Ballistics of the 17th century matchlock musket

This film is a summary about a research project I am involved in to determinate the muzzle velocity of the 17th century muskets. The research is based on the bullets recovered from an engagement in 1664 between the Imperial and Ottoman army in Hungary.
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[@HarryFlashmanVC]

I think a lot of modern people are amazed at the power of these weapons when they see them actually loaded with a projectile. I think this comes from watching renactors who obviously are only loading powder and loose wadding which gives more of a whoosh than a bang.

[@elitemook4234]

I think it also comes from modern cartridges being designed to be as small as possible, while still being lethal, so more ammo can be carried.

[@rezlogan4787]

As a cap and ball shooter, I DISDAIN people who underload these guns. It’s disrespectful to the weapon to load it improperly, then judge the weapon’s potential on that flawed basis. Lead roundball really needs to be traveling 1,000 feet per second at minimum to show its actual impact on target.

[@poncholefty471]

@@rezlogan4787 exactly. A properly loaded cap and ball .44 caliber sixgun: loaded with 35 grains of 4f Swiss and a 255 grain flat nose bullet reaches a velocity of ~1100+ft/s, with an energy of ~740ft/lbs. that’s on par with 10mm and .44 Remington magnum. “Fine sporting pistol powder” of the 19th century was the equivalent of 4f Swiss, both in granular size and energy,(or hotter) . The powder used to prime flintlocks was essentially dust. No wad, no filler, no grease over the chamber. Just keep the bore lubed and use the correct cap and projectile. These guns killed bears, boars, horses, bulls, mountain lions and more. With the average loading, the target can’t tell the difference between. .44 c&b and .45acp, or .36 c&b and .9mm. The same goes for .31 c&b and .32acp. They are handguns. They punch a hole the size of the bullet. Rifles are a bit different, only because it creates more hydrostatic shock, being propelled faster the bullet doesn’t have to be as large to create a wound of the same size. Honestly I’d rather be shot with a modern 30-06 compared to an ‘61 Springfield. They leave a NASTY NASTY WOUND.

[@HarryFlashmanVC]

@@poncholefty471 I regularly shoot an original P 1856 over here in England, for years there was an old oak tree stump on the back bank of our range, last winter we removed it and cut it up. We found bullets from the enfield 10 inches in the stump, seasoned oak, we always load with the original British Ordinance Board recommendations. However, we will be replacing the rifle with a reproduction soon as we wish to continue firing at full load and the old girl is starting to show her age, we are actually sending her off for reproofing soon. I think it depends how often you shoot and antique guns will, over time, start to suffer. It also depends on their history, obviously many P 1856s in British service were passed onto client nations and satrapys and how they were cared for then was a bit if a lottery. Our one was bought by my great great great grandfather, directly from a sale of a batch of 50 from Edinburgh Castle arsenal in the 1880s, he kept three for hunting and sold the rest to a relative in Canada who was in the fur trade. My gggrandfather used it for about 10 years, it was then hung on a wall for 50 years, was used by his son when he was in the Home Guard during WW2 and his son, my grandfather used to shoot it once a year or so until my late father and I got into black powder in the 1980s. So we have a pretty good idea how the rifle was cared for over the years and comparatively low use but high care from 1890 to 1980s. We shoot it monthly but, as mentioned, we will be cutting back on this and are replacing with a new reproduction. I have been building a Baker from one if those Canadian kits but need to order the barrel, our previous gunsmith retired during Covid, which was a damn shame as his work was craftsman.

[@desthomas8747]

Very true Richard, having fired these with ball several things become very obvious. Firstly just how much more dangerous they are when loading. how slow the ball exits the gun and the damage they cause when hitting the target. We once fired 30 muskets in two ranks (rows) with the front rank kneeling. We fired at a target 125 yds away, approx the same width we were. When we went forward we noticed that most of the balls had hit the middle centre of the target. When we discussed this those firing at the ends of the line said they had aimed towards the centre so as not to miss thus it was safer to stand at the end of the line at front when being fired at. One other thing never mentioned, on the target we had drawn figures of soldiers holding guns, about 20% of the ball hitting the target would have struck the guns.

[@GrudgeyCable]

Matchlock content from capandball!.. Christmas has come early!

[@masonponton3077]

Amen!

