Loading boards

[heelerau]

Gents,
         just wondering if the pre patched ball in a wooden loading block is a modern riflemans' innovation ?

[Luke MacGillie]

Perhaps an 1830's but most certainly a 1850's item.

[Daryl]

Ned Roberts talked about loading boards or blocks being common in the percussion period, seems to me.

[hanshi]

A rather spirited discussion has been going on at another forum on this very subject.  Supposedly a couple of alleged 18th century boards in museums are under consideration as "maybe" legit but there is no way to positively tell.  As things stand the general consensus is that loading boards are probably a percussion era (19th century) item.   

[Militant_Hillbilly]

There is an issue of Muzzleloader magazine from a few years back that has a photo of a loading block that dates to the late 1700s.

[heelerau]

I guess necessity is the mother of invention, and our forefathers were no less smart than we today, it would not surprise me that loading boards may have been used during the colonial period, perhaps not a common item though, and easily lost down over the years.
     Thanks gents for the information, it has been a question that has bugged me for years.

Cheers

Gordon

[James Rogers]

There is an issue of Muzzleloader magazine from a few years back that has a photo of a loading block that dates to the late 1700s.

I have one around here dated 1754. I think it was made between 1988 and 1992.

I agree with Luke. Could they have been used earlier? Possibly but I do not believe there is any evidence surfaced to their use in the 18th century.

[Luke MacGillie]

There is an issue of Muzzleloader magazine from a few years back that has a photo of a loading block that dates to the late 1700s.

You are correct, there was an article about a bullet board, that is now in a museum.  The board in question was donated, along with other pieces of a personal collection.  The board was purchased by the donator at an antique arms show for a huge price, that other collectors shy'd away from, since its history was dubious at best, and pretty much everyone else thought it was a fake..........

But now its got 20+ years of being on display, and the other collectors that wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot pole are all dead and gone, and its all of a sudden somehow a credible documented artifact

[flintlock]

Loading boards turn an ordinary flintlock into an assault rifle!

[Ezra]

Loading boards turn an ordinary flintlock into an assault rifle!

Lower your voice...


Ez

[heelerau]

Would have Jim Bridger used them ??   chuckle chuckle!!

[Canute Rex]

There is a concept in anthropology called "the error of charity." It means that we look at a very different group of people and assume that they think like us. We look at a loading block with hindsight and say "that is obvious." When we consider the prevalence of smooth bores and (perhaps) ball over wad loading, the absence of loading blocks makes more sense.

This is OT, but an example: Some researchers in Indonesia asked the impudent question,"Maybe the way people have been growing rice for 4000 years is wrong." It turns out that growing in flooded paddies is not the best way. Go figure. How could people miss that for four millennia?

Maybe the same way that people missed loading blocks till the 19th century.

[Frank]

There is an issue of Muzzleloader magazine from a few years back that has a photo of a loading block that dates to the late 1700s.


[/quote]
I have one around here dated 1754. I think it was made between 1988 and 1992.

I agree with Luke. Could they have been used earlier? Possibly but I do not believe there is any evidence surfaced to their use in the 18th century.
[/quote]

I have 3 dated loading blocks, 1745, 1754, and 1762. Bought them at Dixon's Gunmakers Fair, LOL.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

When I shoot at a target, whether it's on the line or along a trail walk, I shoot out of my bag.  I use a short starter.  But when I hunt with my flintlock rifle, I have a bullet board loaded with grease patched balls.  Assault rifle?  The moose probably thought so!

[heelerau]

I wonder,
              if as in the old days, you went for a long ramble, over a few days you might only fire one shot, nail say a small deer, hang around camp for a few days, dry some meat, then go on.  and not fire another shot for a week or more . In the meantime the pre patched and grease balls might dry out and be useless in a hurry from youre block.
I have read of modernday long hunters going off for week or two on a trail and living off the land. I wonder if any of them have tried blocks?
 I realise we have the benefit of hindsight, and the internet to spread ideas, so isolated cases of them being used might have occured, but as they are perishable, may not have survived over time ?
   

Cheers

Gordon.

