M1819 Hall Rifle - range report

If you get a chance to go to Harpers Ferry, you can get get that book in one of the bookstores in town. I paid $16.95 ($17.97) for it there in '98. It probably is a bit more now but not prohibitively high. You can probably buy it online. I first found this book in my local library years ago. Of course, like all the other books dealing with antique and Civil War guns, it has disappeared so that someone could increase his personal collection. Like you, I have to decide whether to buy books or save my money for gun parts, powder or hopefully a good deal on a gun. And I haven't seen a good deal in many years.

Ditto on Harpers Ferry and the New Technology by Smith, it is an excellent source with lots of good information on Hall and his time at Harpers Ferry. The good news is that it is easily found on line for as little as $10.00 at Abe Books:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=Harpers+Ferry+and+the+New+Technology&x=0&y=0

Jersey Flinter, you said: "By the time I buy all of the books on my wish list I could have purchased a fine firearm. Tough choice." Why is that? Buy the books one at a time and you will do fine. The books are invaluable to learning about collectable firearms and give you the knowledge to be able to make informed choices when it comes to buying and selling/trading up. They will pay for themselves many times. To me, a good book has never been a "tough choice".

I may be wrong but it has always been my impression that being able to reload without standing was one of the big considerations to the US adopting the Hall rifle.
BTW- June 6th is D Day. Getting to be a long time ago I guess.

Actually crocket, the main consideration in adopting the Hall series of firearms was rapidity in loading, not to ease loading while not standing. Riflemen were trained to load the standard rifle in all positions, whether it was done firing in ranks or as skirmishers; this could require them to load standing in place, behind cover, on the move, kneeling or even lying down which was done lying on the back. The only advantage the Hall offered was in the number of rounds that could be fired per minute as long as the Hall remained clean and it's action wasn't seized up. After that it became a muzzleloader and was actually slower to load than a standard rifle. Even with it's relatively rapid reloading (when compared to the standard rifle) it wasn't that much faster than the 4 rounds per minute demanded of a well drilled, trained infantryman armed with a smooth bored musket. The Hall Rifle disappointed more than it satisfied, it was never a standard weapon of the Regular infantry or riflemen, it's use was primarily as a militia weapon. The Hall design was more suited for use as a carbine for cavalry who relied more on the saber than the firearm in the pre-Civil War period.


And thank you for the reminder of the importance of June 6, here in this part of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we still have a number of survivors of the first wave of the assault on Omaha Beach, members of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division. Not as many as we once had, but they are still among us. The 116th suffered heavily in the assault as can be seen here:
http://warchronicle.com/units/US/29th/ddaycasualties.htm

We owe those men a great deal.