Minnie bullet invented late 17th century

Rifles guns excist since the 16th century.
Riflled guns were populair as a hunting weapon but due to the long loading time and the precise fit of the bullet in the barrel it was not used as a combat weapon. The manufacturing cost of a rifled barrel compaired to a smooth bore were not extreem higher.

Minié ball, (or minnie ball) was first introduced in 1847 by Claude Étienne,making rapid loading of rifles possible and increasing the range up to 1200 meters
But what would happen if some musketeer, huntsman or gunmaker invent a bullet simmilair as the minnie bullet, around, say, 1680?


What would the effect of it be on warfare in europe around the time of the war of the Spanish sucsession and later on?
 

67th Tigers

Banned
Not as much as you'd think....

The real leap forward in the 1840's was the percussion cap, which increased the firnig power of a formation by 25%. The minie rifle was very low velocity, and without good ladder sights or the like, and a high level of training was actually less effective than a smoothbore (a fact obscured by the arrival of the percussion lock at the same time). In fact, because minie rifles have much worse heat issues than smoothbores (since the flange is grinding against the groove to create the spin, but the friction is converting a third of its velocity to heat), a Minie rifle becomes too hot to operate effectively after as few as 5 rounds (the British soldier often covered his Minie with leather or thick felt covers so they could continue to fire), 10 at the outside. In 5-10 rounds the rifle would become so fouled it needed cleaning (the barrel would have water poured out it, or urine), which can be avoided with the smoothbore (soldiers carried smaller balls).

In the hands of highly trained riflemen, the Minie could have some effect, most notably the ability of riflemen to suppress enemy batteries, but it makes very little difference to the close order firefight.

More to the point, as evidenced by manufacturing costs, the Minie rifle was a lot more expensive than an old flintlock (10 times as expensive), and so not really suitable for armies that still have pikes....
 
You will have some problems mass producing rifle barrels with high level quality control in the pre-industrial age. A better solution might be the Nessler ball, which is a Minie for smoothbores. It was almost as good and widely used by the Russians during the Crimean War.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/showthread.php?t=73117&highlight=minie

I think technological it was posible. The cost would be much higher, but weapons smiths could make them on a large scale, like smooth bore muskets and wheel lock pistols.
How would tactics evolve with this kind of weapons?
 
The minie rifle was very low velocity, and without good ladder sights or the like, and a high level of training was actually less effective than a smoothbore (a fact obscured by the arrival of the percussion lock at the same time). In fact, because minie rifles have much worse heat issues than smoothbores (since the flange is grinding against the groove to create the spin, but the friction is converting a third of its velocity to heat), a Minie rifle becomes too hot to operate effectively after as few as 5 rounds (the British soldier often covered his Minie with leather or thick felt covers so they could continue to fire), 10 at the outside. In 5-10 rounds the rifle would become so fouled it needed cleaning (the barrel would have water poured out it, or urine), which can be avoided with the smoothbore (soldiers carried smaller balls).

Which is why I really like the Nessler ball. You retain the choice of cap-and-ball for close range fights and use Nesslers for long range. All the while using cheaper smoothbores.

Didn't rifling weaken the barrel as well? Pre-mid-19th century rifles tend to have very thick barrel walls.
 
I think technological it was posible. The cost would be much higher, but weapons smiths could make them on a large scale, like smooth bore muskets and wheel lock pistols.
Wheellocks were never mass produced. Smoothbore flintlocks were, precisely because they were cheaper than rifles. If rifles were mass producable they would have issued them to every soldier much earlier, long before the Minie. Contrary to popular belief, rifles were just as fast to load as smoothbores, so long as you don't patch the balls. It gave you the option of slow loading patched balls at long range and fast loading unpatched balls like a smoothbore. But this was unaffordable and most likely not mass producable.

How would tactics evolve with this kind of weapons?

See the linkie.
 
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