Powder Horns

 This post first appeared on January 20, 2021

I purchased my first powder horn many years ago. In those days, gun stores catered to actual shooters, and they would usually stock a modest inventory of supplies and accoutrements necessary to get a pilgrim started in muzzle loading. From time to time, one would actually see black powder rifles available for sale, though not surprisingly, Civil War era revolvers were much easier to find. The San Francisco Gun Exchange, my suttler of choice, had just about everything a beginner would need except for genuine black powder which was subject to more stringent storage requirements. 

My first powder horn was distributed by CVA and was made in India. It was inexpensive (cheap) but served me until I went to my first Rendezvous, sometime around the turn of the century. There I saw a wide variety of better horns made by local "horners", and the quality of workmanship and ingenuity of design started me thinking: Why shouldn't I make my own? I purchased several pre-packaged kits, and finally had the courage to look through the bins of horns the late Joe Williams brought to the Sacramento Gun Show from his store, The Gun  Works, in Springfield Oregon. I bought only the premium white horns, hoping that one day I'd scrimshaw them, as was the custom of soldier and woodsman alike.

While looking for ideas for my horn, I found a variety of pre-turned powder horn butt plugs in an old Dixie Gun Works catalog. While most were domed (convex) with a turned finial for the strap, one version had a dished (concave) face. Since my kit horn came with a domed plug, I used the flat surface of a belt sander to flatten the dome, then used the edge to dish out the funnel. Next, I drilled a hole through the center for the threaded escutcheon of the powder horn base plug using Micro Bed. The screw-in button seals the horn and provides an attaching point for your horn strap. Track Of The Wolf sells these base plugs in two sizes. This illustration is the larger version, while my horn uses the smaller. In addition to securing the escutcheon, Micro Bed was also used to glue the plug to the horn itself, and to fill in any gaps where to two components meet. Since it's already brown, it blends well when the plug is finished and stained. For a more authentic look I discarded the small nails and secured the base with short sections of round toothpicks filed flush to the horn's surface. Note: An Internet search failed to locate a source for Micro Bed. Try using any 2-part epoxy and mix it with some walnut sawdust to give it some color. 

While I suspect the dished horn plugs are indeed period correct, the brass finial probably isn't historically accurate but certainly could have existed. This is like the chopstick conundrum: hand-held wooden sticks were within the limits set by technology, but no documentation exists of their use on the prairie in the 1830's. If I'm ever asked, I'll simply say, "I learned to do this in the East, the Far East."  Still, the convenience of the built-in funnel far outweighs any need for me to be a historically accurately equipped frontiersman. I can fill the horn straight from the can, a real timesaver. When seeing my horn in action, the looks I get are not ones of reproach, but envy. 

If this has piqued your creativity, let me spur you on with some horn-building videos I found on the web.

Making A Basic Powder Horn (I'm not wild about the music, but it's a well produced video. It is the most concise video I viewed).

Customizing A Powder Horns Part 1

Customizing A Powder Horn Part 2

YouTube has a variety of other videos in case you're looking for a different approach. Click here for more videos.