Antique Hunters Pouch +

[Indian Steve]

I found this old leather hunters pouch at a VFW yard sale today. It had a bullet mold with balls, horn powder measure, patch cloth and wrapped in some old fiber is a bullet worm. $30 for all. I have 2 questions. What was the fiber wrapped around the worm used for and do you think the bullet mold was resized to a smaller caliber? It looks like the mold might have been for a bigger bullet & then filled & downsized.

 

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[BAW]

The fibrous material is probably tow (unspun flax fibers), which was commonly used for swabbing / cleaning the bores of muzzleloaders. It is wound into the worm so it can be pushed in & removed again. Something unusual has been done to the bullet mold but it is hard to tell what from the picture. It was (and still is) common practice to fill a bullet mold cavity with molten brass and then recut it to a smaller cavity. Does it look like that was done?

 

[smallfoot]

Couple of thoughts...fiber around the worm as a ready made barrel wipe or possibly as protection from the worm damaging the barrel. The bullet mold may have been done that way to help cooling the mold.

 

[releventchair]

A worm works to retrieve a lost patch or swabbing material. It can pull cards and wads from a smoothbores charge too.
The amount of tow (flax fiber) on yours looks like it was being used to swab/wipe.
Another use for tow was it could be charred , then used for fire starting.
It's usefulness made it worth having some. Even used/dirty as it could likely be washed and reused.

Interesting mix. I can't tell size well from the pics.
Is the worms rough diameter including the wad of tow much larger than the cast roundballs?

The charger to measure powder can be figured out as to what volume it tossed. That could help IF related to the ball size. Meaning not from another gun.
Then , the dowel hints of a pistol ramrod substitute.
Some cloth for cutting patches. The right material makes for better patches. Material,tightness of weave ,thickness,strength..That meant the tow could be used for wiping the barrel , and not using the better patch material. That is , if the cloth in your shooting bag was just right for the load the user found best.


I'm not familiar with the molds design. Interesting . Almost (though a crude comparison) like a sizer for a finger ring to reduce it.

Neat old shooting bag.
The stories it could tell....