Loyalist Dave
Member
8 shots a minute? That was definately a force multiply for its time. What was the rate of fire for the Brown Bess 3 shots maybe 4?
A force multiplier..., for about 2 minutes
while the Bess would shoot pretty much all day at 3-4 shots per minute. Note that the fellow in the timed firing is only shooting for time, not to actually aim at anything. The other thing is, especially with the British powder of the era, the screw and block portion of the action would need regular cleaning, so you might get say three minutes of four well-aimed-shots per minute, before the rifle would be out of action, for some wiping and brushing. It's real advantage was the fact that the ball was forced onto the rifling rather than using a patch, so had much better velocity, and the fact that it could be loaded from a prone position.
LD