• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Flasks in Bag?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 26, 2014
Messages
4,556
Reaction score
4,507
Location
Southern Illinois
Did the old timers ever just tuck a powder flask in their shooting bag? Instead of a powder horn did anyone use a flask?

91708-CDA-7-D82-4-CCE-AECB-90-EA3-A199-C52.jpg

I mean period not weather you or your cousin do it. I mean if THEY ever did it, back in the 1800s.

?
 
Well, I have done it, but if you are looking for first hand information on the subject from the date, you might find yourself wanting.
Robby
 
Hard to prove one way or the other. Finding a flask in an old hunting pouch wouldn't tell us much. It could have been put there by his granddaughter just to keep things together. I've never seen a belt contrivance to carry a flask like you see today so the only ways to carry one would be in a pocket, a pouch or slung like powder horn. If it was the mid 1800s when flasks were popular and I was going to spend a day in the woods I probably would have slipped one in my coat pocket rather than carry it slung over my shoulder to get tangled in the brush. If I felt I needed a hunting pouch I probably would have dropped it in there but I wasn't around back then and have no real idea what most would have done. Most likely I would have carried a small horn the same way. Looking at a lot of originals I always felt they were more easily damaged than a horn and I would have taken that into consideration too. My only experience with a flask was to carry one of the tiny .31 Colt flasks with a modified spout in my pouch to prime my flint with though I also carried a horn of about the same size for the same reason at times. I have no way to support my theory but I have always felt flasks weren't common till into the percussion era and then primarily in the eastern states.
 
Without quoting all of the writing, in the book, "THE POWDER FLASK BOOK", by Ray Riling ©1953 there is a chapter called "THE FLASK AND THE ARM". In it, a lot of the information is about powder flasks used with pistols, both single shots and revolvers but on pages 78 thru 86 he describes several long arms like the Tyron Kentucky Flintlock, Fowling piece and half stock saying, "Any of the flasks appearing in the Tryon catalog of that era might have been purchased for use with (these arms)."
While describing the Browning "Harmonica Rifle", the author says, "Many of the contemporary metal flasks of Batty, Frith, Matthewman, or Sykes could be selected with this arm.

The only noticeable differences between a powder flask made for a pistol, fowler or rifle is the size of the built in powder measure and the size of the flask.
Most American and British flasks with adjustable measures are often marked in Drams. A Dram weighs 27 & 11/32 grains (27.3438 grains). Adjustable Colt flasks are marked in grains.
Using this knowledge, if the adjustable powder measure throws a 2 or larger Dram load, it was either made for use with a Fowler or a rifle.

All of this says that, yes, powder flasks were used to measure powder for long arms so they would have been carried in the field. Whether they were hung from the hunters neck or carried in a bag would be up to the user if the flask at attachments for a strap. Those large flasks that did not have attachments would be carried in a bag or a pocket.

At least, that's my opinion. :)
 
A lot of the flasks have the lanyard loops to attach a leather thong so the flask can be carried over the shoulder similar to a horn. Smaller flasks would be carried in a pocket. Most shot pouches wouldn't have the room to carry a flask, only enough room to carry the ball and patching material.
 
A lot of the flasks have the lanyard loops to attach a leather thong so the flask can be carried over the shoulder similar to a horn. Smaller flasks would be carried in a pocket. Most shot pouches wouldn't have the room to carry a flask, only enough room to carry the ball and patching material.
Good point. We tend to get bags today that can carry everything needed to load clean disassemble or even build a whole new gun. Old bags seem to have been pretty small.
 
Clearly, there were a whole bunch made and used. eBay is full of originals and there was a ton of variations and sizes. To think that no hunters or shooters got ahold of one and decided to tuck it in their shooting pouch... that not one person did that... just doesn’t seem believable.
 
Its possible that they might have put a flask in the shooting pouch, but its unlikely for the same reason that horns aren't carried in the pouch unless they are quite small. My flasks are about the same size as a horn and carry about the same amount of powder, a half pound or more. I do carry a small horn for priming in my pouch or for a squirrel rifle or a short day hunt a horn with 3 or 4 load capacity. I wouldn't carry a full sized flask in my usual 7 x 9 inch pouch. I might carry a small pistol sized flask.
 
Back
Top