[@danielcurtis1434]

If a matchlock is Christmas what the heck is it when he makes all these weird long dead cartridges that haven’t existed for 150 years???

[@Alakazzam09]

I love this kind of real-world experimentation. It certainly gives perspective.

[@Music-kz9ol]

You have probably solved a question I’ve had bouncing around my head for 35 years. When using a metal detector in the Jordan River valley I would find round lead disks,I though they were seals of some sort. I recognize the lead balls fired into sand that were flattened as the same thing i found metal detecting. The area was called the John the Baptist site, we would find many old Jewish coins called Widow’s Mites also. Thank you for the video. 😊

[@theprancingprussian]

With how soft the metal can be they are in theory more efficient damage dealers than modern rounds, are not as good at piercing armor at longer range but minimal over penetration guarantees it will probably take you out of the fight in a single shot to vitals or even inner limb Unlike previous bows and crossbows which had a far chance for the victim to survive a hit or two

[@sgtbrendan289]

Thank you!! As a matchlock musketeer, I have been waiting for this quality of research for years!!

[@LarryDeSilva64]

This is something we never see about Match lock Muskets and the muzzle velocity and data suggests this weapon even at 80 meters could be a formidable round to soldiers at the time. Great video thank you for all the information in this video.

[@lutzderlurch7877]

I think the problem is a nearly complete lack of ballistic test being done in the era with any data written down in a form that makes sense, and a serious lack of surviving original powder for analysis. Also the lack of stardardisation (relatively speaking) makes data much more difficult to cross reference. If an experiment is noted in an orderly book of an unknown infantry regiment mentioning, say, bullet drop at distance x paces and y paces. that -can- be useful to estimate a general idea of muzzle velocities. If that snippet is from a 30 years war era imperial army, it is hard to tell, to what sort of gun it belonged, what calibre of musket was used, what kind of load.. if the same snippet were found from a british army 1770s, we know with high confidence the weapon, bore size and variation ranges, the range of ball sizes and the reguation amount of gunpowder.

[@KaL_69_]

In the 1592 invasion, everything was swept away. Within a fortnight or a month the cities and fortresses were lost, and everything in the eight directions had crumbled. Although it was [partly] due to there having been a century of peace and the people not being familiar with warfare that this happened, it was really because the Japanese had the use of muskets that could reach beyond several hundred paces, that always pierced what they struck, that came like the wind and the hail, and with which bows and arrows could not compare.

[@sandromicic6102]

Great content as always Greetings from neighbor country Croatia

[@jonasnordstrom1169]

A very well executed and documented experiment! 👏🏻 So nice to see the scientific method applied to this topic! Thanks from Sweden.

[@johnlea8519]

Absolutely fascinating, one of the best gun related videos I have ever seen, makes me wish I had gone down the Matchlock route when I dabbled with muzzleloaders.

[@davefellhoelter1343]

''Dabbled?" you still HAVE Time! that's how I got "HOOKED!" now I Chase the Dragon every CHANCE I Get1

[@johnlea8519]

@@davefellhoelter1343 I still have a muzzleloading 12 gauge and have been dabbling since 1968 but only recently got the Matchlock bug....🤔

[@billbearback2591]

thanks for sharing , very impressive , very thorough ,well done champ from downunder, cheers big ears

[@Schlachtschule]

I am incredibly impressed. This is, hands down, the best example of experimental firearms archeology I have ever seen. Well done, and thank you very much for sharing.

[@user-nf6zs4sw7y]

This is the BEST information I have ever been exposed to on the net about muzzle loading military arms ..and everything else about their historic use!! Well done,Sir!

[@ProSimex84]

There is nothing more beautiful than bright Hunglish, pronunciation that would never occur to a native Anglo, yet truly understandable to anyone. This is such a great video

[@rufusleaking1884]

I never cease to be amazed by the very high quality of your videos. I am similarly amazed by your SUPERB command of the English language, which helps make watching your videos all the more enjoyable.

