One of my areas for research for the last 10-15 years has been colonial store account books and I have never found anything that would indicate that a shooter purchased a small amount of powder and tested it in his rifle before purchasing a quantity. In fact out of many dozens of recorded powder purchases I can't recall even a handful where less than a pound of powder was purchased at one time.
Today at lunch Larry Luck and I were talking about this thread and we realized that there is yet another factor to keep in mind--the powder horn was probably not completely empty when the newly purchased powder was added! That would mean that the shooter was actually using a mix of the old batch and the new. Shell gas on top of Exxon on top of Texaco if you will.
There are many conclusions that proposed but one worth considering is that commercially available powder was much more consistant that some have assumed and the blend shot pretty much the same from purchase to purchase.
Gary
Gary, this is part of the reason I enjoy this forum so much is that you and others have been so willing to share your knowledge and expertise.
Your account of people buying about one pound of powder or more makes sense. That then begs the question from the store accounts on how much powder the store bought or had brought in at a time and the number of possible customers the store regularly serviced. Here's why:
First, I do not know how often the stores on the frontier or at least western counties received goods from the Tidewater region. Was it every two weeks, every month, or possibly every two to three months, or more before the winter? That and the amount of customers they served would be important. The store keepers would want to have just enough powder so they wouldn't run out before the next shipment came in, I figure. (They would probably stock up heavier near winter, especially if it was difficult to get to the store.) Otherwise, the store keeper would keep money tied up that would not make him more money and that would make it harder to pay his bills.
Next we would have to consider what kinds of customers the store would service. Were they mainly townsfolk, craftsmen, laborers and farmers? As a store keeper, one could better judge how much powder to keep on hand to service them and you would not have to stock as much, depending on how long it took for the goods to be transported in a timely manner. If the store also serviced Longhunters who would have purchased small kegs of powder, they would have had to stock more in the seasons the longhunters usually bought their goods.
What I'm getting at would be the amount of turnover of the powder purchased by the store keeper and by the customers buying it. Longhunters would have the exact same powder measure for a long time, as they would have purchased more of the same powder so they would not run out. No need to make or adjust a measure when you are shooting the same stuff for some time. I would guess the same would hold true to a certain point for plantations or farms/villages that were a good ways from a store or outpost. Actually, the further they lived from a store, wouldn't even a farmer buy more than a horn full of powder to ensure he didn't run out? The more powder the customer purchased at one time, the less often he would have to worry about having a different powder that may or would have shot differently. Hence, the longer the time period before he would need to possibly adjust or make a new powder measure.
I know the closer I was to the frontier and/or hostiles, the more powder I would have kept on hand.
Further, how good of a shot (and/or how good of a hunter) would the "average" customer be? I can't remember where I read it, but I remember an historic 18th century account of a farmer hunting turkey. He would "mark" in which trees the birds nested at night. Then he would make sure he was back close to the tree just before the birds started moving and as close to dawn as possible. Then he easily shot the turkey in the tree. Some of us may think this was "unsporting," but the farmer realized that was the best way to ensure a successful turkey hunt.
As to how good a shot or how good of accuracy - what we also don't talk about much is that many people had very poor vision correction in the 18th century. My Dad had eyes like an eagle well into his 50's (about the average life expectancy in the 18th century). I wasn't so fortunate as I had to have glasses in second grade to see what the teacher wrote on the chalk board from a first row seat. For that reason alone, I doubt I could have been a Longhunter in the 18th century as I couldn't and can't get most of the accuracy out of a rifle without prescription lenses - though I'm a pretty fair shot with glasses. If people had poor vision, they may not have even realized the differences in powders as they would not have been that good of shots anyway. As such, no need to change powder measures as often.
Just some thoughts.
Gus
