Indians For Guns

Some day in November, 1964, Western Ghats mountain range




The early morning cool enveloped my face as I quietly rounded the footpath lined on both sides by tall elephant grass.

The weight of my gun felt pleasant in my hand.

There was an opening in front of me. I crouched and slowly peered around it. There in a clearing were four spurfowl scratching and pecking on the ground.

I slowly moved back into cover, and put the cap on the nipple, gently cocked the hammer all the way back, and pushed the barrel of the old muzzle loader through the grass.

The boom of the gun going off echoed in the jungle, white smoke obscured my vision, I felt the sting of sparks on my forehead, and the air was filled with the wondrous odor of burnt black powder.

With a thunder of wings and a loud cackling, the spurfowl took off, but there lying on the ground was a beautiful brown and black bird, my first spurfowl and the beginning of a love affair with the muzzle loader which stays till today.

Great story skeetshot!

My first shotgun was a muzzleloader as well. Mine is rather small, a 28 gauge. Do you purchase your blackpowder locally? It gets more difficult to find actual blackpowder local to me, I have to drive about 110 (each way) km to pick it up.

Lovely story, Skeetshot.
Thank You.

Could you tell us more about your muzzleloader?

Music to the ears, Skeetshot. To a generation that has been denied this pleasure such words are the only thing that recreate the experience.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
SS

The muzzle loader described belonged to the Adivasi caretaker of our land in the Western Ghats

It was a typical crop protection gun, originally of some British Army design, and was modified for using percussion caps, which the owner would recycle using the caps of a strip from Diwali toy guns.

The powder, as I recall was of a course grade, probably a mix of FG and FFG and the shot were purchased locally and were made by dripping the drops of molten lead in a jar containing water and cow dung.

But for a young kid, not allowed unsupervised use of a firearm, it was a wonderful piece of ordinance, and the thrill one would get in cocking that hammer, is difficult to describe.

skeetshot wrote:The muzzle loader described belonged to the Adivasi caretaker of our land in the Western Ghats

It was a typical crop protection gun, originally of some British Army design, and was modified for using percussion caps, which the owner would recycle using the caps of a strip from Diwali toy guns.

The powder, as I recall was of a course grade, probably a mix of FG and FFG and the shot were purchased locally and were made by dripping the drops of molten lead in a jar containing water and cow dung.

But for a young kid, not allowed unsupervised use of a firearm, it was a wonderful piece of ordinance, and the thrill one would get in cocking that hammer, is difficult to describe.

I can imagine the thrill. Your clear and concise description of the hunt makes it all the more visible to the mind's eye.
Re: The diwali roll of caps; I always wondered if those would have enough strength to set off a powder charge.
I understand the making of lead shot by dropping molten lead in water but why does it have to have cow dung in it?

Skeetshot's post gave me an idea for making my own percussion caps.
I'm kinda disappointed in the commercial caps as they split and fall off the nipples jamming the revolver mechanism.
I also get some duds and when the tin is empty of caps, there are invariably some of the innards laying at the bottom of the tin.

A little bit of searching and voila, there are several videos on making percussion caps from toy pistol caps...... definitely something to look into.

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Will have to come by for another cup of coffee at your office for this story @skeetshot

Skeetshot,

That is a nice little anecdote.You have captured the thrill of the stalk in a small paragraph.

Best-
Vikram