What rifle replaced the Brown Bess?
The Brown Bess was gradually replaced over its later service life. Several were replaced by the Baker Rifle and later Brunswick Rifle. The Pattern 1853 Enfield would virtually fully replace the Brown Bess in the 1850's as the Minie Ball came to prominence.
The Brown Bess was only superseded in 1838, when it was officially replaced by a percussion cap smoothbore musket. There were still plenty around, however, with the gun being particularly popular among civilians long after it was officially retired.
These remained in service until the 1853 outbreak of the Crimean War, when they were replaced by the Minié and the P53 Enfield rifled musket.
Replacement by the rifle
The practice of rifling, putting grooves in the barrel of a weapon, causing the projectile to spin on the same axis as the line of flight, prevented this veering off from the aiming point.
In the late 1860s, rifled muskets were replaced by breech loading rifles. Weapons like the Springfield Model 1868 were produced by simply changing out the lock mechanism of a rifled musket.
Daniel Boone was another legendary hero who carried a flintlock rifle. Crafted by his brother Squire, a skilled gunsmith, this . 44-caliber Kentucky longrifle stretched more than 5 feet and weighed nearly 11 pounds.
The Kentucky Long Rifle was more accurate than any known previous firearm, and it soon became famous with a flight being deadly at over 200 yards, which was an astonishing range at that time.
The flintlock musket was the most important weapon of the Revolutionary War. It represented the most advanced technological weapon of the 18th century. Muskets were smooth-bored, single-shot, muzzle-loading weapons. The standard rate of fire for infantrymen was three shots per minute.
The Brown Bess had several distinctive features. It was a large-caliber weapon: the bullet it fired was a lead ball three-quarters of an inch in diameter, three times the diameter of a modern . 22-caliber rifle round.
Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musket—a more powerful and accurate weapon than the old but smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the previous decades.
Why are Civil War bullets white?
The patina on bullets is actually lead carbonate (white lead) which forms when lead is exposed to carbon dioxide and an electrical current passes through it.
Flintlock weapons were commonly used until the mid 19th century, when they were replaced by percussion lock systems.

Rifles have the advantage of long range accuracy, because spinning bullets have far flatter and more stable trajectories than balls fired from smoothbore muskets.
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Whitworth rifle | |
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Produced | 1857–1865 |
No. built | 13,400 |
Specifications | |
Length | 49 in (1,200 mm) |
Springfield Model 1861 Rifle
This was the most popular gun during the Civil War. The Springfield was a . 58 caliber with a 40-inch long barrel. It was loaded through the tip of the barrel with gun powder to shoot a Minié ball.
Most Civil War infantrymen, both Federal and Confederate, carried . 58 or . 577 caliber rifle-muskets. The rifle-musket was first manufactured in the United States in 1855 and quickly replaced earlier smoothbore guns.
To honor his service in the Tennessee State Assembly, Crockett's Lawrence County constituents presented him with a . 40-caliber flintlock crafted by James Graham circa 1822. Crockett affectionately named this rifle “Old Betsy,” either after his wife or sister.
There's no difference. To hopefully quote Shakespeare, "a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet". Regardless of what it's called it is still the most elegant rifle of American origin. They did evolve from the Jaeger of the early German, Swiss and Austrian gunsmiths who settled largely in Pennsylvania.
Crockett took his rifle, named Betsy, with him almost everywhere he went. He was 17-years-old when he bought the gun back in 1803. Crockett traded it three years later along with labor to a neighbor for a “courting horse.”
However, the long rifle did have its drawbacks. Due to the tight tolerances on the ball caliber and the need for a tight-fitting patch, paper cartridges could not be used. This slowed the reloading time and made the Kentucky Long Rifle totally impractical in the formation-style warfare that the British used.
What was the weapon in Last of the Mohicans?
In a piece filled with insight from former members on the controversial assaults done by the team, one eye-opening portion revealed that sometimes Team 6's choice of weapon during nights raids are “primeval tomahawks.” And not just any tomahawk, but ones created by renowned North Carolina knife maker Daniel Winkler.
Percussion cap Kentucky rifles were made well into the 1850s, but the appearance of rifled muskets like the 1853 British Enfield that used Minié ball inspired projectiles signaled the end of their usefulness as military weapons. Still, many volunteers showed up with them at the start of the Civil War in 1861.
