rifled muskets

[onefeather]

what are some good rifled muskets and which kind was used for the yanks and for the rebs the only one i have heard is the springfeild and is the one at cabelas a good buy thanks :thanks:

 

[Zonie]

The South used a lot of Enfields, imported from England.
These are .577 caliber rifled muskets. They will shoot the typical .58 caliber musket Minie' ball or round balls.

Recreations of these have been made by several companies over the past 30 years. The best IMO, are made by Parker Hale in England.
These were made in the long barreled "3 band", the mid sized "2 band" and the short Artillary or Musketoon model.

Actually the North and the South both used a number of different guns early in the war.
Neither side was really prepared for war so about anything that was available was used then.

The 1861 Springfield at the price I'm seeing in my Cabela's catalog isn't unreasonable for a new gun.
I see Dixie is offering a EuroArms/Italy "Richmond Musket" (Confederate) for about the same price($525) in their 2005 catalog. They have jacked up the prices on a lot of their stuff sence this catalog was printed so I don't know what they want for it now.

 

[ResearchPress]

At the risk of being pedantic, a rifled musket is a term applied where a smooth-bored musket has subsequently been rifled.

The Enfield was manufactured as a rifled arm in the original production and was designated the Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket (ie. it was of full musket length and fitted for a bayonet, and the entire unit of an adequate length to unhorse cavalry - DWBailey - British Military Longarms 1815-1865).

It is helpful to understand the terms 'rifled-musket' and 'rifle-musket' as each is valid but refers to different arms.

David

 

[wwfeatherston]

Cheers!

I learn something every day, here!

 

[sfruhwirth]

Btw..

Great shooters as well!

 

[Tumblernotch]

:agree: A lot of people get the two mixed up. I guess it's not that important to most, but whenever I refer to American "rifled-muskets", I generally mean M1816 (and variants), M1835 and M1842 smoothbores that have been rifled. Of course the '16 and '35 Models were also altered to percussion, except for a handful of '35's that were left as flintlock but rifled. Our M1855 RM was the first officially adopted "rifle-musket" in this country. Many people still refer to all rifle-muskets simply as "rifles", forgetting that they are musket length and that rifles are a different class of arm.