Buck & Ball load

[RETSF]

I've been researching both Capt Bnjamin Church and Maj Robert Rogers, In ths search I noted reference to loading their rifles with buck and ball. How would buck be loaded with the ball ?

 

[rich pierce]

They used smoothbores loaded with paper cartridges often. 1 Ball with 3 buck over the top. Covers a lot of area.

 

[Many Klatch]

The buckshot is always loaded on top of the roundball to keep it from jamming in the barrel during shooting, at least that is the theory. In a Bess the standard load was 90 to 110 grains of powder. One ball and 4 00 Buck. It kicks pretty good, but you have 5 chances to hit your target.

Imagine the lead shower with a couple of hundred shooters firing 5 balls at a time at the rate of 3 to 4 shots a minute.

Many Klatch

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I went to the Bentonville and Chickamauga Battlefields, at both Veterans said in diarys that 'the air was filled with the sound of hornets buzzing" from that load.

 

[kayja]

are you saying they could have used a 12ga musket with a .690 ball plus 3 buckshot balls on top ??

 

[The Dog Man]

Buck and ball was the standard load for smoothbore muskets in the U.S. Army, as well as the Confederate. The cartridges were formed by rolling the tube, twisting and tying off one end, then placing three .31 cal. round balls in the end of the tube and tying a half hitch between the balls and the end of the former. Next a .650 round ball was seated in the tube and another loop taken with the thread between the .65 ball and the former, and tied off with a full hitch. The former is withdrawn from the tube, and a charge of 110 grains of black powder added before the tail of the cartridge is folded and closed.

To load and shoot, tear of the tail of the cartridge and pour the powder down the bore, then place the buck & ball, paper, string and all, down the bore and ram it to where it's fully seated against the powder charge.

It doesn't really matter if you load the load with the .65 bal on top of or under the buckshot. Personal experimentation indicates that if you load with the round ball up you get a little tighter pattern than with the round ball on the bottom. And yes, the paper and string do ignite sometimes and fall a short distance from the muzzle, which is why under dry conditions the woods sometimes caught fire during Civil War engagements.

The same charge was used in both the .69 flintlocks and percussion smoothbores, a reason for the heavy charge of powder being that the flintlock was primed from the cartridge before loading the rest of the cartridge into the bore.

12 gauge shotguns, commonly used in the Confederate ranks in the first year or so of the War, were able to use the .69 caliber cartridges, which made ammunition issue a little simpler.

Tom

 

[wildeagle]

Also called "Tagger and three cheers",I have several examples of fired rounds that have been found by metal detecting.Two examples are .58 cal. and one is .69 cal.All examples have three dimples indicating three buckshot used in the load.

 

[burgessrudy]

I went to the range today with my Brown Bess. There was a metal silouete of a upper body of a man at about 60-70 yards. On My first shot with the round ball I just missed using the standard Revolutionary .69 caliber ball and paper catridge. I then shot at it with a load of buck and ball with four buck shot. It went "ding" like at a shooting gallery. I made my paper cartidge with the shot on top of the ball, top being the farthest away from the powder charge, or the first thing out of the barrel when shot. It was a lot of fun and I was able to outshoot a guy shooting a .223 at the target.

 

[KHickam]

I used a buck and ball load to take my last elk in WA - to call the load absolutely devastating to the spike elk at 15-20 yds is a real understatement. :grin:

 

[4sd4d]

I tried a buck and ball load at some paper targets a couple years back. I was shooting a 1795 Springfield replica.

90 grains FFg. 25 yards. I got a pattern about 18" between the three points, ant the big hole was always in the circle of three smaller holes.

I only did about five shots like this.