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The Frontiersman and Mountain Men carried a supply of
black powder in a horn. Generally a cows horn or buffalo horn was hollowed to a thin
shell. The large end was permanently closed with a wooden
plug. Grooves were often carved near the spout of the horn to take a carrying
strap although sometimes rings were With only limited forms of entertainment available during the long winter nights, the Mountain Men often carved elaborate designs and/or maps of their travels on their powder horns. The powder horn did not provide any means of measuring out a charge of powder. One common method of measuring a charge was to place the lead ball in the palm of the hand and pour powder over the ball until a conical pile of powder just hid the ball. Another method involved determining the optimal amount of powder for the gun or rifle through accuracy tests and then constructing a measure which held precisely that amount of powder. Powder measures were often constructed of a deer antler which had been hollowed out. A Mountain Man who was shooting a flintlock might carry two powder horns, a smaller horn for carrying very fine grained FFFFg powder to prime the pan and a second larger horn to carry FFg or Fg powder for use as the main charge. It was not unusual however, for a man to carry only FFFFg or FFFg and use it for both the main charge and for priming the pan.
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screwed into the horn to attach the carrying strap. A hole was
drilled in the cut-off small end of the horn, and a wooden dowel or plug
fitted to retain the powder in the horn.