By George C. Neumann
Whether for protection on the frontier
or for hunting in the backwoods, the smoothbore hunting gun played a
pivotal role in times of peace and war in the American
Colonies.
The practice of hunting
in England at the time the American Colonies were settled was
legally restricted to the gentry. Virtually all of the land was
owned in large parcels by the wealthy, who preserved them from
generation to generation by bequeathing their entire estates intact
to the oldest son through the law of primogeniture. To protect these
fields and woodlands from poachers, gamekeepers were employed who
patrolled the properties and provided selective hunting for the
owners. By law, no one was allowed to own a gun unless he possessed
substantial freehold property or was given special permission. Thus,
legal shooting was not even a choice for the average citizen. By the
1740s this restrictive practice led to hunting being considered a
symbol of wealth, and field shooting “on the wing” had become a
popular sport for the well-to-do.
In North America, however, land was readily available, and
possession of guns was universal as hunting with firearms was a
primary means of survival. Rural homes depended on arms to help feed
their large families, as well as to provide physical protection and
fulfill local militia demands. The heavily wooded terrain of the New
World, in turn, provided a bounty of game ranging from turkeys,
geese, ducks and game birds to the larger deer, bear, elk and moose.
In order to take advantage of this, the provincials employed various
combinations of ball, buckshot, or buck and ball in smoothbore
flintlock fowlers which were the forerunners of today’s shotguns.
(The rifles developed in Western settlements are not included
here.) These arms generally had
long barrels averaging 44” to 60” to permit the full powder charge
to burn effectively and to provide an extended sight radius. Such
lengths may seem unwieldy, but the dense overhead canopy of the
virgin forests permitted far less undergrowth than that encountered
in today’s second growth woodlands. The typical gunstocks were
walnut, maple or cherry and included a high-raised comb, plus a
fore-end that reached to the muzzle—which frequently had the wood
cut back 3” to 4” and a barrel stud added to mount a socket bayonet
for military service. Second sights were rare; the front blade was
usually supplemented by a groove filed into the breech tang as the
rear-aiming guide. Sling swivels, too, were omitted as the arms were
intended to be hand-carried for instant use.
While many arms were supplied from abroad, those created or
repaired by Americans often employed a mixture of parts reused from
prior guns or imported as individual components. The patterns varied
by geographical region and evolved toward lighter designs as the
tree cover gave way to open land and smaller game. In the final
analysis, however, it was the man himself who made the difference.
Hunting has always been fundamental to our enduring frontier spirit,
and this review of its Colonial beginnings reveals how America’s
ancestors adapted to many of the same challenges facing modern
hunters. French Influence: The
settlers of New France depended primarily on the exporting of furs,
which required preservation of the existing forests. The Ministry of
the Marine controlled their colonizing of the New World and
contracted in France for the arms used both by civilians and the
military. Their typical hunter’s
gun (fusil de chasse) was light and well balanced to satisfy the
woodsmen (voyageurs, coureurs de bois) and Indian allies. Most were
made in Tulle or St. Etienne and averaged 60” in length with a
441⁄2” pinned octagonal/round barrel (.62 caliber) on a walnut stock
featuring a high comb, a Roman nose butt, plus raised carving and a
fore-end extending to the muzzle. A flat/beveled lock was held by
two screws. The iron furniture, in turn, included rolled sheet iron
thimbles which secured a wooden ramrod. Its weight averaged 6-7 lbs.
This was a design well suited for use in rough terrain and was also
prized by many English Colonists.
In addition, the French produced a more decorated firearm
for Indian leaders (fusil fin de chasse) as well as a cheaper
version for the fur trade (fusil de traite). This important supply
of hunting guns ceased following France’s withdrawal from North
America at the end of the French and Indian War in
1763. English Hunting Guns: Unlike
New France, the British Colonies were established to send raw
materials back to the mother country and then to serve as a market
for its finished goods. This led to the clearing of land to create
villages and roads, which copied the established culture of Europe
and favored the Old World’s guns patterns.
North American settlers during the 17th and 18th centuries
were first supplied with long, heavy military and civilian shoulder
arms that were obsolete but available and inexpensive in Britain.
Contrary to the French practice, however, the English Colonists
could order firearms of their own choice from private gunmaking
centers such as London, Birmingham and Liege (Belgium). This
flexibility, spurred by demands from their lucrative fur trade—which
was competing against French arms—led to lighter and less unwieldy
hunting guns by 1730. The gunsmiths
of Britain produced some elegant fowlers during this period, but
since gun ownership and hunting were restricted to the wealthy,
their volume was limited. A wide range of less expensive functional
designs, however, was also being manufactured but, of necessity, was
intended for sale abroad (especially to the American Colonists) and
few survive in Britain today.
These circa 1730-1770 export fowlers were light,
well-balanced patterns with pinned smoothbore barrels usually 44” to
50” in length and .60 to .70 caliber. Their walnut stocks retained a
comb above a banister rail but replaced the curved Roman nose with a
straight sloping bottom profile and included raised carving around
the barrel tang, lock and sideplate. The two-screw locks were either
convex or flat and had a swan’s neck cock plus a rounded pan. They
were popular among Americans, and their brass furniture components
were also shipped separately for use on arms produced in the
Colonies. Many of these fowlers are found with their barrels cut
short by hunters to facilitate use in rough terrain.
