on Daniel Boone and the war for Boonesborough. They were melting down the flat ware to cast for round ball and showed him quenching it in water before removing from the mold. Would that be something that needs to be done with harder metals than lead? Or just uninformed media representation?

Dunking a hot mold in water would be a very bad idea.....
You can however drop the balls from the mold into water.....This will add a few extra brinell hardness to alloys....Not very useful though with round balls.

P.S.
I stopped watching the history channel a long time ago.....
 
When I started watching there was the great ships and histories mysteries, the revolution ect ect, then came pawn stars and pickers. :shake: very sad. I still watch some shows but mostly it’s a waste of the airways.
 
tenngun said:
I also got a little miffed about the raid on Chillicothe. The Shawnee were going to burn Boonsbourgh down and kill most of the people in the station, but it was cruel when whites did the same thing to Chillicothe????
Was also a little miffed that it wasn’t pointed out that the Shawnee didn’t live in Kentucky, only a passing reference to the fact that Chillicothe was across the Ohio river. :shake:

The Shawnee had already driven other tribes out of Kentucky much earlier and were using Kentucky both as a "buffer" area between them other tribes and as something of a hunting preserve.

Had my people been Shawnee and I was young enough back then, I probably would have went to war along with Blackfish. But that was what "Young Men/Warriors did" during the times and especially to preserve being able to get meat supplies and skins for trade and use in making Lodges and other things.

Don't know for sure, but there actually may have been Elk in Kentucky in that period. There were still pretty good numbers of Elk and Mountain Bison in Virginia in the early 18th century, until a disease in the deer population pretty much wiped out the elk.

I kept shaking my head and thinking "Holy manure! How many years since Fess Parker played Daniel Boone and this production all these years later still has so many of the clothing and equiment errors from 50 or more years before!!"

There were three things I liked about the program, though.

1. Any modern TV programs on the period is going to spark more interest in the period and that probably is a good thing for us.

2. I really liked the way they tied events in Boonesboro back to what was happening in the East and showed how the British planned to effectively surround and force the Colonists back into the British Empire.

3. They did at least talk about how the British arming the NA tribes and using them as Allies, actually caused much more hatred of the British than might have otherwise happened.

Gus
 
MANY people in my generation became interested or more interested in the period because of the Fess Parker Movies and Daniel Boone weekly programs.

A good number of the people on this forum have stated it as well.

So it can have a good effect, if nothing more than getting more people interested.

Gus
 
It's true there were a lot of non accurate depictions, but there are also very few shows over the years that even show that time period, so very few people will know.
You don't see those kind of shows because the public would rather watch someone being voted off an island.
I hope the series does spark some interest, and scenes showing muzzle loaders, and even dipping molds in water have become rare as hens teeth on TV these days. :thumbsup:
 
Ghettogun said:
They were melting down the flat ware to cast for round ball and showed him quenching it in water before removing from the mold. Would that be something that needs to be done with harder metals than lead? Or just uninformed media representation?
They were melting pewter utensils, which are mostly tin...

There were many inaccuracies.

I would really like to see them make black powder using sulfur, charcoal and bat poop (Yes, I know how the bat poop was really used, but this is an example of something easily avoided).
 
Artificer said:
tenngun said:
I also got a little miffed about the raid on Chillicothe. The Shawnee were going to burn Boonsbourgh down and kill most of the people in the station, but it was cruel when whites did the same thing to Chillicothe????
Was also a little miffed that it wasn’t pointed out that the Shawnee didn’t live in Kentucky, only a passing reference to the fact that Chillicothe was across the Ohio river. :shake:

The Shawnee had already driven other tribes out of Kentucky much earlier and were using Kentucky both as a "buffer" area between them other tribes and as something of a hunting preserve.

Had my people been Shawnee and I was young enough back then, I probably would have went to war along with Blackfish. But that was what "Young Men/Warriors did" during the times and especially to preserve being able to get meat supplies and skins for trade and use in making Lodges and other things.

Don't know for sure, but there actually may have been Elk in Kentucky in that period. There were still pretty good numbers of Elk and Mountain Bison in Virginia in the early 18th century, until a disease in the deer population pretty much wiped out the elk.

I kept shaking my head and thinking "Holy manure! How many years since Fess Parker played Daniel Boone and this production all these years later still has so many of the clothing and equiment errors from 50 or more years before!!"

There were three things I liked about the program, though.

1. Any modern TV programs on the period is going to spark more interest in the period and that probably is a good thing for us.

2. I really liked the way they tied events in Boonesboro back to what was happening in the East and showed how the British planned to effectively surround and force the Colonists back into the British Empire.

3. They did at least talk about how the British arming the NA tribes and using them as Allies, actually caused much more hatred of the British than might have otherwise happened.

Gus

I agree very much with your second and 3rd points.

Did ya catch the guy from Yale lamenting that the people of Boonesborough were portrayed as hero's, "but the Indians are Americans too." Sure they are, now. Did/do they deserve more respect, sure. But I'm sick of his ilk trying to rewrite history to be politically correct.
 
It seems to me you would have to leach the bat poop to get the nitrates need. It would of been in my opinion more accurate to describe the use of dried urine. From research on the period of the war between the states the collection of urine from out houses was a thriving business. One side note the ball mould looked like one of Larry Calahans excellent mould but I am sure enough dipping in water would eventually take its toll. AN APPALICHIAN HUNTER
 
I was thinking that’s what I said,Gus. the Shawnee didn’t live in Kentucky. They hunted Kentucky but didn’t live there. Nor had they ever been driven in to exile by any White encroachment. They had migrated northward. Black Fishes father had been born ”˜far south’.
Of corse people fighting for their identity, their people are blameless. Indian warfare was full of things we would call barbaric and war crimes. White frontier warfare paid in kind. War is Hell after all. Shawnee attempted to do what was done to Chillicothe, when under Byrd with a few British, the Indian tribes raped Kentucky.
 
Artificer said:
MANY people in my generation became interested or more interested in the period because of the Fess Parker Movies and Daniel Boone weekly programs.

A good number of the people on this forum have stated it as well.

So it can have a good effect, if nothing more than getting more people interested.

Gus

I agree with what you were are saying....You misinterpreted my comment. My bad!. Please disregard.
 
Brokennock said:
Did ya catch the guy from Yale lamenting that the people of Boonesborough were portrayed as hero's, "but the Indians are Americans too." Sure they are, now. Did/do they deserve more respect, sure. But I'm sick of his ilk trying to rewrite history to be politically correct.

I agree that Yale guy did a poor job.

I have a very small amount of Sauk/Fox blood in me, but not nearly enough to be recognized by the Nation/s. So I try to look at it from both sides.

One thing that is lost or not talked about much is that the larger Native American Tribes originally got to be large in population and powerful by the fact they warred and drove out or subjugated other tribes and were then better able to establish agriculture. This was going on long before the Europeans showed up. The Iroquois were especially warlike and subjugated other tribes, for example. However, unlike the European Settlers, they did not try near genocide against or extreme forced migration against other tribes.

I think the good thing the program did in this regard was explain Blackfish led the Shawnee against Boonesboro, because Kentucky was Shawnee land at that time. I also think the reenactors/actors did a much better job of portraying Native Americans in the period, than is often done in films and TV. Had they left it at that, I think it would have been much better.

Gus
 
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