# bootleg half



## cam (Jun 9, 2007)

does anyone know what a bootleg is


----------



## cowseatmaize (Jun 9, 2007)

> bootleg


 Depends on what your talking about. AH Dictionary has

 To make, sell, or transport (alcoholic liquor) for sale illegally. 2. To produce, distribute, or sell without permission or illegally: a clandestine outfit that bootlegs record albums and tapes. --intr. 1. To engage in the bootlegging of alcoholic liquor or another product. 2. To attach a transmitter to a dish antenna, creating an uplink via which a signal is sent to a satellite without the knowledge of the satellite's owner. 3. Football. To fake a hand-off, conceal the ball on the hip, and roll out in order to pass or especially to rush around the end. Used of a quarterback. --bootÂ·leg n. 1. A product, especially alcoholic liquor, that is illicitly produced, distributed, or sold. 2. The part of a boot above the instep. 3. Football. A play in which the quarterback bootlegs. --bootÂ·leg adj. Produced, sold, or transported illegally: bootleg gin; bootleg tapes. [From a smuggler's practice of carrying liquor in the legs of boots.]


----------



## cam (Jun 10, 2007)

Im sorry I meant to say bootleg half.A BOOTLEG HALF is a half gallon jar that is a half a pint shy of being a full half gallon and it has no names on it.The moonshiners used them to increase profits.


----------



## logueb (Jun 11, 2007)

Never heard of that one.  They increased profits by not being caught.  I don't think that they would have ordered special jars.  They used whatever they could find or whatever  they could buy.  Their wives did a lot of canning[] if you get my drift. Used to be big buisness down here. Seems to have played out.  Haven't seen a moonshine bust in quite a while. I think that the cost of making just kept increasing so that it was cheaper to buy goverment liquor rather than shine.


----------



## cam (Jun 12, 2007)

This is my bootleg half. Notice there is no identifying marks on the jar. This is what my wifes and my grandfathers sold shine in. I have a total of 6 jars. They are very rare because most were busted when a still was discovered by the revenuers.


----------



## bottlenutboy (Jun 13, 2007)

> They are very rare because most were busted when a still was discovered by the revenuers.


 
 i have heard that about the #13 ball jars too, but its not true that would be a common unmarked fruit jar worth only a couple dollars at best, but probably more to you because of the family connection to it


----------



## capsoda (Jun 13, 2007)

I always figured the #13 thing to be an old wives tale. I had a very dear friend in one Mrs Elsie Malone who's husband had to run shine back in the late thirties and early forties to feed his kids. She said they would never breake a jar no matter what number was on it because the cost so much. Her, I am inclined to believe because she was there.


----------



## logueb (Jun 13, 2007)

Hey Cap, I was raised so far back in the sticks that we had to pipe the Sunshine in and the Moonshine out.[][][]
 I've seen a lot of destroyed stills in my time, copper kettles, steel vats, groundhog operations, broken canning jars, hacked up barrels, and stills blown up by dynamite.  But the bootleg jar is a new one to me.  I've seen the unembossed jars before.  I'll have to do a little checking on this one. We had a lot of remote lakes off of a river that supplied the water to run the operation.


----------



## capsoda (Jun 13, 2007)

Hey Buster, A "bootleg jar' is generally a quart or half gallon that doesn't hold as much as it says. The term "bootleg jar" came out of Harlem, NY during prohibition.


----------



## logueb (Jun 13, 2007)

Cap, Does this mean that glass houses actually produced a container that was not a full measure vessel?  So there had to be a market, someone had to order, and deleveries made. They would intentionaly leave off the brand name, the vessel capacity,  identify by marking 13, and actually support an illicit operation.  No way to trace back to the manufacturer.  Hmmmmm sort of a sideline buisness for some of  the glass houses.  Sounds a tad bit illegal.


----------



## cobaltbot (Jun 13, 2007)

I'm thinking they were just product jars that came in many sizes.  Some moonshiners probably discovered there were jars that looked full measure but were actually just a little smaller and so they used them to increase profits.


----------



## capsoda (Jun 13, 2007)

It is like this, you can fill a quart jar with golf bals and call it full. Then you can take the jar of golf balls and pour pebbels in to fill the voids and this is also called full. You can also pour sand in the same jar to fill it even further and call it full. After this you can pour water in the jar to fill it even further. So what is full


----------



## cobaltbot (Jun 13, 2007)

I saw that as a kid's sermon one time , its a good trick!


----------



## cam (Jun 13, 2007)

logueb you are right thats what i have always heard.


----------



## bottlenutboy (Jun 13, 2007)

i live probably more in the sticks than anyone else here, and ive seen so many moonshine stills it isnt funny, never have i seen a "moonshine half" jar all i ever found laying around them were product jars, fruit jars, even a few purex jugs, and a few soda bottles where they were having a soda while the cooked off the liquor so i say it aint so! but thats my opinion

 i think thats about as likely to have happened as "moonshiners breaking the #13 jars because they were bad luck" its just a stupid wives tale


----------



## bobclay (Jun 14, 2007)

Hi all,

 The term "bootlegger's half gallon" is one often applied to a couple Ball jars as well. Circa 1913-1914, Ball switched over to their new 'Perfect Mason' jars. Most of these first Perfect Masons were reworked older shoulder seal reworked to bead seal Ball Mason moulds. These jars are easily identified as the word Perfect is offset to the right of the word Mason, sometimes as much as 3 full letters.

 At any rate, many of the shoulder seal Ball Mason 'half gallon' jars only held 7 cups, full to overflowing. (the proper way to measure a jar's size, by liquid capacity) So these first Perfect Mason half gallons only held 7 cups, or 56 ounces. When new moulds were made and the embossing was centered (Perfect over Mason) the half gallons then held a full 64 ounces.

 Another Ball Perfect Mason jar often called the bootlegger's half gallon is the 40 ounce size. (5 cups) Fits nicely in the set between the quart and true half gallon.

 The unembossed jar shown in the picture was originally a product jar of some kind, likely containing pickles or honey or some other product and the jar meant to be reused as a canning jar, a common practice in the 30s and 40s. Moonshiners used any jars they could get their hands on. []

 Bob


----------

