Hitting the Mark: Historic Nova Scotia, Knives and Black Powder | PIONEER | HISTORY | FRONTIER 

It is odd how the human mind works, lol. It appears ours are quite similar.

Thanks Rob. We are driving west and will soon be passing just to the north of your beautiful part of the world

I also like the style but, I also find most of the clothing more comfortable than our modern wear.

Glad you’re enjoying, Kim.

Thanks Kevin and that is a great idea, certainly food for thought.

Thanks Marie and the ending quote is certainly a profound one that will get stored away in my head filling system.

I have had a lot of fantastic people in my life that have both taught and influenced me. Watch your top knot.

Even better when you actually hit the mark, lol.

Thanks Glen. Heck,I missed the chickadees when editing, I’ll have to have another look.

Your continued interested is certainly appreciated.

Thanks, Earl.

You are welcome brother and I have shared your videos

Thanks Mark and as far as using a vent pick while loading, I’ve rarely had a miss fire since starting this method.

Thanks.

Your quite welcome Jeff and I agree, Nick is a true artisan .

Thanks Tammy.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed.

Thanks Richard. I do get the odd look from passing public though.

Looks like you,ll soon be able to be smelling a wee bit of black powder as well, with events opening back up.

Glad you enjoyed, Dick.

Thanks Kirk.

Glad you’re enjoying, Caleb. We appreciate your interest and support.

Thanks Lance … keep your powder dry.

Thank you.

Thanks and also we sure appreciate your continued support.

Thanks Beverly.

Such a lovely offer, Charles. We also enjoy like minded people visiting the Woodland Escape. I have a real passion for making traditional bows and arrows.

@@TheWoodlandEscape That's great .. I wondered if you had an interest in this type of traditional stuff. Have you made some, or maybe hunted with it ?

Both Charles but, these days I mostly hunt with my flintlocks.

I’ll be back at the canoe build shortly. Appreciate your interest.

He is that.

I find listening to others family histories absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

All three are different and all three are made by each one of us. Nick Skinner makes a fine knife if you’re looking to buy one. Thanks for watching.

Thanks Millie.

Bigger cities like Boston or Philadelphia were the places that major industry was located and the products shipped onto the frontier but, by the mid 1700’s rifling machines could be found on the western frontier. These machines were often made where they reside. Rifling was invented by the Germans.I have plans to build on myself, now I just need to find the time.

Actually Gail, ifthe truth be known , my wife Cathy is a better marksman than me.

Thanks Francis. Let me guess, you had an oily rag wiping the old 69 down.

I forgot how much I enjoyed Tennyson, thanks so much for sharing a beautiful poem!

Thanks Mary.

Beast perhaps as they don’t shoot back,lol.

@@TheWoodlandEscape Good point haha. It's just the shaking... may not all be poisonous over there, but they are bloody big. Enjoy a happy & holy Easter to you & yours!

And to you and your clan, Stephen.

I’m with you David, the Bowie is too much knife for my liking but, I do love handling them. I’ve rarely had a miss fire since I started to load with the vent pick in.

Thanks Alan and once again,it was wonderful reconnecting with you.

Thanks Jan …always fun when one gets together fora friendly shooting match.

The French trade musket has the nicest lines of any flintlock, in my humble opinion.

Love it out here … usually get out once or twice a year.

I have not but, you’ve gone and planted the seed of curiousity . Glad you’re enjoying our endevour.

Everything in that era was practical and functional. As to the ordeal of the 104, one does have to wonder,however. They did get to Ottawa in time for the Sackett Harbor battle.

I few times, lol. We were shooting at a gong at 50 yards.hard to film that part of it.

The opening scene is indeed Peggy’s cove but, the intro is at Boutiliers Point. You live in a beautiful part of the world.

I can usually get a dozen or more shots. If you like shooting modern firearms you’ll get a kick ( no pun intended) out of shooting a flintlock.

@@TheWoodlandEscape yeah I’ve shot a few it’s cool

We were shooting at steel gongs, so no paper targets to so the accuracy obtained. However, that sweet sound of a lead ball striking the gong was a pleasure to ones ears. They all had the potential for accurate shooting, so, it boiled down to the ability of the person squeezing the trigger.

Thank you. The day we filmed we were shooting at steel gongs, not paper targets. I can usually group my smoothbore at about 2” at 50 yards.

Thank you. The day we filmed we were shooting at steel gongs, not paper targets. I can usually group my smoothbore at about 2” at 50 yards.

I also love the Fusil de chasse and totally agree on that smoke thing wafting through the trees.

Well then, time to get it dirty!

I actually load just as you suggest, including the day we filmed. My favorite with my smoothbore is paper wasp nest.

Thanks for your support and interest. We were shooting a various sizes of steel gongs at 50 yards, making it impossible to show accuracy other than the sweet sound of lead striking the gong.

@@TheWoodlandEscape I didn’t even think of that and I have steel targets at the ranch. Keep up the good work.