The North West Gun: Following the
end of the French & Indian War (1754-1763), Britain’s control of
the former lands of New France created an escalated demand for
hunting/ trade firearms. The growing Hudson’s Bay Company helped to
fill this need by expanding production of its famous “North West”
(“Mackinaw”) trade gun. Although developed for the fur business in
the early 1700s, this shortened, inexpensive pattern, which weighed
5 to 6 lbs., was adopted by many Indians and white hunters and would
continue to be used in remote areas of North America well into the
20th century with both flint and percussion
ignition. Its walnut stock mounted
and pinned a smoothbore octagonal/round barrel 36” to 48” long (.55
to .66 caliber). The three-screw lock had a swan’s neck cock and
rounded pan. It normally bore the name of the arm’s maker, but by
the 18th century’s last quarter was usually stamped with a seated
fox figure facing left (Hudson’s Bay Co.) or to the right (North
West Co.). A distinctive deep trigger guard bow was earlier
associated by collectors with the ability to shoot using a mittened
hand, but recent research has established that it originated to
accommodate a two-finger trigger pull.
American Patterns: To the American Colonists the hunting
gun was his primary food source or the critical supplement to an
unreliable crop yield. Although
many of the available firearms were imports, substantial numbers
were produced by local gunsmiths who followed regional preferences
and often used European made components. The gun sizes and
capabilities, in turn, changed as the large animals followed the
tree line moving westward. By the early 1700s, the initial obsolete
commercial and military arms were being replaced by a variety of
forms including copies of the French fusil de chasse, club butts,
light English patterns, assembled odd components, fur trade designs,
graceful New England fowlers, and even long, heavy “Hudson Valley”
or “punt” guns designed to deliver massive buckshot loads at
waterfowl on the surface. Because
of their availability, these various arms also served as the primary
arms for the American armed forces during the early years of the
Revolutionary War. The original guns shown in the article are
considered representative of this diversity.
Hunting Ammunition: It is evident from the variety of buck
and ball sizes combined in the same bullet molds that the
18th-Century hunter relied on mixed loads according to his prey and
the prevailing conditions. Unlike the trained soldier who shot a
round ball .04 to .06 caliber smaller than the bore to allow for
blackpowder fouling (he would normally fire in excess of 60 rounds
in battle), the hunter, limited to one or two shots against most
game, would load his smoothbore with a round bullet wrapped in
greased cloth or thin leather for large animals. This tightly fitted
“patched” ball could easily make a 10” group within the normal range
of 30 to 60 yds. The mixture of
shot sizes depended on the target and the shooter. For example, NRA
Life member Dick Weller of Earlville, N.Y., who hunts with original
18th century smoothbore flintlocks, has been successful with the
0.658” to 0.760” round balls employing 116- to 151-gr. FFg charges
on deer, moose and bear out to 60 yds. It should be kept in mind
that an individual in the forest for an extended period of time was
helpless without his supply of lead and powder. The lead bullets
were usually cut out of dead game for recasting, and the powder
charge would be minimized for smaller targets at closer ranges. To
be flexible, many of the early powder measures were cali-brated for
only half of a full load. Although
hunting was considered a sport among wealthy Colonists, it is
visions of the typical early American in deep woods stalking game to
bring his family through the winter or penetrating the frontier
relying on the hunting gun for survival that brings to life our
country’s history during those formative years. It is a story of
continuous adventures retold by the actual arms they carried now in
collectors’ hands or by the woodland treks of today’s muzzleloading
hunters who re-create the original arms, accoutrements and clothing
to match wits with real game that help us appreciate the amazing
accomplishments of those solitary individuals who forged America’s
path to greatness.
Trigger Guards (1.) An iron,
double-pointed guard favored on most 18th century French military
and civilian long-arms. (2.) A crude, functional round-ended iron
shape forged by an unskilled American. (3.) A brass Dutch pattern
commonly used on New York’s Hudson Valley fowlers (c. 1725-1750).
(4.) A double-pointed English export design including a typical
“snowflake” illustrated on its trigger loop (c. 1730-1760). (5.)
Another popular English form having a “tulip” forward finial and a
snowflake trigger loop marking. (6.) The simplistic North West Trade
Gun shape with bulbous end finials and a large-headed screw that
penetrates to secure the barrel tang.
Butt Tangs (1.) The French Fusil
de Chasse’s iron butt tang with a single top screw and a pear-shaped
finial (c. 1730-1750). (2.) An American fowler that omits the
buttplate, escutcheon, and carving (c. 1740-80). (3.) A British
light fowler using the popular brass stepped butt tang (engraved
game bird figure), double-pointed escutcheon and raised “fan” barrel
tang carving (c. 1750-1760). (4.) An American hunting gun using an
English brass stepped butt tang and an owner’s personal oval silver
escutcheon (c. 1730-1760). (5.) An American butt tang and escutcheon
having simplistic, straight-line Colonist engraving (c. 1770-1780).
(6.) The North West Gun’s flat plate and lobed tang held by
square-headed nails.
Special appreciation is extended to Joseph C. Devine
for his generosity in photographing the arms for this article at his
J.C. Devine, Inc., facilities and photographer Jerry Desmarais.—The
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