As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter........
I have always desired a Trade Gun as much as a Hudson Bay axe. I have the axe which is really a worthless thing as the Hudson Bay has narrow head and can not take a great deal of working of wood, even if cabins were built of them. It is more having a belt axe which I have in a Norland when they were cheap, and that is too precious in I only split pelvis of venison type animals with it for which nothing is better suited in the invention of man.
The Hudson was built light to for travel in the bush, and for portage. They are pretty and is why I enjoy having one.
I though yearn for a Trade Gun and the reason I yearn for one is follows in this list:
1. Cost
2. I do not want a Hudson Bay Trade Gun as they are not what I want.
3. They are flint type and I want something percussion.
The Trade Gun was a remarkable invention, up there with forks and Fords. The reason being they were cheap, they were durable, they were only deadly in one shot fired, they killed lots of things to one human before the rest ran off, and killed lots of fur, meat and fowl.
The last is why the Trade Gun was good for the English as it killed pelts and hides, and kept the English from being shot in mass, which was good trade.
You must understand a Trade Gun to know how worthless and perfect it was. It was a smoothbore of 56 caliber. The meaning of that is, it could be loaded with a ball of 56 caliber or with buckshot or with pellets for dousing birds or small mammals.
It was a universal firearm that one could pot ducks or grouse with, and with buck shot pot deer or wolves, and with a ball, put a large enough hole into bears or moose to make their heart's gushers of blood in keeping a camp in supply of lard, leather, meat and jerky for the winter.
It all though had to do with being up close, and for people endlessly tramping about the bush or gliding in canoes, odd are something would find it's way into the 20 yard reach of your smoke pole.
I have always thought that instead of a 20 gauge type in 56 caliber, that I would start out at least with a 12 gauge of 72 caliber. A 10 gauge might be more to my liking, but I digress.
The thing is about muzzle loading firearms is you can tailor your loads to what your intent might be for the hunt, as in if you desire grouse, then I would load up some 4 shot lead in a light charge. Geese would find BB's in my barrel in a heavy square load, and 2's would be for ducks.
If I might be in the habit of wolves, the 2's would be fine as I might chance upon some fowl for my fire.
Happen upon anything large and close enough, and even bird shot will send them to your larder.
For large game, I ponder charge of powder, an over powder card soaked in grease, a spit of spit, the shot or ball, and I think for me I might like silk as the wad or patch as this is a ball, and the silk would be soaked in a 2 part beeswax and 1 part lard mixture for sealing and lubrication, and ramming the ball home might have just the thing for putting down moose or bear if pointed in the other direction.
I have studied this and lack of funds is what is the problem as my idea would be to purchase a normal 10 gauge or 12 gauge single shot shotgun.
I would then with a tap and die create threads in the bore on the breach end. To this I would create a plug which would screw in, with a little hole bored in it for the primer. I might make this taper on the powder side to assist ignition, and then carefully bore out a primer seat for a 209 primer which is used in shotgun shells.
With a break action shotgun, I would think that this would all seal up well enough not to blow my eye out in a blown primer as modern muzzle loading rifles do have somewhat of a system like this.
I would just have to make sure that it would have a firing pin to detonate the primer, which is what break action shotguns have.
The Harrington and Richardson shotguns seem to fit this mode and I believe have the correct pad on the stock to help cushion kicking. I will assume the heavy loads with ball would get ones attention, as these guns are all light and meant for beginners, but the more I have hunted, the more I crave just one shot and one kill.
Now I should be able to find these, as of course they should be dripping off of shelves in needing no federal license and in most areas could be ordered through the mail, but of course anything I desire is not manufactured, as of course volumes would be sold.
All that is available is something from Spain not available in America in single shot form, or expensive trade guns or the Italian blunderbusses with two barrels which cost a fortune.
As I always have supberb Inspiration, this of course in my mentioning would evoke some manufacture or bright person attempting this, like a flat bottom aluminum 8 foot duck boat.
I know this is all some cartel conspiracy in keeping people in cities and not armed with inexpensive useful firearms, but that is of no matter as what is the point when a fertile mind is teaming with grande ideas from Heaven above.
I could think of nothing more pleasant than being in a place where one ate moose, bear, goose, grouse and duck, with plentious volumes of pike.....where your dogs were fed piles of trout as I dislike greasy fish, and it was all a matter of snares and trapping, with a Trade Gun of my design bringing home all of the bacon.
Would be nice to have a horse, but then that would mean my having to cut hay in the summer, but it might be worth it all I suppose as I like riding horse with a Trade Gun or at least I tell myself that I would like such a venture with TL free of mosquitoes and buffalo gnats.
It seems everything I desire in life is not manufactured and that I do not have the funds to create these things in a shop as I do not have shop, even though I have the skills.
I have concluded in this something which is now a Lame Cherry Doctrine and quotable:
"Money is wasted on the wealthy."
-Lame Cherry
agtG
