PaperCartridges Compares the Rifle-Musket to a Smoothbore

For 200 years, the smoothbore musket (and especially its bayonet) dominated the battlefield. It’s accuracy, or lack thereof, influenced tactics and the entire Napoleonic system of warfare. But in the 1850’s, new advancements had made the rifle-musket just as fast and easy to load as the old smoothbore. The battlefield would never be the same again.

We compare a Pattern 1853 Enfield .577-caliber rifle-musket with one of its immediate predecessors, a Pattern 1839 smoothbore musket with a .76-caliber barrel. The target is a 4 foot square piece of steel up on the hill at 400 yards. Almost absurdly, against all odds, the smoothbore actually hits it once out of ten rounds (though judging by the sound it made, I think it hit the ground and bounced up into the target... but Chris insists it still counts).