Stopping power of a brown bess

[dukewellington]

I know a 45cal with a light powder load can go through a whole phonebook,what could a brown bess to at close range?

I Would not want to be a Frenchie looking down the barrel of one :shake:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Certainly a deadly ball but not the equal of a modern 12 ga. shotgun slug. I believe the service load was a .69 caliber ball with 100 grains of "musket powder", what ever that was. With 100 grains of 2f and a .715" ball it achieves about 1000 fps and about 1200 ft.lb of energy at the muzzle, acording to the Lyman BP handbook. A typical 12 gauge slug load using a one ounce Foster type slug runs about 1600 fps and about 2400 ft.lb.

 

[PGTMG]

I know a 45cal with a light powder load can go through a whole phonebook,what could a brown bess to at close range?

I Would not want to be a Frenchie looking down the barrel of one :shake:

I am sure it would be the begining of a very bad no good day. :surrender:

 

[dukewellington]

I bet it could still pass through at least two-three soldiers at colse range though.

 

[Le Grand]

It might depend on if the shooter was running forward or not... That would add maybe 15 feet per second.

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

Duke, You are correct about the power of the Brown Bess. I used to have a First Model Bess
that was .77 caliber so I used a .750 ball with a
10 thousand patch. i used 100 grains of Goex Cartridge to plane out the big ball. The first woodswalk I shot the Big Bess on, one of the last targets was a 3 foot tall standing bear suspended
from two chains. It was set out in the woods about 70 yards. After I sent out a broadside the bear was not to be seen. I was accused of cutting the chain or breaking the weld. I walked downrange with the range officer to help repair the target. When we reached the target we discovered the dead center impact of the big ball
had spun the bear up where it now hung upside down
with the un painted side showing. It was invisable
from the firing line. I have been shooting that rendezvous for over 12 years, no other ball fired from 50s, 54s, and 62s could flip that bear! So yes, the big ball of the Brown Bess is very distructive. My First Model Bess is for sale on Track of the Wolf if you want to take a gander at the beast. I do regret I never got a shot at big game with this musket. Every time I took out the Bess the Deer stayed out past 100 yards. When I took a rifle they came in to 50 yards!

:thumbsup:

 

[dukewellington]

What type of game can a bess take? Is it accurate up to 50 yards then?

 

[dukewellington]

The only model I have found over here is the Napoleon era brown bess. I'm sure what it would be like.

Here is a link to it

http://www.derbyshirearms.co.uk/pages/new_range.html

ITEM A

 

[poordevil]

Bering, Of Breing Stright fame killed a Polar bear with a Brown Bess.

And RE a 12 ga slug goin 1600fps. Is that in a
3-3 1/2in. case? A 1 oz load from a 2 3/4in 12ga shot or slug go about 1200-1300fps, so closer to a musket load.

P.

 

[dukewellington]

Alot of the English used to call the the brown bess the frog killer, as it killed alot of frogs.
Not the four legged amphipian kind :wink:

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

My old First model shot a .750 ball which weighed
.640 grains. I shot it through a crony one time and my load measured at 1266 FPS. Of course I am using a snug patch not a undersized paper cartridge round.

 

[crockett]

Has anyone ever heard of or done any work on the frontal area of a projectile? When the high speed/small bullet of modern cartridges were developed it was found that there was a rupture force(I don't know the proper term) but on the slow to mid speed bullets I don't think this applied, on the slower speeds a bigger ball made a bigger hole and did a better job. A .770 ish pure lead ball could likely flatten out to over 1", a spinning disk cutting through lungs, etc- seems pretty destructive.
On the Polar bear- any info on shot placement? The mountain men of the 1820's to 1830's came to the conclusion a grizzly had to be shot in the head to stop it with one shot.

 

[musketman]

I know a 45cal with a light powder load can go through a whole phonebook,what could a brown bess to at close range?

I once shot lengthwise through a maple log (firewood length) at 15 feet away to show how a Brown Bess can split firewood.
That was with a .715 roundball in front of 100 grains of FFg.

 

[musketman]

What type of game can a bess take? Is it accurate up to 50 yards then?

In my opinion, any animal that gets a 3/4 inch hole punched through it is going to die.
Shot placement is the key with every caliber, once you get that down the rest will fall into place.

 

[J.D.]

In my opinion, any animal that gets a 3/4 inch hole punched through it is going to die.
Shot placement is the key with every caliber, once you get that down the rest will fall into place.

Ain't that the truth. I have killed a coupla deer with a Pedersoli bess and it does a good job. Both deer were killed at ranges of about 20-30 yards, but that big ball will take down any deer to probably bison sized game with a good shot to the vitals inside of 60-70 yards. The problem with judging one's max range is knowing how far that range really is. Most folks tend to under estimate range.

 

[dukewellington]

A bess has no rear sites, how do you get an accurate shot?

 

[musketman]

A bess has no rear sites, how do you get an accurate shot?

Your eye "IS" the rear sight.

Once you get a feel for the gun, your head will naturally line up in the same place every time you raise the musket to shoot.

 

[brubincam]

-----you mean back shootin ?-----

 

[Ridge]

I know a 45cal with a light powder load can go through a whole phonebook

That's really going to depend on where you live... :wink:

 

[GBG]

Lyman's 47th Reloading Handbook p.150 states that in 1740 in England, Benjamin Robbins (inventor of the ballistic pendulum) measured velocities from 1400fps to just under 1700fps with .75 caliber musket balls. I think thats around 3500 foot pounds. Lyman does not give the powder charges used.