[@briansherrillruralliving9708]

Very interesting!!! In a way it's hard to imagine going on the battlefield with a matchlock. It's easy for that to be just as dangerous for the user as it is for the enemy. Thanks for this video 👍

[@fenrirrising131]

Yeah, those old powder horns doubled as a grenade lol

[@bakters]

@@fenrirrising131 " *powder horns doubled as a grenade* " Some Polish guys tried to blow up a powder horn. Scary, but not very damaging, as the horn withstood the pressure. Then they tried to do the same with an open jar full of powder, and it also withstood the pressure. If I was in a battle, I'd load straight from the horn if needed. The enemy would be several orders of magnitude more dangerous than the powder flask in my hand, it seems.

[@margarethouse404]

And for another contemporary take on early 17th Century Military/ Paramilitary firearms technology . from the Virginia Company of London Colony in America . The early experiences of the first wave of Colonists from 1607 are well known. Less well known was that the Investors got serious with the second wave of investment in 1611 . Professional soldier of long experience fighting in the Low Countries Captain Sir Thomas Dale was recruited to be Deputy Governor / Militia Commander/ Marshall of Virginia . On to the relevant connection : Matchlocks were considered adaquate by the standards of the day . for actual Battle use . ie , maneuver into respective lines and positions , and eventually have a battle all at once on purpose . But in an environment with being constantly prepared for Indian ( Native American ) attacks using stealth and surprise , Militiamen needed to be " locked & loaded " to instantly fire any time they were on duty . Turns out that keeping properly burning slow match ready to go during either a shift of guarding the defenses of Henricus Cittie , or for the duration of a patrol , was problematic at best , plus having the glowing tip to give away position at night , or in deep woods . So circa 1612 , they spent top dollar ( top pound ? ) for newfangled Wheellocks .

[@florianakuznetova]

Some of my favorite historical firearms, thank you for your hard research work! I have been waiting for a good substantial video on matchlock muskets for some years and have never found any. Thanks again!

[@duelist1954]

This is an outstanding video in every respect. It is great to see how these early guns really performed.

[@capandball]

Many thanks Mike!

[@raytribble8075]

Your videos are always amazing teaching productions. I have been shooting percussion, flintlock, Sharps and Rolling Blocks for 47 years now and I build all my flintlocks by hand… I have a crazy urge to build a matchlock and your video was a tremendous help. Thank you once more sir.

[@niclbicl]

Love the Matchlock content! Thank u

[@ommsterlitz1805]

Good, i will now use a musket to split my wood for this winter 😅

[@TheJimmyplant]

Thank you so much for your research and work. I'm writing a novel set in the 80 years war period and research like this informs how I write about pike and shot warfare. Thank you for bringing history alive!

[@Chiller01]

Kind of like simultaneously trying to keep your cigar lit and shooting.

[@ddoherty5956]

Hannibal Smith knew the trick 🤣🤣🤣

[@seraphx26]

What I love the most about those old matchlocks is the sound, it's like thunder, and you can easily imagine how the first armies that experienced the other end of those guns, could panic when that first volley went out.

[@me67galaxylife]

First guns weren’t those ones… and the first ones weren’t that effective What was more effective was the artillery cannon

[@joaquinkrygowski1202]

This is so cool, the amount of effort and research you put into these videos is amazing. Thank you for sharing!

[@josephsawicki9335]

Excellent deduction on your Ballistics calculations! Unbelievable video as always, I love this channel and am always learning from your content THANK YOU AGAIN!

[@Orzorn]

Absolutely amazing scientific approach to this problem. This is what sets this channel apart!

[@SearTrip]

Amazing to watch the operations all gone through. Thanks.

[@hughmarloweverest1684]

Thank you for these realistic demonstrations and ballistics studies.

[@General.Longstreet]

Superb content . Truly one of the best shooting channels on KZbin.

[@RichardGoth]

excellent work! I loved your approach to find out the charge of powder from the excavated projectiles!

[@megatrends]

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Just incredible what they achieved back then .... funtastic.

[@jenshoffmann3188]

I have so much original Bullets from the 17. Century, and your Tests are absolutely matching.

[@sangkim7504]

Thank you for posting. Firing a matchlock musket is on my bucket list. Subscribed.

[@waynedygert7355]

Very much enjoy the way you take known data and use simple math and experiments to derive your conclusions. I suspect your students very much enjoy your classes. I do. Thank you

[@anderwmarcell9503]

Thank you for an excellent explanation of match lock muskets and their use.

[@horseface31]

Im curious to see even older types of firearms like the handgonne. Just found this channel and looking forward to seeing more.

