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It will help to understand the difference between a rifled musket and a smoothbore musket.
Smoothbore muskets fired a round ball, which traveled down the barrel after the powder charge was ignited. In order to be able to load it, the ball had to be smaller in diameter than the bore, because it was loaded at the muzzle. For example, a .69 caliber gun fired a .678 sizd ball, sometimes even smaller. The reason these guns were so inaccurate was two-fold...firstly, because the bullet was smaller, gases could escape around the ball, causing the ball to "clatter" as it traveled the length of the barrel, and therefore would not leave the barrel the same WA each time. Secondly, the ball would leave the barrel, and depending on the clatter or size, it would be very unstable flight.
A rifled musket is different....the gunsmith would use a bit to cut rifling into the interior of the barrel, creating a spiral of grooves into the barrel. The grooves were depressions in the surface, and the cut also created a lan, which is the area that was not cut. The rifled musket used a different bullet, called a Minie ball. The Minie ball was a conical shaped bullet with a hollow base, The base was called the skirt, and was fairly thin. When the black powder ignited, it caused the thin skirt to expand, engaging the bullet into the grooves, and imparting spin to the bullet. The spin greatly stabilized the bullet in flight, allowing it to travel farther. It was more accurate because as the skirt engaged, it created a seal from the gases that could normallye scape from a smoothbore. This insured that the bullet left the barrel the same way every time, and the gases were contained actually caused the bullet velocity to increase, whi chgave it a farther distance capability.
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Where did the rifle musket come from?
Originally muskets were long barrelled smoothbore firearms that were used in volley fire arrangement and became a feature of formal combat in the 16th century. At first they were matchlocks (used extensively in the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War). In the early 18th century muskets incorporated flintlocks and were used in many conflicts, including the Jacobite War (1745), the American Revolution (1776) and the Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815). The Rifle Musket first saw it's appearance in America during the Mexican War when they were issued to Mississippi regiments under the command of Col. Jefferson Davis. These differed from conventional muskets in that they were rifled and extremely accurate and effective. The invention of the conical bullet (Minie ball) in the early 1850's made rifled muskets easier to load and smoothbore muskets became obsolete. Springfield and Harpers Ferry Armory were making these weapons before the Civil War and Great Britain also began the manufacture of excellent rifled muskets (Endfield 1858). Rifled Muskets were the primary weapon of the American War of Rebellion (Civil War)
A list of new inventions that were used in the American Civil War?
Observation balloons, submarine, rifled cannon and muskets, telegraph, railroads, and a VERY important item- canned food.
Why were there high numbers of casualties in the Civil War?
Tactics had not caught up with technology..The line up and shoot tactics of earlier wars were fought with smoothbore muskets, not extremely accurate weapons..At the time of the Civil War, muskets had rifled barrels which were far more accurate, resulting in higher casualties, because the old tactics were still in vogue.
About how many Model 1854 Austrian muskets did the South get?
100,00o muskets in 1854.
Why were muskets better than bows?
Muskets fire a heavier lead ball at a much higher velocity than a bow. Muskets will also go farther.