With my old eyes that sweet sound is less consistent than it used to be!

The way we look at feedback, is there never too much … either positive or negative. If I may say so Larry, you are a wealth of historical information as well as having, and knowing an amazing family history. Perhaps you should get yourself up here to the Cedar Hollow Tavern

Should you ever find yourself in our neck of the woods, we would be pleased to host you.

@@TheWoodlandEscape should that be possible, I'd be there with bells on. But my home stomp is Northeastern Oklahoma among the foothills of the Ozarks in what they call the Boston Mountains in the old Going Snake, Flint, and Cooweeskoowee Districts of the Cherokee Nation West. That's a long way from Canada. But I'll continue to follow your channel and, if you don't mind, tack a line to my Canadian friend and fellow history lover. Should I ever get a chance you can bet I'd be looking for your friendly tavern. Right now I'm patching warergaps from recent flood waters, watching over a small herd of cattle and a rental property or 2, watching my small garden grow, and putting together a Leman trade rifle for my daughter and a Carolina mountain rifle for myself.

If you've the time I'll relate something about the fellow with the fort. As you might know the Cherokees set up their own law system and had a written constitution patterned after that of The United States. They had their own public schools and two seminaries for higher education, some of the first west of the Mississippi. Ned Christie was a well respected gent in the nation and , I believe, a council member. Though the Cherokee had their own system of law they had no authority over white outlaws who entered the nation. That was left to the marshals of Judge Isaac Parker. On a very dark night Ned was crossing a foot log over the town branch in Tahlequah to buy some illegal whiskey, for it was outlawed in the nation. From out of the dark someone yelled for him to stop. Times being what they were, Ned shot quick. The fellow in the darkness was a U.S. marshals and he was stone dead. Not trusting the federal court for a just trial, he went on the dodge, built himself a thick log walled dwelling with a dug basement with loopholes he could fire out of. Time and again federal authorities tried to take him. He would always be notified in advance and either gone or ready for them. They even commandeered a cannon. The balls bounced off the thick walls. Determined to take him a large group set a wagon on fire and tried to burn him out. Didn't work. They tried dynamite. That wouldn't have worked but it upset a stove and the smoke pushed him out. As he tried to make his escape through the smoke his legs were spotted by the son of the marshal he'd killed and he shot him. Turns out one of our most famous outlaws might just have been an innocent man defending himself on a dark night from an assumed would be assailant. As an aftermath the marshals son who had shot him and was reported to have been an imbittered man later went far north into cattle country and froze to death in a blizzard.

There are numerous accounts of battles that were in fact cancelled. Frontiersmen usually carried a greased cover ( called a cows knee) for the entire firing mechanism.

Most settled by the Acadians who eventually got kicked out by the British, many of them ending up in your country in the New Orleans area.

That is a carved wooden shot measure that throws 1 5/8 ounce of #5 shot.

@@TheWoodlandEscape Thanks

Very observant. It is actually an English design that was short lived and yes, the lock is English.

@@TheWoodlandEscape I like it. The lock sets it off as something that might have been around during the British Colonial period. Looks handy.

Good point…an oversight but, we did pretty good. We were shooting at gongs.

Pretty much every item you described was in fact used. Most fell out of favor after European contact. Metal traps were introduced in the 1600’s. Bow and arrow remained in use long after guns were available due primarily to their reliability. Also, muskets were not traded in significant numbers until well into the 1700’s. The Shawnee had a weapon that consisted of a heavy rock sew into a pouch at the end of a braided strap. Quite lethal in the right hands.

@@TheWoodlandEscape Thank you for the history. Did the settlers adopt the art of bow/arrow making and use? As you have built birch bark canoes on a bent in frame, have you in the past tried constructing bows/arrows as did the native people? If so, I would like to see your efforts (or others) in that skill. I'm assuming the canoe craft skills would lend themselves to the art of bow/arrow making as well; I may be wrong on that point?....

I build all my guns, usually from kits but, my smoothbore I built from components I picked up here and there… it is my favorite.

Ah the smell of burnt black powder wafting through the woods! I use rendered down bear fat for lube.

@@TheWoodlandEscape I started with petroleum made lube in the early 70''s and did a lot of brushing. Then realized to treat it like a black iron skillet and poof no more brushing, just a nice clean non stick bore like a black iron skillet. Rendered tallow here and a cast 370 grain maxi ball, things drop. Rain bow trajectory.

Rainbow trajectory indeed and the ballistic coefficient of a bus!

Appreciate your continued interest, Freddie and kind words.

The south called it that, but it most definitely is know as the American Civil War

@@TheWoodlandEscape those that win the wars get to write the books

Coke is a by product of the coal as it heats. Pure coke was unheard of in that time period.

Yup

My patch knife is without a doubt my most used tool.

We were shooting both a rifled 50 caliber and my .62 smoothbore fowler.