Pattern 1776 Infantry Rifle
In many ways, this rifle was the opposition of the American Long rifle. The Patter 1776 Infantry Rifle did not disappoint, with it's accuracy of 300 yards, three times as much as the leading musket, and a hundred yards further than the American Long rifle.
James Whisker in Arms Makers of Colonial America, p158 states a musket cost 12 Spanish dollars or 3 English pounds and 15 shillings.
The first firearm was the fire lance, which appeared in China between the 10–12th centuries. It was depicted in a silk painting dated to the mid-10th but textual evidence of its use does not appear until 1132, describing the siege of De'an. It consisted of a bamboo tube of gunpowder tied to a spear or other polearm.
The Tsar Bomba
Without a doubt, the Tsar Bomba is the world's most powerful weapon, and one that is thankfully no longer in use. Designed and deployed by the USSR, this nuclear warhead at a yield of 50 megatons, more than bomb since or after.
Accuracy of the Brown Bess was, as with other muskets, low. The effective range is often quoted as 100 yards (91.4 m).
Accuracy of the Brown Bess was fair, as with most other muskets. The effective range is often quoted as 175 yards (160 m), but the Brown Bess was often fired en masse at 50 yards (46 m) to inflict the greatest damage upon the enemy.
A deadly weapon
303 or 7.7×56 mm rimmed rifle cartridge that was deadly with a sure-shot kill range of at least 500 m.
303 British is readily available, as the cartridge is still manufactured by major producers such as Remington, Federal, Winchester, Sellier & Bellot, Denel-PMP, Prvi Partizan and Wolf.
Is a 303 a good hunting rifle?
I hunted with a 303 for a lot of years, still do occasionally. They are capable guns and would be as good a starter as any.
All Gettysburg relics were obtained before it was national Park and are 100% legal to own. There will be no more bullets or relics from this area because relic hunting is now prohibited.
Product (Civil War era Minie Ball bullet artifact) was as expected. (I have others and have some amateur knowledge of these relics). These are low cost collectibles, but expect to pay about $8.00 on Amazon.
Prices for Civil War relics vary widely, Sylvia said. An authentic minie-ball, a cylindrical bullet named for its French army officer inventor, Claude-Etienne Minie, starts at around $3, while a Confederate uniform button can go for $150. A uniform can sell for thousands, and a sword may fetch more than $20,000.
It was replaced in the mid-19th century by the breechloading rifle. Muskets were matchlocks until flintlocks were developed in the 17th century, and in the early 19th century flintlocks were replaced by percussion locks. Most muskets were muzzle-loaders.
The advantages of percussion over flintlock are profound. Percussion lock guns are less complicated, faster to load, have a quicker lock time, and are more reliable. This gives percussion significant advantages over flintlock in pretty much all shooting disciplines.
Heavy cannons, muskets, pistols, cutlasses, and grenades were just some of the weapons pirates employed to wreak havoc on the High Seas.
No English longbows survive from the period when the longbow was dominant (c. 1250–1450), probably because bows became weaker, broke, and were replaced rather than being handed down through generations. More than 130 bows survive from the Renaissance period, however.
The last recorded use of bows in battle in England seems to have been a skirmish at Bridgnorth; in October 1642, during the English Civil War, an impromptu militia, armed with bows, was effective against un-armoured musketmen.
Riflemen also used specially made moving targets to increase their proficiency in hitting moving soldiers at range. Whereas the Baker Rifle could achieve an average accuracy of 1 in 20 shots hitting the target, in the field this compared to 1 in 200 for the musket.
Which weapon caused the most soldier deaths in the Civil War?
Springfield Model 1861 Rifle
The standard infantry weapon of a largely infantry war, the Springfield 1861 was likely responsible for the lion's share of combat deaths.
John Wayne's favorite film revolver, the crown jewel of John Wayne memorabilia. The belt rig contains . 44 WCF cartridges as well as a single . 45-70 Springfield trapdoor cartridge which was carried by Wayne in tribute to the American soldiers of the Indian Wars.
Here again, Northern soldiers had better shoes compared to confederate soldiers. Therefore, in comparison, Union soldiers had better weapons, better food, and better clothes than the Confederate army. The South never lost a battle due to a shortage of weapons or powder or food and clothing.
A gun owned by the man who captured Geronimo, the Apache leader, set a record over the weekend as the most expensive single gun ever bought at auction. The Rock Island Auction in Illinois said it sold the Model 1886 Winchester rifle, owned by U.S. Army Captain Henry Ware Lawton, for $1.2 million on Saturday.
