Can you get 3 aimed shots a minute?

[Packrat]

When I had my Parker Hale 53 Enfield, using premade cartridges I could do four a minute and hit what I was aiming at . of course I was 30 years younger than now

 

[Doc]

At rendezvous out west many of us have learned to shoot 3 aimed per ,minute, shooting out of our bag. Most rendezvous have a Fort Shoot with 25/35 knock down steel targets with a 3/4 man team. It’s not really that hard.
Doc,

 

[TFoley]

It's absolutely doable but it does take practice

2 minutes, rapid fire, 6 shots, 1 miss at 50yds. Target score of 8. 3 basic hits=3 1 on card=2 1 on bicycle=3. I got in a hurry on the last shot and pulled it right of target.

View attachment 299387

Those holes look just like the ones we'd see in a Mad magazine cartoon......

 

[Bucks Co]

I've achieved it with a patched RB Percussion Rifle -I used pre patched balls in a loading block but measured the powder from my horn - There were witnesses.
I was present when Rudyard demonstrated 4 rounds a minute with a Brown Bess; starting empty, using paper cartridges - he actually averaged 13 seconds per shot!

 

[TFoley]

Shooting a Whitworth rifle, as I often do, can take thirty minutes of maybe more, by the time I've finished yakking to the usual gawpers who want to know
how you get a hexagonal bullet in there...

Happily, I'm not usually in a rush of any kind.

 

[No Answers]

For a few years I was NRA certified to instruct muzzleloader rifle classes. For your own safety it is advisable to wait at least one minute before poring black powder down the barrel. This allows time for any remaining ember to die. I think it far better that an ember die than you and everyone nearby.

 

[ord sgt]

Been there. Done that. Former 11th NJ PVI. Good friend was with11thNJ, deserted and joined 13th NC. He was provost too.

 

[BS]

https://rjrenner.blogspot.com/p/tapered-paper-cartridges.html

Eight seconds to reload and shoot, even figuring 10, that is 6 a minute.

 

[wganz]

That is THE REASON that I’m building that bullet trap on the back of the farm is to get that level. Some of the N-SSA skirmishers are scary fast. But I’m not in that category yet.

 

[Doc]

No Answers, out west we have Fort Shoots at every rendezvous for over 30 years that I know of. Also we have BP silhouette shoots at various ranges every month for another 30 years. There has never been a problem. The only problem exists for shooting blanks such as these re-enactments back east. There’s no pressure to exhume all of the powder.
Doc,

 

[sethwyo]

That's easy. just put three balls down the barrel!

Somebody might actually try doing that and wake up with a bloody nose and a broken rifle laying across their face

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I was curious what all you guys can do I know this is the old world gold standard I was trying it at the range with a 61 springfield and I could almost but not quite get there and it felt like I was flying impressive that these guys did it under fire reliably

So often that standard was to start with a loaded rifle or musket. With a Bess, I can do four in a minute IF you start the clock when my first ball goes downrange.

Aimed shot? Well there was a reason they kept volley fire well into the age of the infantry rifleman.

LD

 

[jrweis1997]

Shooting a Whitworth rifle, as I often do, can take thirty minutes of maybe more, by the time I've finished yakking to the usual gawpers who want to know
how you get a hexagonal bullet in there...

Happily, I'm not usually in a rush of any kind.

Whitworth rifles are very cool how do you go about casting and sizing bullets for that i always wondered

 

[waarp8nt]

I'm slow and methodical about loading.

That fact really didn't set in until I was confronted by dogs. After shooting, checking on my livestock, I decided to reload the muzzleloader. I lubed the strip of patching in a tin of my favorite lube. Pulled the flask and added powder from a measure. I placed the ball on the strip of lubed patching matterial, fumbled for the short starter, fumbled for the patch knife, pulled the ramrod and sent the ball down the barrel.

Realizing how slow my method was, I changed my procedure when I got back to the house for the evening.I premeasured some powder charges, lubed the strip of patching matterial and organized the hunting bag to help prevent fumbling for each item.

I'm still slow. Never timed it, but figured those steps cut my reloading time in half.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

In the movie " Patriot" Mel Gibson ask is men to fire two shots before retreating. One man replied, " a lot can happen in the time it takes to fire two shots. His reply was" that's why I'm not asking you to shoot three! I couldn't imagine standing that close and letting guys shoot volleys at you while your reloading.

