Subject Guide
Mountain West
Malachite’s Big Hole
Powder Horns:
The Frontiersman and Mountain Men carried a supply of black powder in a horn. Generally a cow horn or buffalo horn was hollowed to a thin shell. The large end was permanently closed with a wooden plug. Grooves were often carved near the spout of the horn to take a carrying strap although sometimes rings were screwed into the horn to attach the carrying strap. A hole was drilled in the cut-off
The powder horn did not provide any means of measuring out a charge of powder. In many instances powder was poured directly from the horn into the barrel of the gun, which sometimes lead to disastrous results. One common method of measuring a charge was to place the lead ball in the palm of the hand and pour powder over the ball until a conical pile of powder just hid the ball. Another method involved determining the optimal amount of powder for the gun or rifle through accuracy tests and then constructing a measure which held precisely that amount of powder. Powder measures were often constructed of a deer antler which had been hollowed out.
A Mountain Man who was shooting a flintlock might carry two powder horns, a smaller horn for carrying very fine grained FFFFpowder to prime the pan and a second larger horn to carry FFF or FF powder for use as the main charge. It was not unusual however, for a man to carry only FFFF or FFF and use it for both the main charge and for priming the pan.