Musket balls cast from black-powder cans.

I'm currently reading (just finished) "Weapons of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" by James B Garry - (Kindle Ed.) and have also down-loaded - but yet to start on "The Journals of.." 

                                                           Lewis & Clark.
 Things were very different in the Americas 200 years ago - but peoples basic needs were similar - and their brains needed to be used every bit as much as they should be now. - The 'Weapons..' book is well worth the read although I was annoyed by some passages being repeated in later chapters.

 - One singular detail really impressed me and that was about their way of caring for the most essential stores for their weapons - the powder and lead for bullets.

All members of the party were equipped with a personal long-arm (plus a knife, tomahawk, etc. ) each gun also needing various extras like a bullet-mould, flints, picks, rammers, patches, grease, - best carried in a 'possibles bag'  - but Capt. Lewis is credited with inventing a most clever way to combine carrying  lead & black-powder in the right proportions - while ensuring that the powder is kept dry and ready for use.

Yes - Real Men Used to Carry a Handbag!

You need half the weight of lead projectiles in black-powder to fire them - every ten pound of lead needed five pounds weight of gunpowder. - And that powder needs to be carefully protected from the elements and from sparks or impact. The lead was typically supplied as sheets of the metal while the personal powder supplies kept by the shooter were held in powder-horns.

Lewis ordered that the sheets of lead be made into fifty-two lead canisters each weighing eight pounds and holding four pounds of powder. The hole through which the powder was loaded was then sealed using corks and wax. - Spark-proof and water-proof - Clever.

           One Design ensures correct quantities, and dry powder, in a spark-proof leaden Can.

When needed for distribution - they poured out the dry powder and filled their powder horns - cut-up the lead canister for melting-down - and the men could then-cast their bullets for re-filling their pouches.

                                                     OLD GANG MOULD

For two years this group fed themselves off the land while on the march (and in boats) - food was supplemented with stuff traded with the local native tribes - but they really sought-out bears for the meat, skins and 'bear-grease' - soon realising that the smaller bore rifles were likely only to annoy the bear into charging. - Grizzly Bear outpace a sprinting man by better than twenty-five per-cent faster!

Different lands - different problems.

Mart K