Thanksgiving Firearms of the Puritan Hunter

It was cold day when our families gathered to celebrate a first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Plantation. There would be little thanks without the hunter/gatherer to provide meat for the table.

 

The puritan hunter of the time I am told, harvested bounties from field, geese, ducks and the like but no Turkey at that dinner though there were turkeys in the woods. Note: the Blunderbuss with flared muzzle was  not used by Puritans in 1620 but came much later.

It was the Wampanoag Indians, they say, that provided venison for the feast. http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal

Image from website History.com above

Painting of Pilgrims and American Indians enjoying Thanksgiving meal

The first smoothbore gun was the Matchlock which burned a cord infused with salt peter. When game was seen, the hot cord tip was levered to the touchhole and KABOOM!

https://youtu.be/r6YZmkxY7JA

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Matchlock+vs+Flintlock&FORM=IRIBEP

 

That gun was soon replaced by the Wheelock which sparked as it rotated against flint.

You can just imagine the problems that they encountered with damp powder, hence the term “keep your powder dry” and the name of musket parts that made a gun, e.g., “Lock, Stock and Barrel, terms that we use today in our lexicon. “Keep it under your hat” refers to keeping the matchlock cord under your hat in the rain. Also “Flash in the Pan” came from firing a flintlock where the pan held powder that was struck by flint.

How old are the first Muskets like the Arquebus? They first appeared in the 1300’s in Europe and were often very heavy to shoot without support.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

 

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About Ed Hale

I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.