On the frontiers of Europe, not all musket balls were round; accuracy and penetration of various types of military small arms munitions from the mid seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century

Abstract

While many armies began to adopt large calibre weapons in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, frontier conflicts in the outer reaches of Europe and in North America have provided evidence for the retention of smaller calibres, particularly evidenced through the archaeological recovery of ammunition. Present within these assemblages are various forms of non-standard ammunition — i.e. not round — including bullets with casting sprues still attached at the time of firing. This paper provides an assessment of the combat effectiveness of these various types of ammunition through a series of firing tests using replicated ammunition.

Keywords:

• small calibre
• ballistic tests
• sprue ordnance

Notes

¹ In 1621, for example, when the Tatars had carried out an extended raid as far as Zamosc and Lublin, the legal citizens of Kamianets-Podilsky, along with three to four hundred ‘Germans’ (either mercenaries or troops who followed the German style of warfare) ambushed the returning Tatars and freed a number of recently captured slaves and relieved the ‘infidels’ of their ill-gotten spoils (Schütz, 1968, p. 55).

² Depending on an author preference, the actual diameter of the bullet may be presented in mm, calibre of bullet (which is not to be confused with the calibre of the weapon’s barrel), livres or gauge. The mathematical formula for the conversion from mm to calibres is mm/25.4 and the formula to convert from calibre to mm is Cal (x) 25.4.

³ Sveshnikov discusses the recovery of metal buttons in ammunition pouches (Sveshnikov, 1992, p. 254). The glass beads are displayed under the title ‘Contents of an ammunition pouch’ at the Berestechko Battlefield National Historical Memorial Preserve, Museum of the Cossack Graves.

^{4 ‘}in 1734, the French shipped in 20,000 livres of balls weighing from 25 to 28 to the livres, 30,000 livres weighing from 28 to 32 to the livre, and 28,000 livres of shot’ (Hamilton, 1987, p. 129).

⁵ In his work, Bradley seriated the munitions into sub-calibres. When compared with other studies of firearms and munitions, not only is this an unusual practice, but it seeks to measure a level of distinction in tolerance which was only achieved in the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century.

⁶ Gov. Fletcher to Committee of Trade, 1693 (O’Callaghan, 1854).

⁷ Bo Knarrström, personal communication, 2010.

⁸ http://www.mcccf.gouv.qc.ca/phips/wreck19b.htm. Accessed on 1 July 2012.

⁹ A number of individuals made this research possible. Patrick Davis, Erik Hale and Kris King from Morehead State University were involved with the production of ammunition. In the later phases of test firing, the participation of Patrick Davis, Kris King, Quinton Tyree and Paul Tierney made this study possible.

¹⁰ In 1718, for example, when James Puckle patented one of the first successful revolvers, he ‘announced that it could fire round bullets against Christians or square ones against Turks’ (Peterson, 1964, p. 203).

¹¹ It is possible to add patching around the ball in order to reduce the difference between the calibre of the ball and the diameter of the barrel. In the heat of combat, where soldiers in ranks were ordered to quickly load and fire their weapons, the viability of using patching remains unclear, but for individual marksmen taking their time to deliver an aimed shot, patching may have significantly reduced the discrepancy between ball diameter and barrel calibre.

¹² The black powder used for all of the tests was 3F Skirmish Black Powder manufactured by Goex, Inc.

¹³ The muzzle velocity of the mashed was extremely low and those with good eyesight could watch the slugs travel downrange. Standing to the of the firing range side, one could observed the mashed balls hitting the ground and bouncing up towards the target. The bouncing of rounds is well documented in contemporary artillery manuals, but this same principle was observed when discharging an infantry musket.

¹⁴ Dwight Deskins, Firearms Examiner, Kentucky State Police, Eastern Regional Forensic Laboratory, personal communication, March 2010.

¹⁵ http://www.perma-gel.com/overview.htm. Accessed on 1 July 2012.

¹⁶ The unexpected documentation appeared as a chance discovery. When the paper targeted lay still against the wooden backboard, it was very easy to see the evidence of the sprue hitting the target. However, periodically a light breeze would lift the taped paper target slightly away from the wooden backboard and create a pillow of air. If the target was hit at such a time, the paper would curl. As it was impossible to control wind at the target range, no specific data for this observed phenomenon was collected and no comparative statistical analysis is possible at this time.