[Mike Irwin]

10:30 eastern on the History Channel.

[4v50 Gary]

Now I wish I had cable.

[45King]

Cool show. They demonstrated the Springfield rifle musket, the Spencer breechloader, the use of the bayonet (a candle holder?) and the firing of a 10# parrot rifle. I just wished they had used grape shot in the cannon instead of a solid projectile. I'd sure hate to have been the "Union general" (plywood cutout) that got hit in the chest with that 10# shot!

Ah ha....I see that I finally made it to Senior Member status with this post.

[Blackcloud6]

This was one of the btter "Conquest" shows. Well done and neat to watch. The Cannon demo was pretty cool. So was the Sharpes rilfe demo. That is one accurate rifle!

[Monte Harrison]

So was the Sharpes rilfe demo. That is one accurate rifle I was a little shocked that none of those guys could do 10 MOA with it, though. A least one of them appeared to have handled a rifle before.
Anyone know any background on the wild-eyed, shaven headed English dude?

[Jack19]

Anyone know any background on the wild-eyed, shaven headed English dude?

He's an actor/director. Was one of the bad Brits in "The Patriot."

[Keith]

Did anyone else notice the mistake with the Sharps?

The narrator was demonstrating the manual of arms and "set" the trigger prior to putting on the cap and cocking the rifle. Who would do that? You wouldn't set the trigger until you were ready to fire, with sights on target.

Keith

[Mike Irwin]

There were numberous small errors throughout the show. Nothing really critical, though. I was appalled that several of those guys couldn't hit the 10" circle at 100 yards.

One of the more interesting errors was the guy keeping his thumb on the cannon's touchhole through the WHOLE process, and the explanation that it was to keep any "oxygen from getting in and setting off the charge."

Uh... No.

It also looked like the solid shot for the parrot gun might have been a lathe turned aluminum billet.

[Keith]

I wasn't surprised about the "bad" marksmanship. Did you notice one guy had a pretty good group going about a foot below the aiming point? Another guy missed the entire board on each shot: for all we know he may have been shooting a two inch group, a foot left or right of the target. These rifles had fixed sights and no effort was made to see where they printed at various ranges.
So, much of that may have been an error rather than poor marksmanship. Only a novice would assume that such a rifle would be perfectly regulated and I'm sure the average civil war grunt spent a lot of time tweaking his rifle until it shot to where it was aimed. He probably had a sergeants boot up his behind to see that it was so.

Keith

[LawDog]

Peter Woodward is the son of Edward Woodward (best known for his stint as The Equalizer).

He is an actor/director/producer and a fight arranger and is a member of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (http://www.badc.co.uk/).

From the little I've seen of Conquest, I think he genuinely likes weapons and weaponscraft, and I have the impression that he may tend to lean towards our side of the RKBA debate.

LawDog

[seeker_two]

Great show.... :D

One thing they forgot to do with the cannon: Man #1 would have a bucket of water nearby. After firing, he would take the cloth-wrapped end of the ramrod, douse it w/ water, and swab out the barrel. This would extinguish any embers & clean out the bore.

Watch "Mail Call" tonight & see... :cool:

[Mal H]

I thought the show was pretty good. They had a good demo of firing 3 shots in one minute. Even the 5 "rookies" could do it. Well, one missed by only a few seconds. Not too bad.

Mike - I was wondering about that "finger on the hole" bit. When he said it was to keep the oxygen out, I says to myself, "WTH, the oxygen is already in there. How would that keep it out?" What is the real purpose of the practice, or did they even do that at all?

One thing that does bother me about that show (and Mail Call) is when they shoot without safety glasses. I know that most soldiers didn't use safety glasses, in any war. But, I think they should when performing the reenactments using BP firearms. They could use old timey looking glasses and not lose the "period" effect. I imagine we didn't see all the 'takes' required to film the show. I think they are pressing their luck.

[Mike Irwin]

Mal,

"What is the real purpose of the practice, or did they even do that at all?"

As far as I know, it was done in CONJUNCTION with swabbing.

The idea was that with the guy's thumb over the touch hole (they had a leather thumb protector to do this when the gun was hot) when the swabber was withdrawn from the bore a vacuum would be created that would help extinguish any remaining sparks. The swabbers were made so that it was a very tight fit to the bore. When one is withdrawn smartly, as they should be to create the vacuum, they'll actually make a popping noise if it's done right.

The guy certainly did not keep his thumb on the touchhole during the entire process.

[HBK]

Is it possible to find a Civil War Rifle, such as the Sharps or one of the better rifles used, today? If so, how much would it be?

[Mike Irwin]

"Is it possible to find a Civil War Rifle, such as the Sharps or one of the better rifles used, today? If so, how much would it be?"

Go to one of the auction sites, search in antique rifles, and use civil war as your search criteria.

I think you'll be happy with the results.

But shocked at some of the prices.