I don’t need to prove anything … the ordinance records show what was acceptable and what was not Indian made Muskets and Pedersoli Muskets are not in line with ordinance requirements and would not pass inspection
I understand, although original besses I’ve seen seem to be less then uniform. Each regiment I believe had an armorer there was no interchangeable parts and repairs had to be hand done.
I do recall a quote about the kings musket that said ‘if not exceeding ill bored, as many of them are’. Sometimes me thinks that we place a quality on old guns that wasn’t there.
But just for S and G we look at a good musket from cr 1750 and a random ‘second model brown Bess’ repo, we can find all sorts of flaws that don’t match up.
So do we say that if you can’t afford a five grand plus bench copy you can’t play?
None of my guns will ‘pass muster’. And though I’m not military all of my outfits fail.
Even my hand sewing ain’t up to par of a professional tailor or his seamstress employee.
A $700 copy from Loyalist shoots, and shoots well, and looks at least as much like an original as my kettles and pots.
I have glasses. But most ‘middleing’ sorts did not, and if they did was mostly readers. So should I be banned from events?
For safety sake we don’t use plain canvas tentage at events, for taste, even if we do period recipes, we eat a more varied diet.
Most of us tend to be a mite full in the body and long in the tooth. I dare say 90% of today’s reinactors could not fit in any clothing worn by real soldiers back in the day.and how many of us sleep six to a wedge tent?
While we strive to be correct we do live in the here and now