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I purchased a copy of HOW AMERICA WAS WON 1776 ”“ 1976 back in the 70’s and it has what the book purports to be a speed loading technique by placing extra balls between the fingers of the non-shooting hand for faster reloading.
“The hand on the gun. Fighters started young in America. Many Fathers trained their sons from early age to shoot their rifles faster. By holding small lead balls between the finger joints [ close to where they connect to the palm of the hand] ”“ all day long if necessary ”“ the youngster induced cavities to form which were enlarged by increasing the size of the balls. After years of practice the balls would stay in place ”“ regardless of the other uses to which the hand was put. When firing their rifles most men loaded powder and wad and then rammed these down the barrel. Then they reached into a belt pouch, selected a lead ball, and forced it home by using a ramrod. However, experts who had developed the special cavities could, after pouring in powder, simply tap the back of the hand against the muzzle ”“ thereby placing a ball ready to be rammed. This method saved as much as ten seconds a shot ”“ and also sometimes helped save the fighters’ lives.”
I wondered if this information could have been correct? Unfortunately, the book did not document where the information came from. So I decided to test it out back then in the 70’s. Now of course I had not grown up putting ever larger size balls between the finger joints of my hand, but I was surprised I could hold .45 cal. balls there rather securely and it did work for shooting targets fast as in when boards stuck in the ground and teams of three to five shooters shot at it until the board broke below perpendicular. Everyone in the Team began with a loaded rifle and took turns firing at the board. As one shooter shot, he/she would fall back to reload while another Team member stepped up to the firing point and took his/her shot at the board. Firing would continue until one team broke the board first and won the match. However, this did not require moving quickly as one would expect to do in a fight or battle.
Since I could never find period documentation for this, I sort of kept this under my hat, as I have found way too many times that things published in the 1970's have been shown to be flawed or just plain wrong. However, I just ran across this when looking for something else.
“Jeptha R. Simms published an account of Nathaniel Foster, born about 1767 in Vermont, who became a much-noted hunter in the vicinity of Herkimer, New York, by the early 1790s. Foster is credited with an ability to fire six shots per minute with his rifle."
“While hunting he usually wore three rifle balls between the fingers of each hand, and invariably thus in the left hand, if he had that number of balls with him. He had a large bony hand, and having worn such jewels a long time, they had made for themselves cavities in the flesh which concealed them almost as effectively as they were, when hid in the moulds in which they were run from the fused lead. The superficial observer would not have noticed them.
Foster's quick shooting was in the days of flintlocks. He had a powder flask with a charger, and with six well pared balls between his fingers, he would pour in the powder, drop in a ball that would just roll down without a patch, and striking the breech of his gun with his hand, it was primed; soon after which the bullet was speeding to its mark. These rapid discharges could only be made at a short distance, as to make long shots it became necessary to patch the balls and drive them down with a rod, the latter being dispensed with the former case.19”
The Number 19 footnote is:
19. Jeptha R. Simms, Trappers of New York, or a Biography of Nicholas Stoner and Nathaniel Foster; . . . (Albany, New York, 1860), 249Ÿ50, as quoted in [The Engages], "The Long Hunters of New York," The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly 5(Summer 1989): 5Ÿ6.
http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/journal_wvh/wvh50-5.html
Unfortunately, this source document is 19th century, not 18th century. Does anyone know of an 18th century source document for holding the balls between the fingers for faster reloading?
Gus
“The hand on the gun. Fighters started young in America. Many Fathers trained their sons from early age to shoot their rifles faster. By holding small lead balls between the finger joints [ close to where they connect to the palm of the hand] ”“ all day long if necessary ”“ the youngster induced cavities to form which were enlarged by increasing the size of the balls. After years of practice the balls would stay in place ”“ regardless of the other uses to which the hand was put. When firing their rifles most men loaded powder and wad and then rammed these down the barrel. Then they reached into a belt pouch, selected a lead ball, and forced it home by using a ramrod. However, experts who had developed the special cavities could, after pouring in powder, simply tap the back of the hand against the muzzle ”“ thereby placing a ball ready to be rammed. This method saved as much as ten seconds a shot ”“ and also sometimes helped save the fighters’ lives.”
I wondered if this information could have been correct? Unfortunately, the book did not document where the information came from. So I decided to test it out back then in the 70’s. Now of course I had not grown up putting ever larger size balls between the finger joints of my hand, but I was surprised I could hold .45 cal. balls there rather securely and it did work for shooting targets fast as in when boards stuck in the ground and teams of three to five shooters shot at it until the board broke below perpendicular. Everyone in the Team began with a loaded rifle and took turns firing at the board. As one shooter shot, he/she would fall back to reload while another Team member stepped up to the firing point and took his/her shot at the board. Firing would continue until one team broke the board first and won the match. However, this did not require moving quickly as one would expect to do in a fight or battle.
Since I could never find period documentation for this, I sort of kept this under my hat, as I have found way too many times that things published in the 1970's have been shown to be flawed or just plain wrong. However, I just ran across this when looking for something else.
“Jeptha R. Simms published an account of Nathaniel Foster, born about 1767 in Vermont, who became a much-noted hunter in the vicinity of Herkimer, New York, by the early 1790s. Foster is credited with an ability to fire six shots per minute with his rifle."
“While hunting he usually wore three rifle balls between the fingers of each hand, and invariably thus in the left hand, if he had that number of balls with him. He had a large bony hand, and having worn such jewels a long time, they had made for themselves cavities in the flesh which concealed them almost as effectively as they were, when hid in the moulds in which they were run from the fused lead. The superficial observer would not have noticed them.
Foster's quick shooting was in the days of flintlocks. He had a powder flask with a charger, and with six well pared balls between his fingers, he would pour in the powder, drop in a ball that would just roll down without a patch, and striking the breech of his gun with his hand, it was primed; soon after which the bullet was speeding to its mark. These rapid discharges could only be made at a short distance, as to make long shots it became necessary to patch the balls and drive them down with a rod, the latter being dispensed with the former case.19”
The Number 19 footnote is:
19. Jeptha R. Simms, Trappers of New York, or a Biography of Nicholas Stoner and Nathaniel Foster; . . . (Albany, New York, 1860), 249Ÿ50, as quoted in [The Engages], "The Long Hunters of New York," The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly 5(Summer 1989): 5Ÿ6.
http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/journal_wvh/wvh50-5.html
Unfortunately, this source document is 19th century, not 18th century. Does anyone know of an 18th century source document for holding the balls between the fingers for faster reloading?
Gus
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