How Much Powder Did They Take?

Reading the thread on the bag molds made wonder how much lead did the trappers take with them since they had to use horses to take everything that they needed to trap and survive.

Then they had to take powder with them, again the trusty horse was needed. I know Lewis and Clark took their powder in lead canisters and melted the lead.

I read a lot and never have seen any mention on how much powder the trappers took with them. Also I never heard how the powder was package any idea? When and if they ran out of powder, they were out until the yearly gathering.

Any speculation on how much powder and how it packaged?

There were places to get powder and lead but they weren’t close by mostly. Company forts came and went a couple that come to mind is the one on the Putendorf (sp) in what is now Idaho and the one at the mouth of the Yellowstone. Fort AtkIson (sp) in what is now eastern Nebraska and one at where the North Platte and South Platte come to gether.

I know that I take a whole horn, and a bag with over 100 rb with me just walking out in the woods for a hunt. I would imagine someone going out into the unknown would take as much as they could secure for themselves. I’d go as far as to say a small gallon barrel tied to the back of a saddle would be welcome.

Nobody85 said:

I know that I take a whole horn, and a bag with over 100 rb with me just walking out in the woods for a hunt. I would imagine someone going out into the unknown would take as much as they could secure for themselves. I’d go as far as to say a small gallon barrel tied to the back of a saddle would be welcome.

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How long are you are out when you take ‘a bag with over 100 rb with me just walking out in the woods for a hunt’?

Two hours

The fur trappers carried small kegs of powder and lead bars. How much I can't say, but I know from historical reports that they very often recovered their lead balls from the game taken.

The Trailblazers, a book in Time Life’s old west series in stated twentyfive pounds per trapper. I don’t know what they based that on.
Most trappers were in groups and a hunter supplied meat to the brigade, so the individual Mountian man didn’t have to hunt as much.
Beaver was the principal meal through trapping season.
A man eating a near all fresh meat diet need eight to ten pounds of meat per day. Say one mule deer per fortnight. Twenty six in a year. In theory a hundred shots should more then feed you for a year.
Five hundred shots would be around ten pounds of powder and twenty pounds of lead should leave a feller pretty fat(?)
That would be an imperial gallon and a handful of lead bars.

There are a couple stories where settlers ran out of powder or lead. The resulting situations were frequently catastrophic , as they were far ahead of civilization , and nowhere to get what was needed.

Kinda makes you appreciate why Lewis & Clark took along an air rifle huh?

Nobody85 said:

I know that I take a whole horn, and a bag with over 100 rb with me just walking out in the woods for a hunt. I would imagine someone going out into the unknown would take as much as they could secure for themselves. I’d go as far as to say a small gallon barrel tied to the back of a saddle would be welcome.

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Why carry so much extra weight?

Nobody85 said:

Two hours

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And how many of those 100 roundballs you are carrying do you typically shoot on your two hour hunts? That’s enough for almost a shot a minute… while walking.

We, wife and I, usually took a small day horn each [six or seven inches] when going for a three/four day hunt. Round balls? ... maybe ten for each of us. We never ran out, but we were stalk hunters and loved getting close before firing. My last little buck was staring into my eyes from about fifteen yards when I broke his spine just at the shoulder entry. I no longer hunt at 90 but the memories are enough now. Dale

Dale , at 75+ , a couple , maybe 10 pre-measured loads FFFG , and a bullet board w/ 7 or 8 patched round balls are in my shot pouch for an afternoon in a ladder stand. My neighbor , and i have a satellite game camera , next to our ladder stands. The camera , time, and date stamps , whatever it sees. Last year , we knew when a , creature of habit , big buck , was due to come by , and wouldn't ya know , the danged buck showed , when I was urinating w/ my flinter hanging on a nail. By the time I got my act together , the only shot I had , was an up the anus one , which was unacceptable at 75 yards.......Gettin' old sucks.................oldwood

oldwood said:

the danged buck showed , when I was urinating w/ my flinter hanging on a nail. By the time I got my act together , the only shot I had , was an up the anus one , which was unacceptable at 75 yards

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The old Texas Brain Shot. Messy, but can be effective. On my list of shots to avoid unless the animal is already wounded.

