Smoothbore accuracy

[4v50 Gary]

OK all you guys with muskets or fowlers - what the furthest distance you've shot and to hit an object. Please describe the "object" size, state the caliber of your musekt/fowler/trade gun and the ball size. Did you patch it?

I'm curious because I've read in Bill Babbit's A Devil of a Whipping - The Battle of Cowpens that Babbit hit a man size target 5 out of 6 times with his replica Brown Bess. He was using .63 caliber balls in it too.

 

[thisaway]

I can keep probably 4 of 5 of my shots on an 18"x18" target (roughly the size of a man's chest) at 50 yards with my Brown Bess, using unpatched .735 round balls over 80 grains FFg.

I haven't tried my .69-cal. M1842 Springfield at 50 yards yet but it should be comparable.

 

[Borf]

Brown Bess

thisaway - can you describe your Brown Bess for me? Is it the 46 or 42" bbl? How much is accuracy degraded at 100 yards?

4v50 Gary - do you know what distance he was shooting at?

Thanks!

 

[Ryder]

My 64 caliber (greased patch round ball) can drop a gallon milk jug in it's tracks at 50-60 yards with either barrel. Deer however are shot clean through and you'd never even know they were hit until they run a ways and do the big sommersault thing.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Sorry Borf...

But I was running around ole Virginny trying to figure out whether its sacred soil was really red color like the Sibil War soljers said.

Babits conducted his test at 75 yards distance. It's found in Chapter 1, footnote 7 (page 165 of the paperback edition).