That part of the movie was inspired by two battles. First was the Battle of Cowpens (January 1781) where General Daniel Morgan had taken 600-men of General Greene's Continental army and 400 militia and headed northwest in North Carolina. British General Cornwallis split off a contingent of about 1,000 men under the infamous Banistre Tarleton to attack Morgan's Patriot force. Morgan got advance news of his approach and set up three lines of his troops. First line contained 150 riflemen sharpshooters. The second line was the Carolina militia, who were untested and expected to break and run easily, and hopefully draw the British into his trap. So Morgan went from campfire to campfire the night before talking to his men and telling the militia that he just needed two shots from them when the Brits were withing range and then they could fall back to the line behind them. The third line was composed entirely of battle-hardened Continental Line veterans.

On January 17, 1781, the riflemen in the first line opened fire first decimating the British dragoons who were leading the attack. They killed 15-men within just a few minutes, including a number of officers, long before they came into musket range. As the British got closer, they fell back to the second line. The militia, for the most part, did indeed fire two shots before high-tailing it back from the second line. When he second line was started to fall back the third line ran a double envelopment of the British forces completely surrounding them. Battle lasted less than an hour and British losses were 110 killed (including 40-officers), 200-wounded, and over 500 captured. Tarleton and a few of his mounted officers turned tail and ran their horses away from the battle, losing his entire force. General Morgan's force on the other hand suffered only 12-men killed and 60 wounded. It was a really one-sided battle.

Greene later tried the same strategy at Guilford Courthouse in March of 1781 but spaced his 3-lines too far apart to really support each other. He put the riflemen and the militia in the first line, the Virginia militias in the second line, and his Continental army in the third line. He ended up retreating from the field when the Brits finally broke through his third line but was able to save almost all of his army. The Brits won because they held the field, but they no longer had a viable British Southern Army and had to march a couple of hundred miles without supplies or tents in the rain to reach the South Carolina Coast, where they could re-supply and reinforce.

 

[cynthialee]

No.
I am not capable of such marksmanship. I can do about 2 in 1.5 minutes with resolve.

I have seen a fella who could do 4. I would be too afraid of mistakes trying to go so fast. Mistakes in this sport can cost lives. Then I seen a youtube video of this one dude who was shooting an unbelievable (for BP arms) rate of fire. I forget the count but it was impressive.

 

[waksupi]

If you are going to play with speed loading, use a steel rod or similar. I've seen broken ramrods through the hand too many times in the past 50 years. Always wood ramrods, of course, and usually an overexcited pilgrim.

 

[springfield art]

It takes a little practice but it isn't all that difficult. One needs to be organized, focused and familiar with their equipment. Hints: stick your bayonet in the ground in front of you and rest your rammer on it rather than return it, take the top flap of your cartridge box and tuck it under the waist belt so the box is always open, turn the top flap of the cap box over and tuck it in your belt, get a good shooting stance and don't move from it, focus on the targets and never look away. Of course it goes without saying you need a proper fitting minie and an excellent lube. Having someone shooting back at you might help too. There was (no longer shooting) a skirmisher that could consistently get off 4 aimed shots per minute and a majority of them were hits, one of the best shooters in the N-SSA. Hey, if I could do it a caveman probably could too.

All such are under perfect conditions; not stressed or wounded, thirsty or under actual fire; it's something that people CAN do, but it's akin to changing a tire along side of a road, and changing a tire during a NASCAR race; training, perfect conditions and conditioning, etc., etc. Fun to do similar to the 75 yard Colt Navy .36 cal. "Wild Bill" shot.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

If you are going to play with speed loading, use a steel rod or similar. I've seen broken ramrods through the hand too many times in the past 50 years. Always wood ramrods, of course, and usually an overexcited pilgrim.

That's real true, I broke a wooden one myself. Luckily didn't go through my hand and I learned to take short strokes with the ramrod (9" to 12" at a time) to seat the ball instead of trying to seat it with one or two stokes.

Be aware, that during the Revolutionary war the ramrods for rifles were wooden. The early Land Pattern British Musket (Brown Bess) used a wooden one also but by the time of the Rev War all British Troops were using the shorter land pattern musket with the metal ramrods although some of the loyalist companies were still using the longer barreled version and some of those had wooden ramrods. The French Muskets also used metal ramrods.

Most of the speed loading contests that I have seen or participated in allowed the use of pre-patched and lubed loading blocks along with a range rod, typically made of metal, fiberglass, or other synthetic composition. Usually you hung the loading block from your neck with a leather lanyard and stuck your range rod in the snow in front of you...not really what I'd call realistic conditions, but effective.

 

[billraby]

I do about 3 shots in 10 minutes or so. Don't really know. Don't care either. I'm never in much of a hurry when I go shooting.