M-16

[brian]

1816 a3 to be exact.
any one know what size buck is used in u.s. army buck n ball
loads?.
and speaking of the "forgotten war" how come no mex war page?
brian in denver

 

[Zonie]

"...speaking of the "forgotten war" how come no mex war page?...:

My guess? The Mexican War happened way out West, in the "middle of nowhere" so Reenactors aren't real excited about making reenactments of it or the people who were envolved in it. Perhaps it doesn't have the "romantic aura" of the other wars. After all, we just kinda kicked butt all the way down to Mexico City and it was finished.

I think there is a lot of interest on this Forum in the firearms and to a lesser extent, the uniforms and equipment which were used in fighting that war but there are many areas of history that fall into this catagory.
The Gold Rush of 1849 for instance had a great influence on our country as did the Pilgrimages to Oregon and California but there isn't a great deal of interest in doing Reenactments of those events either.

I own an original 1842 Springfield, and find myself handleing it and wondering where it was during that war. Mexico? California? Who had it in the Civil War? Where did it fight? Questions who shall forever remain unanswered.

 

[musketman]

any one know what size buck is used in u.s. army buck n ball
loads?.

A typical "buck-and-ball" cartridge, which consisted of a .69 caliber round lead ball and three .31 caliber buckshot...

 

There ya go - I'd always thought they used 000 (Special SG) which is .36".

 

[musketman]

There ya go - I'd always thought they used 000 (Special SG) which is .36".

I would imagine that during war time production, they would use three smaller balls of shot, not too much concern on it's diameter as long as it fits down the tube...

I also read about a .69 caliber musket ball with four .22 caliber balls above it as well...

 

Yes- 3 balls of .32" fit inside a standard 12 bore shell- that's why there are 3 or 4 rows, depending on the charge- standard or magnum, in 2 23/4". Whatever size of ball would permit the paper ctg. being only around .65" outside dia, would be what was used. I'm certain there is formula for that- beyond my knowledge of math - damn.

 

[brian]

thanks guys,
I didnt realize the buck was tied seperatly,
I'v been using the pattern out of "stephens horse cav.
books.
going to the mountain man collage this weekend,
thay kinda of tolerate us army of the west guys
invading bents old fort. even though the cut off is 1840.
except for the hat the uniforms about the same.
BB

 

I much prefer the Ak-47 of the battle field the Brown Bess state of the art in firepower in its day. On on full auto 4-6 a minute,in whats known as the mad minute!!!

 

[Zonie]

For those interested in the reason .31 cal buck worked so well. The formula to calculate what bore 3 touching balls would fit into is 2 (R+R/Cos 30 degrees). R is the radius of the buck.

For the .31 dia buck that equals 2 (.155 + .155/Cos 30) which equals 2X(.155 + .179) or .6679
This fits a .69 cal smoothbore better than the undersize .65 dia ball that was also wrapped into the paper "buck an' ball" paper cartridges.

For 4 balls the formula is 2X(R+R/Cos 45 degrees).
4 .31 dia balls would need a bore size of at least .748.

Getting back to the Mexican/American War, the Buck&Ball was rather popular in that war as well as the Civil War.