[Daryl]

When lubed with Mink oil. or neetsfoot oil, a week or two will not dry out the patches - unless perhaps you only threaten them with the oil.

The big bores 'shine' with paper ctgs.  which are already dry and load easily in square grooved barrels. aWith a flinter, the paper ctg. is all that's needed as it also contains your prime. With a caplock, you'll need a capper - so - capper and ctg. is all that's carried.

With practise, I could fire, load and fire another aimed shot in 8 seconds.  Selective fire!

[Kermit]

I sometimes grin to myself thinking about where golf would be if it had to be played wearing kilts of handwoven and spun vegetable dyed Highland wool using leather balls and clubs with hickory shafts and applewood heads--and on courses mowed by sheep. I imagine it would be great fun to try.

We get wrapped up sometimes in discussions of HC/PC-ness, which is also great fun. All the while I remember that the wood in the stock was cut with a chainsaw, hauled with a truck, and sawn on a bandmill, possibly duplicated with power machinery, has a lock that uses modern metallurgy and machining technology, a barrel made of sophisticated steel alloy with CNC equipment, hardware forged with a propane forge, on a bench under florescent lighting... You get the idea.

I'll wager few fusils are fashioned entirely with only 18th century technology in each and every aspect of its formation. It might be interesting to try, but it sorta depends whether you want to explore historical technology or just go huntin'. Or anywhere on a continuum between.

You pays your money and plays by your own rules.

[Ezra]

I don't use a bullet board, or a short starter for that matter.  Course I'm not lightning fast on my reloads either...


Ez

[Daryl]

Looking for ward to seeing you at Hefley, Ezra.  are you travelling with Boyd or with the Rase's?

[bob in the woods]

Daryl beat me to it.  Cartridges have replaced my bullet board when hunting. They are absolutely the 'bees knees ' , shooting the same as my usual patched ball loads. My .62 Edward Marshal [ moose gun ] loves them.  Fastest reload going. 

[Luke MacGillie]

There is a concept in anthropology called "the error of charity." It means that we look at a very different group of people and assume that they think like us. We look at a loading block with hindsight and say "that is obvious." When we consider the prevalence of smooth bores and (perhaps) ball over wad loading, the absence of loading blocks makes more sense.

This is OT, but an example: Some researchers in Indonesia asked the impudent question,"Maybe the way people have been growing rice for 4000 years is wrong." It turns out that growing in flooded paddies is not the best way. Go figure. How could people miss that for four millennia?

Maybe the same way that people missed loading blocks till the 19th century.

Could you point me to some Anthro texts that cover this concept?  It is a new concept to me and not comming up in any web searches.  But Video's of a band called Error of Charity are......

[Canute Rex]

Well, Luke, I was introduced to the concept in an anthro class about 27 years ago, so I am not the guy to ask about texts.

The point in this case is that shooters two centuries ago had a different set of conditions, resources, priorities, and preconceptions. Perhaps in certain ways they were less open to innovation. Perhaps, to them, the concept of a faster second shot, patched, wasn't such a priority. We can research all we want, but after a certain point we can only speculate.

Not being a reenactor, I find my loading block quite convenient.

[Luke MacGillie]

I like the concept, and agee with it, and want to use it to further discussions, but I cant find it anywhere to refer folks to

[Candle Snuffer]

I don't know if the bullet block / loading board is PC or not, but they work for me and others.  We've never been called to the carpet on it.  I use to lube patches then load the patch & ball in the bullet block - and the patches would dry out but they left a film on them which I would spit on to wet the patch then load.  Now I just load the patch & ball dry in the block and just use spit. 

Remember, many rifles had a hole in the butt of the stock for lube, which I almost would have to think there would have had to been some bees wax additive to keep it from running out???  The frontiersman could easily lube a patch from this "lube hole" in the butt of his rifle.

As for loading quick?  Perhaps the old frontiersmen didn't use a real tight patch & ball combo?  Look at the British Baker Rifle,,, they had two ball sizes as I understand it.  Larger ball for tight fit and more accurate shooting, and a smaller ball for loading fast and sending lead towards their enemy.

Just some observation.

[Daryl]

Most likely beeswax and tallow.