![]() I do maintain and will prove, whenever called on, that no man was ever killed at 200 yards by a common soldier's musket, by the person who aimed at him."Ĭol. "A soldier's musket, if not exceedingly ill-bored (as many of them are), will strike the figure of a man at eighty yards it may even at 100 but a soldier must be very unfortunate indeed who shall be wounded by a common musket at 150 yards, provided his antagonist aims at him and as to firing at a man at 200 yards with a common musket, you may just as well fire at the moon and have the same hopes of hitting your object. Little known fact - the Brits also had riflemen, including an entire unit of "sharpshooters" armed with breechloading (!)rifles invented by a British Major. Late in the war, the bulk of the American's weapons were French smoothbore muskets. This was an major disadvantage at Bunker Hill once the redcoats got into the trenches. Early in the war, Colonists were armed catch-as-catch-can, and most did not have military-style muskets with bayonets. Despite the legend of the Colonists firing their rifles from behind trees, most of them were armed with smoothbore muskets and most battles were fought European-style. The primary British arm was the Brown Bess. Now I'm going to have to dig up that British General's quote around the time of the Revolution - something about any hits at greater than 50 yards being more happenstance than aim. That's why at "Bunker" Hill (it was really Breed's Hill) the militia was ordered to hold fire on the Lobsterbacks until they could "see the whites of their eyes." I think Panzerfuhrer's experience is right (50 yards). A flintlock rifled musket is about as accurate as one relying on percussion caps (that is subject to the same rainbow trajectories as any blackpowder arm), but the smoothbores are another story. Of course there was a big difference between the performance of the Revolutionary-era rifles and smoothbores.
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