Legacy of the American Duck Call
Black Powder and Muzzle Loading Shotguns
The invention of gunpowder is attributed to the Chinese, probably before 1,000 A.D. By 1250 A.D., it was known in Europe. Gunpowder was reported to have been made in America as early as 1675 but did not become an industry in the United States until 1802 when it was first manufactured by the E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company in Wilmington, Delaware. It was as inevitable as firecrackers that the invention of gunpowder would lead to shotgun shells. Muzzle loading shotguns were cumbersome and slow to reload. Therefore, as soon as black powder shells were available, manufacturers began the search for a better gunpowder. When ignited, black powder produced clouds of dense smoke (photo) and it quickly fouled firearms. When automatic and semiautomatic firearms were invented in the late 1800’s, the search for an alternative to black powder intensified. Several smokeless powders, also called nitro powders - because their base ingredient was derivative of nitroglycerin, were independently developed in Europe in the mid-1800’s, including one by Alfred Nobel, the father of both dynamite and the Nobel Peace Prize. California Powder Works is credited with producing the first smokeless powder in the U.S. in 1893, but its use in sporting ammunition
-34-
lagged behind military applications. Smokeless powder, unlike black powder, technically does not explode when ignited, but burns rapidly, releasing expanding gases. But gunpowder development was only one step in creating cartridges. First, muzzle loading shotguns needed to be replaced by breech loaders. Breech loading rifles existed in the 1830’s, and the Union soldiers used them during the Civil War, accelerating their development and popularity after the war. Breech loading shotguns did not lag far behind. Before the 1870’s, nearly all breechloading shotguns were produced by European gunsmiths and priced beyond the reach of the average American sportsman. Parker Brothers began producing shotguns in the U.S. in 1867 to make use of overstocked rifle parts left in warehouses when the Civil War ended. E. Remington & Sons and Dan LeFever foraged their first breech loading shotguns in the 1870’s. Others soon followed. The development of affordable, Americanmade breechloaders set in motion an evolution of sporting shotguns. By 1900, the basic design for shotguns and shot shells was established.
(Below) A waterfowler shoots from a cypress dugout canoe with his muzzle loader loaded with black powder. A dugout is made from one log, usually cypress, that is hollowed-out. This photo was taken in the early 1880’s in the Sunk Lands of northeast Arkansas near Big Lake.