Design an infantry rifle for the Civil War

[scrat]

your all nutts

everyone of you.


nutts


i would take an m1 tank. with a whole **** load of ammo and gasoline. id be the one man killing machine. take out a whole army.



then i would be the next president


ahhahahahhahha


bow down

 

[SVT93]

I love all the outlandish ideas you guys have, I would not change any of the arms they had only the tactics. I would like to get more lever actions out to the troops though.

 

[nobody_special]

Some explaination of long range artillery, and picric acid--which is used in leather tanning--was the first high explosive filler.

Smokeless takes the guns to handle it. You can't just start loading BP rifles with it. Perhaps some sort of mix to keep the pressure spike down, but it'd be of limited use, though when you start putting out your breech-loaders, you could switch over then.

Yeah, ok. My whole point was that more effect might be had by producing artillery, machine guns, radios and aerial reconnaissance, rather than trying to produce a few million new rifles. The smokeless powder would be used for artillery and machine guns, made with improved alloyed steel.

Optics are an interesting idea, though while they made their presence known, there were few long range snipers at the time. Some even had primitive optical scopes.

My guess is that the typical weapons of the time probably weren't sufficiently accurate to warrant optics.

Don't forget that even now it takes years to work a new system in. Back then, while things were simpler, by the time you're getting breech-loaders with magazines firing smokeless loads with better bullets, the rifled muskets have already won the war. Tactics can do more sooner, provided you can pound the insight into the officers' heads.

That's why I want aerial recon and radios. Most of the battle is having decent supply lines, and most of the rest is simply being in the right place at the right time. Recon and communications help with that.

 

[Gifted]

This is a page of a company making repros, but here you go. 1000 yards really wasn't unheard of then. 500 yards would have been plenty though.
http://www.snipercountrypx.com/c-707-civil-war-sniper-rifles-reproduction.aspx

I've only found one good source for scopes:

In 1848 Morgan James of Utica, N.Y. invented the long-tube telescopic sight that would be used by Civil War marksmen just 13 years later. Priced at about $20, these telescopes were no more than four power. But in the hands of a skilled soldier with a sharp wit and keen eye, these devices offered sufficient magnification for aiming a rifle with deadly, long-distance accuracy.

http://members.tripod.com/~ProlificPains/wpns.htm
They had them though.

Artillery would probably have the same problem as rifles, if not more so in regards to manufacturing. Half a dozen spark gaps would be useful though.

It also looks like some people are forgetting the original conditions:

OK, you are suited up in the Terminator's time machine. You get to go back to 1861. All you have with you is the modern knowledge of engineering and tactics... so create a new infantry rifle that will dominate the conflict and resolve the war; but can be built and supplied (ammo) using the existing manufacturing base.

And addressing that by itself, rigging a Furgeson type rifle or a Springfield Trapdoor would be my bet. I'm sketchy on my history, so I'm not sure how long you'd have.

 

[chemist308]

Still trying to win the War of Northern Aggression?

Well, I'd design a carbine length rifle with a cartridge along the lines of the 30-30 cartridge necked to 35, but in bolt action. I'd too would use a mosin style bolt and fixed magazine--8 - 10 round. The rifle would have a sight set-up similar to that found on the M1 Carbine.

Simple, lower recoil, powerful enough for the main battle rifle.

 

[mdao]

I'm sketchy on my history, so I'm not sure how long you'd have.

Yeah, ok. My whole point was that more effect might be had by producing artillery, machine guns, radios and aerial reconnaissance, rather than trying to produce a few million new rifles. The smokeless powder would be used for artillery and machine guns, made with improved alloyed steel.

War starts in earnest Summer 1861. If you popped up at January 1, 1861 and immediately became Grand Dictator of the United States of America, you'd have about half a dozen months of prep time.

I don't know about you, but I think that reinventing a rifle, along with the testing, tooling, and other assorted work associated with putting a new design into the field would be difficult in this short amount of time. Getting new explosives, new gunpowder, new steels, new rifles, new artillery, new cartridges, and all that other fun stuff ready in time would be impossible.

It'd be much easier to teach them more modern manufacturing methods so that they could efficiently churn out brass cartridges. You can also bypass all of the R&D work by producing an existing design. Throw in modern assembly line methods there, and production rates significantly speed up. A couple of early decisive victories using WW1 trench tactics with Spencer carbines and you'd be well on your way to winning the war.

 

[Gifted]

One of the reasons I was looking at the trapdoor. Absurdly easy to do, which is why they did it after the war. If you don't bother lining the barrels down to .50, and just use the caliber they're at, it's even easier. Showing them how to draw brass properly would be the only thing left.

 

[EricTheBarbarian]

ive been readingt this book for one of my classes. if you want to get a real good idea of how effective the weapons wrre used and the tactics rwad the book Killer Angels. It goes through the entire battle of gettysburg in detal, 370 pages. Its a good read but the main problems i found was transportation, and communication. sure an auto loader or bolt action would have been nice but the poor communication and only having horses or feet for transportation really limited them.

 

[Piedmont Plinker]

oh yeah- I would standardize Henrys for non-front line troops and calvary and issue everybody an 1860 that had been converted to .44 henry.