Matthew Quigley's gun is a replica model 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle, built by Shiloh Rifles of Montana. They are chambered in . 45-110, which is a . 45 caliber bullet propelled by 110 grains of black powder.
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. 45-70.
.45-70 Government | |
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In service | 1873–1892 |
Used by | United States |
Wars | Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War |
Production history |
The Minié ball, or Minie ball, is a type of bullet used extensively in the American Civil War. The muzzle-loading rifle bullet was named after its codeveloper, Claude-Étienne Minié.
Over a million Model 1861s were produced, and saw extensive action with both sides. In the hands of a skilled soldier, the Model 1861 could accurately hit a target 500 yards away, a fact emphasized by the sights that came standard with every weapon.
Five types of rifles were developed for the war: rifles, short rifles, repeating rifles, rifle muskets, and cavalry carbines. Each type was built for a specific purpose and was meant to be used by a specific person.
The Tsar Bomba
Without a doubt, the Tsar Bomba is the world's most powerful weapon, and one that is thankfully no longer in use. Designed and deployed by the USSR, this nuclear warhead at a yield of 50 megatons, more than bomb since or after.
What war was the 303 British used in?
303 SLME (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) or just 303, is a bolt action, magazine-fed rifle that served the English military and that of the Commonwealth since 1895 and saw action in both World War 1 and World War II.
James Whisker in Arms Makers of Colonial America, p158 states a musket cost 12 Spanish dollars or 3 English pounds and 15 shillings.
Accuracy of the Brown Bess was, as with other muskets, low. The effective range is often quoted as 100 yards (91.4 m).
The result today is that some 75 million AK-47s have been produced, with most still in circulation, making it the most ubiquitous weapon in the history of firearms — dwarfing the M16's eight million.
AK-47 Kalashnikov: The firearm which has killed more people than any other. No firearm of any kind has killed more people – or been more widely embraced as a symbol – than the AK-47 Kalashnikov.
The deadliest weapon of all time was the 25-megaton hydrogen bomb. Its lethality index score is an astonishing 210,000,000,000. For context, the sword has a lethality score of 20. Created in the manic arms race of the Cold War, the B-41 hydrogen bomb is the deadliest weapon on the list.
Commercial ammunition for weapons chambered in . 303 British is readily available, as the cartridge is still manufactured by major producers such as Remington, Federal, Winchester, Sellier & Bellot, Denel-PMP, Prvi Partizan and Wolf.
Yet it was not until the Allied air campaigns over Germany and Japan that firebombing proved itself to be the most deadly weapon of the war. The death toll from the fire-bombing of Tokyo alone was greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The best-known Lee–Enfield rifle, the SMLE Mk III, was introduced on 26 January 1907, along with a Pattern 1907 bayonet and featured a simplified rear sight arrangement and a fixed, rather than a bolt-head-mounted sliding, charger guide.
You've got to put grease on it and shove it from there to there. That's a long ways. It takes two or three minutes to load a flintlock rifle, as opposed to, say, eight seconds for a musket.
What was the most powerful weapon used in the Revolutionary War?
The flintlock musket was the most important weapon of the Revolutionary War. It represented the most advanced technological weapon of the 18th century. Muskets were smooth-bored, single-shot, muzzle-loading weapons.
Most muskets were lethal up to about 175 yards, but was only “accurate” to about 100 yards, with tactics dictating volleys be fired at 25 to 50 yards. Because a portion of the powder in a cartridge was used to prime the pan, it was impossible to ensure a standard amount of powder was used in each shot.
They had a diameter of 0.7 inch, whereas the 'Brown Bess' musket balls were 0.76 inches in diameter. The French balls weighed just under an ounce and were contained in a tubular paper cartridge case, which could be rolled on a wooded rod (a mandrill) by soldiers themselves, or were supplied by the government.
The Brown Bess had several distinctive features. It was a large-caliber weapon: the bullet it fired was a lead ball three-quarters of an inch in diameter, three times the diameter of a modern . 22-caliber rifle round.
The name 'Brown Bess' dates from the late 18th century. The word 'Bess' might be a corruption of the German word Büchse, meaning musket, while 'brown' refers to the chemical finish applied to the barrel to reduce the likelihood of rusting. A trained British soldier was expected to fire three shots a minute.