The morning of Sept. 16, 1805, in what is today Idaho County, Idaho, dawned snowy and cold. Conditions were miserable and would worsen throughout the day. The Corps of Discovery, led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was attempting to traverse the rugged Bitterroot Mountains on its way to the Pacific Ocean and into American history. It was tough going.
Before breaking camp on a day when Clark later would record that he had been as “wet and as cold in every part as I ever was in my life,” the captain, an experienced woodsman with deep Kentucky roots, spotted four mule deer. The previous evening, the party had dined on horse meat. The venison was needed. Clark set his rifle, a flintlock muzzleloader (an antique by today’s standard but a modern, high-tech weapon in that time and place), took aim and pulled the trigger. The hammer snapped, but the gun failed to fire. He repeated the sequence six more times. It’s unknown whether Clark gave up, or the deer moved out of sight or beyond range. But checking his rifle, which had never before failed him, Clark “in examining her found the flint loose.”
Few details are known about the specific firearms carried by the Corps of Discovery. It is known that several members likely were armed with a standard military issue model 1795 musket. The Corps of Discovery was, after all, a military unit. But other members, including Clark, Lewis and the famed nine young men from Kentucky (Charles Floyd, Nathaniel Pryor, William E. Bratton, John Colter, Joseph Field, Reuben Field, George Gibson, George Shannon and John Shields)—several of whom Clark had hand-picked—carried their personal rifles, as did another famed member from Kentucky—York, the man enslaved to Clark. Specifics of those shooting tools are unknown, except they were muzzleloading flintlocks, each subject to the fractiousness of such weapons.
The Corps survived the Bitterroots, reached the Pacific, and returned with great fanfare to St. Louis, thus weaving themselves into the rich fabric of American history.
The weapons on which their survival depended evolved but didn’t totally disappear.
A muzzleloading-style gun is self-explanatory. A muzzleloading firearm is simply a rifle or pistol that is loaded from the muzzle. And they still are employed as hunting tools, although the muzzleloaders used by most of today’s hunters are sleek, inline models armed with saboted bullets; designed with lightning-fast, sure-fire ignition systems; and powered with clean, fast-burning substitutes for black powder. These would scarcely be recognizable to Clark and his companions.
Kentucky offers 11 days of muzzleloader-only deer hunting. It’s a split season, typically opening with the third weekend in October (Oct. 19-20 this year) with nine additional days in December. The October muzzleloader hunt is popular. It offers hunters their first shot at a deer with a firearm. Hunters typically bag about 10,000 deer during the two-day October muzzleloader hunt.
It’s unknown how many hunters today use the traditional-style sidelock flintlock rifle that Clark would have recognized. If you’re in this minority, as I am, don’t neglect to check the tightness of your flint.
Muzzleloaders are allowed statewide for deer, but Kentucky has a hunting area specifically reserved for the weapons of old. The 7,731-acre Pioneer Weapons Wildlife Management Area in Bath and Menifee counties was established in 1962 and may have been the first area of its kind in the country that limited hunters to primitive weapons. Little has changed. Regulations prohibit the use of both modern firearms and in-line muzzleloading guns. Scopes are off limits, but open and iron sights are permitted. The rough terrain is heavily forested. It’s a challenging area to hunt. Clark would feel right at home. Details are at app.fw.ky.gov/Public_Lands_Search/detail.aspx?Kdfwr_id=36.
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Kentucky is now a chronic wasting disease (CWD) positive state, and wildlife officials have expanded the CWD surveillance zone to eight counties for the current deer season. These include Ballard, Carlisle, McCracken, Calloway, Marshall, Graves, Hickman and Fulton counties. Special regulations apply inside the CWD zone, including no baiting for deer.
For more information, contact the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources at 1.800.858.1549 or go to fw.ky.gov/Wildlife/Pages/CWD-SurveillanceZone.aspx.
Readers may contact Gary Garth at editor@kentuckymonthly.com