Guest
From "Firearms of the American West 1803-1865"
:"In heavily wooded terrain, such at that in northern Minnesota, Eastern Texas, or the foothills of the Rockies, where long shots were the exception, rather than the rule, a smoothbore could actually be more valuable than a rifle."
:"The early frontier bias against smoothbores simply failed to recognize their advantages." "Moreover, a .69 or a 10- to 16-guage shotgun(.66 to .77 cal.) could fire a single ball roughly twice(to thrice) as heavy as that from a .54 military or plains rifle, which gave it tremendous close-range shocking power"
: To date, I've shot many moose in North-Central B.C. with both large modern and large Muzzleloading rifles, yet I've not shot a moose at a greater distance than 95 yds. from where I've stood. This, in all cases could have been handled by a properly loaded militay musket with a single ball. Only one needed more than the initial shot, and that one took the second in the literally the same tracks as when receiving the first. Such is the tremendous shocking power of a .69. While it was a rifle, it very easily could have been a M1728 French or English, without the unessessary benifit of the rifling.
Daryl
:"In heavily wooded terrain, such at that in northern Minnesota, Eastern Texas, or the foothills of the Rockies, where long shots were the exception, rather than the rule, a smoothbore could actually be more valuable than a rifle."
:"The early frontier bias against smoothbores simply failed to recognize their advantages." "Moreover, a .69 or a 10- to 16-guage shotgun(.66 to .77 cal.) could fire a single ball roughly twice(to thrice) as heavy as that from a .54 military or plains rifle, which gave it tremendous close-range shocking power"
: To date, I've shot many moose in North-Central B.C. with both large modern and large Muzzleloading rifles, yet I've not shot a moose at a greater distance than 95 yds. from where I've stood. This, in all cases could have been handled by a properly loaded militay musket with a single ball. Only one needed more than the initial shot, and that one took the second in the literally the same tracks as when receiving the first. Such is the tremendous shocking power of a .69. While it was a rifle, it very easily could have been a M1728 French or English, without the unessessary benifit of the rifling.
Daryl
