I've found very few detailed descriptions of rifle accuracy in the 18th-century literature. They talk a lot about good shooting, tell some impressive tales...killed a horse at 400 yards, shot a board between the knees, broke a head at 200 yards, shot the nose off the king at 150 yards...but exactly what that meant is difficult to come by. Here are a couple with a bit more detail, does anyone have others?
Running Mad for Kentucky
Frontier Travel Accounts, edited by Ellen Eslinger
Journal of John May: 1788”¦.Saturday, May 17 This afternoon I proved my [new] rifle gun----fir’d her 4 times and made excellent shot. 3 times out of 4 I put the ball within 2 inches of the spot which was the bigness of a dollar”¦.
_Indian Captivity: A true narrative of the capture of Rev. O. M. Spencer by the Indians, in the neighborhood of Cincinnati_ , in 1792
Describing one William Moore:
"...a practiced marksman, who at fifty steps, with his rifle, “off hand,” often “drove the centre,” and seldom failed to “cut the black:””¦.
Spence
Running Mad for Kentucky
Frontier Travel Accounts, edited by Ellen Eslinger
Journal of John May: 1788”¦.Saturday, May 17 This afternoon I proved my [new] rifle gun----fir’d her 4 times and made excellent shot. 3 times out of 4 I put the ball within 2 inches of the spot which was the bigness of a dollar”¦.
_Indian Captivity: A true narrative of the capture of Rev. O. M. Spencer by the Indians, in the neighborhood of Cincinnati_ , in 1792
Describing one William Moore:
"...a practiced marksman, who at fifty steps, with his rifle, “off hand,” often “drove the centre,” and seldom failed to “cut the black:””¦.
Spence