Can Minie Balls be fired from Flintlock rifles?
- Thread starter Som910
- Start date
Probably, but im not sure many flintlocks were actually rifled. I think the brown bess was, but I'm not sure of any others
Rifling was known before flintlocks, but no one used them because since Breech-loading was not invented, you had to either use a patch with a sub-caliber bullet and ram it down with a ramrod or use a super-caliber bullet and hammer it down. Either way, it was way slower than the Smoothbore musket.
I think there are stories form the American Revolution where the revolutionaries used rifled muskets to snipe British officers as the rifles had a longer range and better accuracy.
The Brown Bess wasn't rifled, the British rifle was the Baker Rifle.
The British Rifle Brigade begs to differ.
Settlers from what are now Kentucky, Tennessee, and the western parts of North Carolina were famous for their use of the long rifle, which had advantages in hunting and frontier fighting, and if you're thinking of a particular unit from the war, you're probably thinking of Daniel Morgan's Riflemen.
I was more concerned with whether Minie Balls were compatible with Flintlock rifles or not. I am asking for a SI fic, and I don't think it would be easy to get Mercury fulminate in 16th century with ease.
I mean not in large numbers. They were restricted to specialized troops, not universalised like smoothbores.
I mean not in large numbers. They were restricted to specialized troops, not universalised like smoothbores.
Fundamentally, provided the conical bullet were shaped with the ability to load easily while enabling it to grab the rifling grooves (i.e. the Minié ball had a hollowed skirt near its base to expand and grasp the rifling), there's no reason why it couldn't work. Of course you'd have to deal with the flash pan distracting the shooter, but if you're using the rifle to extend volley fire range against enemy formations rather than picking off individuals then that wouldn't matter.
Also, there's the option of skipping rifling entirely and going to Nessler balls, which stretched the effective range of smoothbore flintlocks out to/beyond 200 yards.; might be more of an iterative development than a true evolution, but again if the goal is to stretch the musket line's pokiness to that of the old longbow then you have this other option.
Also, there's the option of skipping rifling entirely and going to Nessler balls, which stretched the effective range of smoothbore flintlocks out to/beyond 200 yards.; might be more of an iterative development than a true evolution, but again if the goal is to stretch the musket line's pokiness to that of the old longbow then you have this other option.
The British Army at it's Napoleonic peak had something like 20 battalions of riflemen which is I think is pretty large. Smoothbore equipped line infantry remained the majority but riflemen were a key part of the British Army.
In one of the 163X series, Eric Flint has the French develop a percussion cap using nitrates (potassium or sodium) instead of fulminate mercury—less stable, but easier to make in 1633. In case you want to try for percussion caps anyway.
If this is for a SI, I do suggest you take into account that if this would work, it would be very easy to replicate. Any advantages deriving from it would be gone in a couple of years. Large-scale ammunition manufacture is impossible to keep quiet, and once people figure out its benefits, they will have an easy time nabbing the blueprints, or bribing somebody to teach them how to make them themselves.
Harper's Ferry 1800 .50 cal rifled musket? Said to be carried and used by Lewis and Clark. Slow to reload but said to be quite accurate. Could a .577 rifle using Minnie balls use a flint lock instead of percussion caps? Just me but I see no reason why not. Could Minnie balls be used in non rifled flintlock muskets? Probably yes but accuracy would suffer.
marathag
Banned
I have fired Lee Minis from a Jukar flintlock, imported by CSA back in the day
This is the current mold
I got tired of the effort to shove a patched ball down that rifle with the ramrod.
What I did different than most, was to use a Lyman Lubricator to put a beewax and tallow grease mix in the grooves, and to size them as my barrel was a bit undersize.
Lot less fouling.
Worked good with 75 grains of Pyrodex and a few grains of fine BP under it, and for charging the pan
marathag
Banned
For shotguns, you can load hollow base slugs like this
that are a lot more accurate than the old pumpkin balls, but its still not great past 80 yards
I have fired Lee Minis from a Jukar flintlock, imported by CSA back in the day
This is the current mold
I got tired of the effort to shove a patched ball down that rifle with the ramrod.
What I did different than most, was to use a Lyman Lubricator to put a beewax and tallow grease mix in the grooves, and to size them as my barrel was a bit undersize.
Lot less fouling.
for low tech way of doing it.
Worked good with 75 grains of Pyrodex and a few grains of fine BP under it, and for charging the pan
Thank you very much. This helped a lot.
Mini balls would be compatible with rifled flintlocks.
Due to the quality of steel at the time they would use a smaller powder charge and be slightly less effective but they would be more significantly more effective than musket balls.
Acquiring the ammunition won't be a problem because in the days before mass production each flintlock came equipped with a mold so the infantry man could produce his own ammunition from lead supplied to his unit
N
But without dedicated smiths, wouldn't getting molten lead itself be a problem for other militaries?
Not a big concern as I am doing an Akbar the Great SI. Mughals moved entire cities when their armies matched. I don't think they would have that much of a problem resupplying ammunition.
But without dedicated smiths, wouldn't getting molten lead itself be a problem for other militaries?
Lead has a low melting point and was routinely melted over campfires and poured into the molds. Standardized manufacturing do not exist ,that is why every firearm came with its own mold to produce its own ammunition.
Manufacturing your own ammunition was not common it was the norm.