1853 Enfield smoothbore?

[adbranaman]

I was looking at a online catolog and found a 1853 Enfield for a reasonable price.Actually a bit lower in price then others.I clicked on it and found it was a smothbore.Now I wouldn't mind having a BP shotgun and be PC for the Civil War stuff. What gauge would a 58 caliber be and is it PC? Think it'd be good for turkey? :blue:

 

[Teleoceras]

Bluebuck56:

I was looking at a online catolog and found a 1853 Enfield for a reasonable price.Actually a bit lower in price then others.I clicked on it and found it was a smothbore.Now I wouldn't mind having a BP shotgun and be PC for the Civil War stuff. What gauge would a 58 caliber be and is it PC?

That gun would be a 24 gauge. Smoothbore Enfields were made for native troops in the various colonies in the British Empire.

That was because the British figured that when there is a rebellion in a colony, they would rather their regular troops have the longer ranged rifle while the rebellious natives were stuck with the shorter ranged smoothbores. :nono:

:m2c:

 

[big bore 75]

Got to give the Brits credit for that. bb75

 

[SCATTERSHOT]

Also, after the Civil War, I have run across references to some of these old muskets being bored out to 20 gauge for sale to farmers, etc. pretty cheaply. I think Bannerman's did that extensively.

 

[adbranaman]

It didn't really help the British much.I wonder when the natives learned to rifle their guns?
I think it would be a good gun for around the hills and hollers of S.Indiana. We have to use shotguns and pistol rd.s for deer. I hit a deer once with a 12ga.at 75 yd.s thru the lung.I'll bet a patched ball would be even more accruate.Sounds like it'd be a good one for small game,but I don't know if it'd have enough reach or power to knock down a turkey. :hatsoff:

 

[robinghewitt]

Smoothbore Enfields were made for native troops in the various colonies in the British Empire.

That would be the Sepoy musket, made after the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.

I have a Sepoy Musket with lock dated 1855. must have been made for an Enfield ::

I think it's a .69" carbine bore, can't find my electronic measuring stick.

 

[tmdreb]

Like many of the other Indian repros, it could actually be externally similar to the 1853 rifled model, but having a smoothbore barrel. To the best of my knowledge, the Indians aren't rifling anything they're cranking out.

Phil Graf

 

[Tumblernotch]

Hey Squire, didn't one of the repro companies make a bunch of smoothbore P/53's and P/56's for sale to reenactors in England several years ago because of restrictions on rifled arms? I remember a bunch found their way over here in the '80's and were used by quite a few of our reenactors, one reason being that they were cheaper to buy. :hmm: