What type of weapon for this caliber ball?

[dan elliott]

Guys,
What type of 18th century smoothbore weapon would have fired a .614 caliber (61.4 caliber) ball?
Same question for a .52 caliber ball; and a .56 to .58 caliber ball?
I am dealing with an archaeological site, circa 1720-1747, occupied by Yuchi Indians and Georgia Rangers. Trying to sort out the bullets, gun barrel bore diameters, gunflint sizes. Any help appreciated!

 

[Johnny Too-Tall]

a 20 gauge is 62 caliber so pretty much any smoothbore so fusil's, trade guns, etc. The bore of a 20 gauge should be .615 range but usually use .600 or .595 round balls patched or loose ball dropped down barrel and held in place by a wadding material of various sources.
56 caliber is equal to 28 gauge
58 is equal to 24 gauge
52 is equal to IDK (but a 52 ball can be used in any of the previous mention as a buck and ball round)
**NOTE all could be used in smooth rifles as well too **

 

[BillinOregon]

Fascinating problem. I hope you will share details of your excavations at some point. I have some supervised field experience and loved every minute of it, each gentle scrape of the trowel. But this was a Jornada Puebloan kiva site occupied in the 700-800s, so no firearms projectiles, mostly pot sherds -- El Paso Brown, early Mimbres.

 

[Clark Badgett]

.614 would have likely been used in something around .66/16 gauge in bore if they followed the usual.040-.050 windage practice common then for smoothbores.

 

[rich pierce]

Any of those could have been used in various trade guns, English and French most likely.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Guys,
What type of 18th century smoothbore weapon would have fired a .614 caliber (61.4 caliber) ball?
Same question for a .52 caliber ball; and a .56 to .58 caliber ball?
I am dealing with an archaeological site, circa 1720-1747, occupied by Yuchi Indians and Georgia Rangers. Trying to sort out the bullets, gun barrel bore diameters, gunflint sizes. Any help appreciated!

As @rangerzdral has pointed out, those ball sizes are the bore size equivalent of the diameters, the ball needs to be undersized to fit in the bore even with wadding, which natives and the ranges would have likely used. Burial sites would often have gun parts found as part of the burial accoutrements to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. These too would help.

What colonial sites are near to the excavation in the time period associated with the research into the site? French trade guns tend to be in the 24 gauge sizes and good for the 52 caliber and 56 caliber ball. The 52 would be more effective in a 28 gauge trade gun. Get a copy of Grinslade's book, "Flintlock Fowlers, The First Guns Made in America" for examples of the smoothbores made in the vicinity. There were also the French trade guns that were traded all through the west of the Appalachian Mountains and along the Warriors path. English trade guns trend toward the larger gauges of the 20 to 16 gauge. I would recommend research into the French and English trade guns with some side research into trade guns from Belgium.

Another book that might give some insight into the guns used in the period is Hamilton's, "Colonial Frontier Guns" and a few others.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/T.-M....ramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
For typical British military guns of the 18th century:
Pistols were 0.56 and 0.66 caliber shooting 0.517" and 0.615" diameter balls; respectively.

Carbines, fusils, and rifles were 0.65 or 0.66 caliber firing 0.0615" diameter ball.

Muskets were 0.75-0.78 caliber firing 0.693 to 0.717" diameter balls.

dave

 

[#blackpowderbill]

To be the fly in the soup. When you write your paper on this dig, make sure you give everybody that helped you credit!