SDSmlf said:

The old Texas Brain Shot. Messy, but can be effective.

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Have not heard that one before. I'm guessing it does not mean going for the back of the animal's head

I learned early on in my deer hunting career ,about the results of using an "up the anus " shot. My buddies brother shot his first buck , with an unmentionable rifle , and due to his never eviscerating a carcass before , my hunting buddy made a bee line to his brother to assist. Forensic examination of the dead buck revealed no entrance , nor exit wound. The final act was to lift the buck's tail , which revealed green fluid oozing from it's anus. Well , my buddy stepped over to a fat log . He sat down , and knocked out his pipe , to reload it. . The evisceration training went from "I'll demonstrate how" , to here's my knife , and follow my instruction. Good thing there was snow to wash away all the gore..............The second incident of an anus blast , was even though my buddy said , he wasn't sleeping , while a monster buck walked right up to the back of hat, I'd stake a $100 bill on it , that he was asleep. Both he and the buck turned in unison , and at 7 yds. , the shot was fired. Thank goodness there was snow that day , for the cleanup took a while................I swore , I would never do something similar . Both these incidents make for great camp stories ,which humble the "greatest" of hunters..........Sorry , but I have to wax poetic.....................The Deer Hunter.........Early he rises , waking all the camp , with noise of preparation. He goes forth at day , returning well beyond the dark. His breath smells of strong drink , and the truth , is not in him. ...............oldwood

SDSmlf said:

The old Texas Brain Shot. Messy, but can be effective. On my list of shots to avoid unless the animal is already wounded.

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It's called a Texas Heart shot.

Nobody85 said:

I know that I take a whole horn, and a bag with over 100 rb with me just walking out in the woods for a hunt.

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You must enjoy self abusing yerself. That's a lot of extra weight to be carrying. A normal hunt these days does not require carrying a lot of survival stuff. OTOH, if you wound an animal you could apply the coue d' gras by just whacking it on the head with that big bag of lead balls. For me, I just carried a partial horn of powder, a small primer horn and 2 to 5 extra balls in a loading block.

Yeah well, we are supposed to try and shoot an animal. Not scare them away with target practice. Four or five balls and attendant powder should be enough for a days hunt unless you are doing it wrong.

FishDFly said:

Reading the thread on the bag molds made wonder how much lead did the trappers take with them since they had to use horses to take everything that they needed to trap and survive.

Then they had to take powder with them, again the trusty horse was needed. I know Lewis and Clark took their powder in lead canisters and melted the lead.

I read a lot and never have seen any mention on how much powder the trappers took with them. Also I never heard how the powder was package any idea? When and if they ran out of powder, they were out until the yearly gathering.

Any speculation on how much powder and how it packaged?

Click to expand...

Well the longhunters carried a lot of powder and lead, usually 1:2 in the ratio of powder to lead (if I correctly recall Baker's book), BUT they were shooting everything, and had to carry much more ammo. So a trapper could likely get away with a lot less as they were trying to trap their products. Now I have a horn that holds a pound of powder and a .54 rifle so a pound of lead is roughly 28 round ball. A pound of powder will give me roughly 70-100 shots. I likely could alone do with two pound of lead and a pound of powder. Figuring I'd need to shoot a deer or something like it once a week. In the course of a year.....

IF I got into a fight, I'm still using a muzzleloader and maybe a backup pistol, so perhaps one extra pound of lead and an extra half-pound of powder. An extra horn holding some of that powder to ensure that I don't loose all the powder to an accident ???

I also own a "garrison horn" a rather large, complete horn that holds about three pounds. There was often a chap assigned to each "mess" of light infantry in the British Army who was assigned to care for this reservoir horn for the lads to refill their horns on the march or at an outpost. That's good for a group of men.... so IF I was a trapper that would likely be more than a few year's supply.

I think that I'd be carrying a lot more salt than gunpowder, not only for my furs, but also so that I could jerk the meat of deer/elk/bison/moose that I didn't immediately eat and for the winter, as well as processing hides for leather for my use. I know that "luxavated" corn was also something the longhunters often took with them (parched corn) in a large amount and perhaps a trapper would do the same? I don't think the ammo was taking up nearly as much room as salt, and perhaps parched corn.

LD