Did some reading last night
11-30-2008, 12:22 PM
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Did some reading last night
Just wanted to share this. I was reading the book- Westering man, The life of Joseph Walker:
The german Jaguers were somewhat more accurate,but they were too intricate for rough use. Lead balls had to the manufactured to precise specifications and then, to get the proper tight fit, driven down the barrel with an iron rod and hammer. Even men expert in their use did well to fire one shot every fifteen minutes. Also, like the muskets, they were heavy .75 caliber weaopns which ate up a Pound and a half of lead and powder for a dozen shots. Both types of arms were entirely unsuitable for hunting, fighting or even carrying in the dense Appalachian forests, inferior in many respects to the indian bow.
By 1730 frontier smiths, borrowing an idea here, making a small invention there, had corrected this situation, coming up with the famous long rifle. The barrel was 4 feet long with 6 or 8 full interior rifling grooves,but it was nevertheless a slender, comparatively light piece, weighting about 10 pounds and varying between .25 and .45 caliber. A pound of lead gave foury to sixty shots, and because of improvements in loading and firing mechanisms, A man culd fire two round per minute. The parts were simple, and most repairs could be made quickly in the field. White later marvelous stories about marksmen knocking out the eyes of squirrels a quarter of a mile distant may have been somewhat exaggerated, The guns were very accurate at 100 yards and reasonable effective up to 250 yards.
Its a pretty good book so far and i have learned things that i hadn't known before.
The german Jaguers were somewhat more accurate,but they were too intricate for rough use. Lead balls had to the manufactured to precise specifications and then, to get the proper tight fit, driven down the barrel with an iron rod and hammer. Even men expert in their use did well to fire one shot every fifteen minutes. Also, like the muskets, they were heavy .75 caliber weaopns which ate up a Pound and a half of lead and powder for a dozen shots. Both types of arms were entirely unsuitable for hunting, fighting or even carrying in the dense Appalachian forests, inferior in many respects to the indian bow.
By 1730 frontier smiths, borrowing an idea here, making a small invention there, had corrected this situation, coming up with the famous long rifle. The barrel was 4 feet long with 6 or 8 full interior rifling grooves,but it was nevertheless a slender, comparatively light piece, weighting about 10 pounds and varying between .25 and .45 caliber. A pound of lead gave foury to sixty shots, and because of improvements in loading and firing mechanisms, A man culd fire two round per minute. The parts were simple, and most repairs could be made quickly in the field. White later marvelous stories about marksmen knocking out the eyes of squirrels a quarter of a mile distant may have been somewhat exaggerated, The guns were very accurate at 100 yards and reasonable effective up to 250 yards.
Its a pretty good book so far and i have learned things that i hadn't known before.
