Well, Shoot: Firearm Target Practice as a Recreational Activity on a Rural 19th Century Homestead
Author(s): Abigail K Kindler
Year: 2017
Summary
On a poor and rural homestead, an approximated late 19th century tin enamel bucket was found with numerous bullet holes of varying calibers and trajectories. With ammunition costing money the family may or may not have had, what was the purpose of this bucket besides target practice? With very little information on target practice as a possible recreational pastime, the sport could have been done by both men and women, young and old, infrequently or quite commonly. Both experimental archaeology and a forensic mindset were used to analyze the, now holey, bucket for possible calibers of ammunition and weapons of choice. Scenarios were reenacted as archaeologists took a shot at recreating the centuries-old scene to attempt to discover what really happened to the poor old bucket.
Cite this Record
Well, Shoot: Firearm Target Practice as a Recreational Activity on a Rural 19th Century Homestead. Abigail K Kindler. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435409)
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Keywords
General
19th Century
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Firearms
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Midwest
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rural
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
19th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 317