I collected most of the references I have to shooting distances most likely done with round balls. Make of them what you will.
Benjamin Stites, Shane interview, arrived 1788 “He was not more than 150 yards from the fort. Rather out of reach of gunshot at that time.”
“Border Life”, Elizabeth Perkins, Shane interview of William McBride: “Hugh Luper’s, Samuel Daviess’, General Logan’s [and] Whitley’s wives, kept rifles, and were mighty hard to beat, 100 yards.”
Gen. Sam Dale, Creek war, 1813-14 “I wore a hunting shirt of rust brown color, homespun pants, moccasins and leggings of dressed buckskin, and a bearskin cap; a belt of panther skin with my pouch and hunting knife, and a long rifle---good for a hundred yards--- completed my equipment.”
Isaac Weld, Jr, "Travels Through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the Years of 1795, 1796 and 1797".
“An experienced marksman, with one of these guns, will hit an object not larger than a crown piece, to a certainty, at the distance of one hundred yards.”
“A rifle gun will not carry shot, nor will it carry a ball much farther than one hundred yards with certainty."
Wm. Blane, 1822 “When I was in Kentucky, a hunter offered to fire twenty times at a dollar at the distance of 100 yards, upon the condition that I should give him a dollar every time he struck it, and that he should give me one every time he missed it; but I had seen such specimens of their rifle-shooting, that I did not choose to accept his offer. Indeed I was told by several people who were present, that he was a noted shot, and would have struck the dollar almost every time.”
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The History and Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford, Adams, and Perry Counties:, by Isreal Daniel Rupp, 1846
Lancaster, 24th of April, 1756.
“To Hon. R. H. Morris, Gov.
Honored Sir:”¦ The Indians make use of rifled guns for the most part, and there is such a difference between these sort of guns, and smooth bored, that if I was in an engagement with the savages, I would sooner stand my chance with one of the former sort, which might require a minute to clean load and discharge, than be possessed with a smooth bored gun, which could discharge three times in the same space; for at 150 yards distance with the one, I can seldom or ever hit the board of two feet wide and six feet long.
I am, your Honor’s, &c.
Edward Shippen”
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THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE 3
November 17, 1775
“At the distance of 200 yards, two men have shot into the same hole, in a paper not bigger than a dollar; and this Mr. S. Athawes of London can attest, for he saw it done when he was in Frederick county, Virginia, and carried home with him the paper, through which it was but just discernable that two balls had passed. The riflemen now in our regiments declare, that they can hit a man every shoot if within 250 yards, and his head if within 150. “
William Duane, Handbook for Riflemen, 1812
“In this situation of the country the American revolution commenced. A foreign veteran army, led on by generals schooled in the tactics of Prussia, appeared amongst a people strangers to the concert of battalions or brigades; to whom the tactics and maneuvers of the scientific soldier, and the arts of the engineer, were alike unknown. But there was not a man in the country who could not hit a space of a foot diameter, at one hundred and fifty yards, with a single ball. The great mass of the settlers remote from cities could shoot a squirrel, and shoot it in the head from choice, and with confidence and certainty.”
“...but though there is some elevation of the rifle ball in its course, it is yet relatively so small that it is not required to aim lower than the object at any distance, though when at a considerable distance, say 500 to 700 yards, it is necessary to take a higher aim, in order to countervail the power of gravity upon the weight of the ball.”
“But some say that one third of the weight of the ball is not too much; experience shews that to shoot at 250 to 300 yards, one fourth or a fifth is enough.”
“He must be taught to fire at a target without a rest, for if he accustoms himself to make use of a support, he will rarely fire true without one; but as this method will be rendered easy by practice, he should begin by firing at fifty yards distance, and increase it by degrees to 100, 150, 200 , and 300 yards.”{
Carl P. Russel, "Firearms, Traps and Tools of the Mountain Men", 1966
Seminole war 1835.
Bosworth quotes General Gaines's report to the War Department declaring that entrenched U.S. sentries were wounded, even killed, by single shots from the Seminole rifles at 400 yards.
Warren Johnson’s journal, 1761 “They are remarkable at Philadelphia for making rifled Barrell Gunns, which throw a Ball above 300 yards, vastly well, & much better than any other Barrells.”
Scloppetaria. 1808, Colonel Mark Beaufoy, “Who, five years ago, when rifles were just coming into notice, would have credited the assertion, one telling him that, with practice, 300 yards would be an almost certain distance?"
George Hanger “They have replied, that they thought they were generally sure of splitting a man’s head at two hundred yards, for so they term their hitting the head. I have also asked several whether they could hit a man at four hundred yards,----they have replied certainly, or shoot very near him, by only aiming at the top of his head.”
“I would not give one farthing for a rifle, which would not throw a ball, to a certainty, into the space of about three or four file of men, at four hundred yards, provided the wind was not strong; and the riflemen know how to regulate their aim.”
“I do believe, that, if he shot at a man standing still, at four hundred yards, by only aiming at the man’s head, that he would drop the ball into his breast, not lower, or go so near to him as to alarm him devilishly.”
“But then I will not begin to shoot under 350 yards, and from that distance we will extend our practice to 600 yards.
Reader, do not be surprised at my speaking of 600 yards practice, __for I do not mean to say, that I can hit a horse or an elephant at that distance; but I will prove to you, that I can throw a ball into a piece of canvas six feet high by fifteen feet long; and this will prove that a ball may be thrown, at that distance, into a column of troops, on their line of march.”
And, of course, Hanger's description of the 400 yard shot at him and Tarleton.
Ezekiel Baker, REMARKS ON RIFLE GUNS, Third Edition of 1806 "I have found two hundred yards the greatest range I could fire at to any certainty. At three hundred yards I have fired very well at times when the wind has been calm. At four and five hundred yards I have frequently fired, and I have some times struck the object...."
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