AHC Odd Tech

The challenge is to get technology to be lopsided in this way.

POD can be 1685 or later.

By the 1860s, we want some industry like textiles and steam engines, just like OTL. We also need chemistry to be advanced like OTL.

However, smoothbore muskets like the Brown Bess are the most commonly used frontline firearm and the artillery shells are also smoothbore (which means beyond visual range shots are impossible).

Now, in OTL, there were "rifled muskets" as early as Napoleon's time. No one really cared for them in OTL. The problem was that they were a pain to produce, easily to mess up reloading, and black powder smoke shot from a rifle would quickly place the shooter inside a cloud of smoke, negating the point of longer range.

Bonus points if you can get smokeless powder (which is actually 1870s OTL) in TTL, but still have muskets (possibly because no one put two and two together)
 
Now, in OTL, there were "rifled muskets" as early as Napoleon's time. No one really cared for them in OTL. The problem was that they were a pain to produce, easily to mess up reloading, and black powder smoke shot from a rifle would quickly place the shooter inside a cloud of smoke, negating the point of longer range.
This is just plain false, everyone rushed to adopt rifle muskets as soon as they became practical for Line Infantry with the Minie ball, within a decade of its invention everybody was using Rifle Muskets save those who could not afford them. Before then rifles were restricted to specialists because they took too long to reload for line infantry, but were used by such specialists in most every major army. They definitely could be used at longer range than smoothbores, even black powder breech loaders that fired far faster could be, smoke clouds or no

Only way to stop their adoption is to stop precision industry from getting as good, leaving them too expensive, but that will have knock on effects and probably prevent smokeless powder from entering general use

You could I suppose rely on luck, nobody coming up with the Minie ball before someone figures out how to make smokeless powder in mass quantity, but that is unlikely,
 
Very well, I knew rifled muskets were used for some time by specialists, I guess "no one really cared for them" wasn't the right term, but rather "no one would use them en mass over muskets if you gave them for free." My point being, figure out a way for industry, textiles, steam technology, and chemistry to be similar to OTL, while keeping smoothbores for line infantry.

Also... shooting 3 times in quick succession by a squad of specialists with rifles would end up in a cloud with a visibility of 100-150 meters. Since you can't exactly shoot what you can't see and presumably one would want to shoot more than 3 times a battle, I don't see how the Minie ball stops that problem

Ok, if the key is the Minie ball, then figure out how the world can make those other advances and still fail at the Minie ball. Luck is fine, but how would such series of events occur?
 
Very well, I knew rifled muskets were used for some time by specialists, I guess "no one really cared for them" wasn't the right term, but rather "no one would use them en mass over muskets if you gave them for free." My point being, figure out a way for industry, textiles, steam technology, and chemistry to be similar to OTL, while keeping smoothbores for line infantry.

Also... shooting 3 times in quick succession by a squad of specialists with rifles would end up in a cloud with a visibility of 100-150 meters. Since you can't exactly shoot what you can't see and presumably one would want to shoot more than 3 times a battle, I don't see how the Minie ball stops that problem

Ok, if the key is the Minie ball, then figure out how the world can make those other advances and still fail at the Minie ball. Luck is fine, but how would such series of events occur?
Smoothbores were only used over rifles due to #1 the reloading time issue, and #2 the cost issue. Cost is basically due to manufacturing issues, the extra cost of rifling a barrel, modern machine tools reduce the differential, and the Minie ball meant you had a ball that could engage rifling while being loaded as fast as a normal ball

The smoke problem is overstated, with muzzle loaders with 20 second or greater reload times, the smoke usually had time to clear before another shot could be made, outside certain weather conditions. Even if it didn't, even being able to fire at a reduced rate without blinding yourself, then being able to rapid fire when the enemy got close would be a huge advantage. Smoke became more of a problem with breech loaders, but then formations started shifting to less dense ones that produced less density of smoke

Just sheer bold faced luck, everytime some guy thinks of the idea he dies before he can sell it, offends somebody, is dismissed out of hand, what have you, plus happy accident to discover smokeless. Only way to do it, if you make industry primitive enough the cost is prohibitive, then it is too primitive to make lots of nitrocellouse
 
OK, I found out that the mine ball was made in 1848 and we're trying to have 1865 tech minus rifling for the line infantry, so I guess I don't even need to imagine much of a challenge. Getting something 1-3 decades behind OTL doesn't need too much of a challenge, it's not like trying to get solid state electronics before the first practical internal combustion engine.
 
OK, I found out that the mine ball was made in 1848 and we're trying to have 1865 tech minus rifling for the line infantry, so I guess I don't even need to imagine much of a challenge. Getting something 1-3 decades behind OTL doesn't need too much of a challenge, it's not like trying to get solid state electronics before the first practical internal combustion engine.

You also had the Dreyse needle rifle by 1841, which was much more advanced than the Minie rifle. And by the end of the 1820s there was the Delvigne chamber breech and later improved pillar breech rifles which led to the Minie. In America there was the Hall breechloading rifle in 1819 and Sharps in 1848.

For your TL I suggest a unified Europe with EU like peace and commerce. Smoothbore stuck around a long time in places with less warfare.

So how about Nelson loses at Trafalgar. Russia decides not to defy Napoleon, who lives to old age as Emperor. Pax Franca descends across Europe, leading to a period of conservatism in military technology.
 
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the artillery shells are also smoothbore (which means beyond visual range shots are impossible).
What? The shell isn't smooth bore, the barrel is. Rifling ads gyroscopic stabilization (which increases effective range not maximum range). A Civil War era Perrot Rifle wont be hitting beyond the horizon any better than a smoothbore gun of the same era with the same calibre and powder load.
 
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