How did the of the American civil war rifles load many times with out cleaning out the gum left from the black powder?

Answer 1

From what I've been able to find out about the .58 Springfield Rifle Musket, the hollow Minie bullet that it fired cleaned the barrel to a certain extent because of its very close fit in the barrel as it expanded under pressure. The typical soldier could get off three shots a minute for twelve minutes, loading and firing on his own (which would exhaust the standard issue of 40 paper cartridges).

When the Confederates learned to raise the rate of fire by having one soldier firing at the front while others behind loaded for him, it was found that firing a ball slightly smaller than the bore helped to get it out past the fouling. Some of the fouling would still be carried away by the undersized bullet expanding.

However, I'm willing to bet that after 40 shots the recoil must have been crippling!

AnswerWell, the gun would eventually clog up. The soldier typically carried only 20 rounds and sometimes 40. Also, they had a bullet that was fired that helped clean the bore. This bullet was not hollow base like most Minie's balls but had a solid base with a stud in the center. On this stud was placed a Leather washer. The leather was supposed to help clean out the bore. I have one of these cleaning bullets in my collection.

Also, it doesn't take but 1 minute to ram a wet cloth down the barrel and swab out the powder residue. I do this after every other shot when I'm on the range.