Jaeger vs Longrifle

[smoothshooter]

It does look to me that real precision shooting beyond about 50 yards would have been very difficult, if not impossible a great deal of the time, for several reasons :
( 1 ) Non, or sporadic availability of optimum thickness patching material, including that made of leather.
( 2 ) Limited availability of quality bullet molds, with a good choice of diameters.
( 3 ) Pitted barrels due to poor maintenance, sometimes due to extenuating circumstances.
( 4 ) Poor, uncorrected eyesight.

It is very possible that the reasons listed above are why smoothbores may have been on more equal footing with rifles with regard to accuracy than some people realize, and would go some way toward explaining the smoothbore's popularity.
I have no doubt that the better shooters could have done some really good shooting when everything came together - they had a good rifle loaded with a good bullet and just the right thickness of patching. But as soon as the good patch material ran out, or the bore became pitted to to the point that it needed to be freshed out, the shooter would have been forced to try and make the best of it until those things could be corrected, which might take months, or years.

 

[thecapgunkid]

That's cause you don't talk too good like what we does.

 

[Artificer]

That's cause you don't talk too good like what we does.

:rotf: Yes, I was not doing that well late last night. First I wrote garnet paper when I meant emery cloth in one post and fortunately Zonie spotted that. Then I came up with that last sentence in that post. :redface:

Hoping to do much better today. :grin:

Gus