Military Musket Range

[RAEDWALD]

I was reading 'Stirring Incidents in the Life of a British Soldier' by Thomas Faughnan who served under the colours for 21 years to 1868.

In this he notes his first introduction to musketry was at the depot in initial training with the Brown Bess musket. His regiment the 17th of Foot (in whose successor regiment I once served) was returning from service in India during his training. It is likely that they has percussion muskets but the training depot was using the older flintlock ones. He describes the introduction as:

'We were then put through a course of ball practice.
The distance being fifty, a hundred, hundred and fifty,
and two hundred yards ; the old Brown Bess being in
use then. The first shot I fired I got a bull's eye, which was reckoned a first-class shot, and the only one I got during the practice.'

So we see recruits in @1847 with flintlock muskets being taught and practiced aimed fire at 50, 100, 150 and 200 yards. Clearly these were the ranges that were thought to be useable with such weapons.

If you want to read it for yourself it can be read/downloaded at: https://archive.org/details/stirringinciden00fauguoft

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Actually since the author mentions how he and others are "advanced" in training, the range exercise may have been a test to see who was handiest with the musket. He only got one bullseye, and from how the passage is written it seems it was at 50 yards. Select Marksmen in the British army could consistently hit a standing man at 90 yards.

The Bess was employed, according to other documents, out to 150 yards, and there are "hits" with the Bess recorded out much farther. Our perception of "effective" smoothbore musket fire is a bit different than that of the 18th and 19th centuries. Especially when you figure in, the author is in the Victorian Era.

Under Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, the British army is employed throughout The Empire, and the 17th is employed in India. So they are not training to go up against Germans, French, Dutch, or Russians (though if you read on, you see how poorly the Bess does vs. Russians in the Crimean War). They are training to continue to go up against either Africans or Indians (see the book Queen Victoria's Little Wars by Byron Farwell), with much cruder guns OR no guns at all. So imagine the effect on a tribal army, well out of bow or spear-range, and the British with the outdated Bess cut loose with a volley from say 100 men, and hit a couple of the opponents....at 200 yards? :shocked2:

We're talking an ounce of soft lead whacking into some poor fellow with a hide shield and a spear, or a matchlock, and that ball causing a very respectable wound. His companions don't sit there and say, "Well that's a mere 2% hit rate, so let's go get them Brits!" No, they say, "Holy Mother of The Gods! They just blew up Bob and his brother from waaaay over there. Screw this, we're outta here!" and they leg-it off the battlefield. :wink:

LD

 

[Britsmoothy]

"His companions don't sit there and say, "Well that's a mere 2% hit rate, so let's go get them Brits!" No, they say, "Holy Mother of The Gods! They just blew up Bob and his brother from waaaay over there. Screw this, we're outta here!" and they leg-it off the battlefield. "

:haha: great writing.

B.

 

[54ball]

Musket Range could be about 300 yards from a fortification.
This is not to say individual soldiers were popping off spectacular hip shots at that range but rather a deadly wall of lead fired from men in ranks along the ramparts could cover that 300 yards.

Instead of a musket ball having an individual attacker's name on it, it was more like "to whom it may concern".

This is one reason I believe charges were so heavy mid 18th Century for the Brown Bess.

 

[RAEDWALD]

Possibly a little unfair to Indian armies who were musket and rifle armed with artillery and cavalry and were certainly known to win the day.

The Russians were equally unamused with their smoothbore muskets and gave them Nessler balls. One of which lies on my desk before me with a couple of long range 'Kulikov' bullets of the Russian Jagers and an example of the belted ball for the same rifle.

The 17th were unfortunate to still be using the Pattern 1842 musket as they had been trained to be able to use the Pattern 1851 'Minie' Rifle which they later had issued to them in the Crimea.

I made the post to show how muskets were used at ranges up to 200 yards. By 150 yards the target is a platoon or artillery piece. After 150 yards the target gets more company sized (in close formation) and after 300 yards both the accuracy and power has degraded enough to be all but random (but still no fun f you are the random hit). Hence the period use of @300 yards as being 'musket shot'.

I felt sorry for the 68th Regiment whose lovely new Pattern 1851 rifles had their ram rods seized in place by the new wood swelling up in the constant wet leaving them with the traditional pointy stick.

It was interesting to read the account of a man who was there detailing the ranges at which a musket armed professional soldier was expected to practice aimed musket fire.

 

[Elnathan]

Musket Range could be about 300 yards from a fortification.
This is not to say individual soldiers were popping off spectacular hip shots at that range but rather a deadly wall of lead fired from men in ranks along the ramparts could cover that 300 yards.

Instead of a musket ball having an individual attacker's name on it, it was more like "to whom it may concern".

This is one reason I believe charges were so heavy mid 18th Century for the Brown Bess.

Don't worry about the bullet with your name on it. Instead, worry about the shrapnel addressed to "Occupant."

-Murphy's Laws of Combat