Unfortunatly, we in the UK aren't allowed to own a Brown Bess (to my knowledge) and there fore I have a question.
Is it possible to load and fire a musket, like they do in this film, without a ramrod? And if they could, how effective would it be?
You can load and fire a musket without the ramrod, it used to be done to speed up reloading in battle when the enemy were close. It does however drastically reduce the range of the musket ball which is why it was only done when the enemy was almost on top of you.
shareThanks for the info. I'd love to try it, but as I said in my first post, we aren't allowed to keep muskets here in the UK. Bloody gun laws; I might consider moving to the USA.
shareIt would be perfectly legitimate to own a Brown Bess in the UK as it is highly unlikely to be in any fit condition to fire.
Broadly speaking, however, any gun over 100 years old is legal to own. But almost certainly not those still in production - such as the Colt Single Action Army, better known as the Peacemaker - or those with ammunition still in production - such as the Parabellum pistol, better known as the Luger.
As far as tap-loading is concerned, ian-1364 is right. It could be done, and was at times when the fastest possible firing speed was essential, but it was best to use the ramrod for full effect. At very short range, however, the heavy 3/4 inch bullet would do a LOT of damage.
Thanks.
I didn't know that it was called tap-loading, I've never heard of it before.
Spearjack you may also want to check out www.militaryheritage.com they sell muskets that dont fire (they look the same but theres no hole at the base of the barrel near the lock, so it cant fire) obviously you wouldnt be able to fire it but if you wanted to you could get a baker rifle, a heavy cav sabre and even the proper sash all from the same site.
I own a brown bess and have fired it live on several ocassions, you dont need the ramrod at the beginning of your firing time but as you fire, powder residue builds in the barrel to the point where you do indeed need it to force the ball down the barrel, in terms of a smooth bore musket, ramrod or not, range just depends on how far down the barrel you can jog the ball by tapping it, not that you'd be able to hit what you're aiming at anyhow:P
[deleted]
Sorry I haven't been abale to reply recently. Thanks for that. An too everyone who's posted.
shareIf you check with your local firearms officer, you'll find that muskets and Baker Rifles and all sorts are perfectly legal to own.
I believe you will require a Section 2 licence and possibly also a Black Powder licence, but you can still quite legally own and shoot a Brown Bess musket in the UK. A good number of muzzle-loading shooting clubs still exist, or if you just want the bang and not the target, also a fair few reenactment groups, too.
If you just want to own, you need to look for deactivated firearms or modern replicas.
Most of the cartridges I have seen from the American Revolution for the Brown Bess carried a .69~.70 ball. You could get several good shots off without having to ram the ball. For fast volley fire this is the way to go. For more accurate fire, out to 65~70 yards, a tightly patched .715~.725 ball, rammed home over 80 grains of FF work quite well, for me at least.
Pax Christi
Rev. Joel+
It's certainly feasible to load without a rod using a sub-caliber ball, but it sounds dangerous to me to try this without a perfectly clean barrel, because if the ball is not seated all the way down the resulting air gap could build up dangerous pressure when the charge is ignited.
I've owned Pennsylvania-style rifles, and of course you cannot tap-load a rifle at all, since the ball has to be big enough to engage the grooves in order to be effective. I often wonder how Sharpe's men seem to have such a high rate of fire using rifled barrels and firing from behind cover, would make for awkward loading not being able to stand up!
Military Heritage sells smoothbore variants of the Baker rifle, like the men of the 95th used. The firearms they sell arrive inert, though, without the vent hole in the flash pan. So you'd need to have a gunsmith drill that out for you if you wanted to actually fire it.
"Hey! If...if we had some rope, we could make a log bridge...if...if we had...some...logs."
Military Heritage sells smoothbore variants of the Baker rifle, like the men of the 95th used.
Yes, I know that. I meant that the Baker rifle was used by the 95th, not that the smoothbore was used by them. That's what "variant" means, and specifically in this case it refers to a weapon that has the design of a Baker rifle without a rifled barrel.
But I see how I could have worded that better. My bad.
"Hey! If...if we had some rope, we could make a log bridge...if...if we had...some...logs."
But I see how I could have worded that better. My bad.
Is it possible to load and fire a musket, like they do in this film, without a ramrod? And if they could, how effective would it be?