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Originally Posted by KuKulzA28
That's very interesting Jim!
I believe it was after the Civil War, that the Southern white Americans began using bows to hunt. Firearms weren't readily available for these ex-Confederates, so the poorer ones used bows and slingshots. The bows were based off of British longbows in essence. I think this is where the white American archery tradition comes from. Otherwise, in North America it was the native men who used bows (supplanting atlatls) and sometimes bows became almost fully substituted by guns.
Muzzle-loaders are a field of guns that I find very fascinating...
I might get a Kentucky style .50 cal percussion sometime.  |
Actually I believe that bow hunting was more a matter of preference and outdoorsmanship than necessity, and that a certain fascination with the skills of the American Indian with these weapons became more of a personal challenge. I hadnt heard of American bows being based on English longbows, but dont know much on American archery. I would imagine there are many factions today using wide range of preferences.
By the time the Civil War ended there were staggering numbers of firearms on hand, both North and South and "...incredibly, there was no general disarming of Confederates after the war" ("Arming America", Bellasiles, p.429) and the Union soldiers had all been allowed to take thier firearms home.
There was such a flood of surplus weapons universally that prices plummeted and many producers were nearly bankrupted by the dilemma. Bellasiles notes on p.431 that Congress "..did not interfere with demobilized troops-Union or Confederate-taking thier weapons home. The government had on hand more than 2.5 million muskets now obsolete, which were dumped on the open market, reducing prices for firearms overall.
It was the quest for the technology of firearms that saved the arms industry, and while not all could afford repeating rifles, these surplus guns and wartime weapons were very much present in both North and South.
The atlatl spear thrower is a fascinating weapon, as is the slingshot, both of which seems actually more difficult to use than they probably are.
It would indeed be great to have one of the Kentucky rifles, and firing the one I did was something I'll never forget. I'm really not much of a shooter though, only other time I ever fired one was with Uncle Sam
All best regards,
Jim