Until the 1850s, the British military still used a large-caliber, smoothbore musket as its main infantry arm. That all changed with the introduction of the Pattern 1851 Minié Rifle.

Smoothbore muskets were notoriously inaccurate, and some of them didn’t even have sights. Remember that they were almost al­ways fired at whole units of enemy soldiers, not at individuals. The best ...

In this article Rifleman Q&A, Springfield Model 1816 smoothbore musket, U.S. Model 1816 flintlock musket, Atkinson, flintlock musket, Garry James ...

Before the Civil War, battling armies used smoothbore muskets that fired a lead ball that was almost harmless unless the opposing troops were within shouting distance of one another. One British ...

The Brown Bess Long Land Pattern musket was a smoothbore flintlock musket with a caliber of .75 inches. The musket was approximately 62 inches long and weighed around 10 pounds.

The best smoothbore, muzzle-loading flintlock weapon of the Napoleonic Wars was the .705-caliber “Brown Bess” musket, which was fast to load and fast to fire.

Where the smoothbore musket of the Revolution had an effective range of perhaps 80 yards and a rate of fire of two to four shots per minute, the Civil War rifled musket had an effective range of ...

Muzzle-loading smoothbore muskets had advantages: They could be fired often without jamming and they could fire a heavy lead ball. These benefits were useful in a European-style battle in which ...

After more than 125 years of use, the Brown Bess was superseded by percussion cap smoothbore muskets. Many of these older flintlocks were converted for use with the new percussion system that ...

Compass Auction is currently auctioning a Pre-Civil War Harpers Ferry Model 1816 .69 Smoothbore Musket as an item in the current Firearms, Ammo, & Accessories Auction. Like many other Model 1816s ...