[@coenvanwyk1]

Brilliant research. Thank you for this.

[@tafino]

One of the most interesting and well made videos in all of KZbin. Well done, sir!!!

[@anthonygiaconia7880]

Awesome video. I like all the testing and research you did to simulate the old ballistics.

[@michaelsewell3706]

Loved this ,very interesting and informative information 👍 .

[@christophermccormick2714]

Fascinating!!! Great video. Thank you so much!

[@gaston01000]

My Christmas early gift! Thanks!

[@fenrirrising131]

17th century military history is quite possibly my favorite era of study Whatta mess lol Great vid though i enjoyed the shoot and the history lesson. Any upcoming hunting trips planned? If your boar hunt vids were on vhs those tapes would be toast Thanks for the continued uploads, fire at will!

[@Steven-jn2cw]

Here I absolutely love this guy and channel

[@russbilzing5348]

Many things here are considered to come to the conclusions you have found and the equanimity you display is formidable and impressive.

[@bakters]

Splendid work!

[@johnhagerman320]

I just have one thing to say... I'm jealous lol I love the research and historical content of this channel.

[@grassroot011]

Thanks Bolage, good set of tests.

[@lambastepirate]

You like doing experiments with guns I have seen the way you drill a hole on the side of the base of a rim fire case for a primer. I have heard that American Indians used strike anywhere matches to reload Winchester Rim fire ammunition. they ground up the match heads added a couple drops of water to make a paste out of the ground up match heads. They rolled the paste into a ball dropped it into a cleaned case and using a stick pushed the paste into the rim of the cartridge. they let it dry a couple of days and loaded powder and ball into the case. I would be interested in seeing you do this if possible. Thanks.

[@christophhaupt2520]

I really enjoy your informative videos!

[@harmlesscreationsofthegree1248]

Excellent content, as always 🙂

[@kbilsky]

Excellent work. Thank you!

[@JakobElbaek]

Incredible work!

[@mebymyself2816]

Thank you for your in depth video and clear explanations, (that why I keep coming back to your channel.)

[@stav1369]

Amazing stuff! Thank you for this valuable research

[@holgerdanske3960]

It is so exiting to reproduce former times shooting tactics and ballistics. Great job, thank you very much for this excellent and very informativ video.

[@WhatIfBrigade]

This is so cool from an archeological perspective!

[@thebotrchap]

Wonderful research thank you 👏

[@M.M.83-U]

This is amazing!

[@nicktrueman224]

I actually saw a vid today of a guy who is experimenting making his powder. And he was told by others to use a role of toilet paper for the carbon ash, simply sealing it in a can and put on the fire. He made a equivalent 3F and his powder was firing very well and had good velocity records. As to how clean it was well no different than commercial powder. The residue was quite acceptable.

[@Kane856]

Fascinating 👍

[@armadagunshow]

Wow never saw one in action, thanks for sharing

[@independentthinker8930]

Great video!! I appreciate your work!

[@douglasmaccullagh7865]

Fascinating work! The slow velocity and deep penetration into gel were both surprising. Please let us know when, and where, we can read your journal article.

[@capandball]

Dear Douglas, I will!

[@whothoughtthiswasagoodidea]

This is awesome.

[@TheAncientAstronomer]

Seeing the whole loading and firering procedure, I can imagine how the flint lock system must have looked like a massive technological innovation.

[@ducthman4737]

With a flintlock you can have failures when your flint is wearing out but with this system you will always have fire in the pan.

[@TheAncientAstronomer]

@@ducthman4737 Well it's not a perfect system, nonetheless though, a huge technological leap from the matchlock.. Taking also into consideration the fighting style of the era, being able to reload faster and shoot faster than your opponent is a huge plus, that outweighs the occasional misfiring, witch also dependent on the quality of the steel and flint used.

[@ducthman4737]

@@TheAncientAstronomer Than the paper cartridge is also a big leap forward. Just look how it improved the rate of fire. And if he would have used part of the blackpoder from the cartridge to fill the pan it would even been faster. The big leap forward was to not have a source of fire , the burning match, with all that black powder laying around.

[@lutzderlurch7877]

@@ducthman4737 As far as I know, slow match is not actually a sure thing to ignite powder, as it does not burn that much hotter than what is needed to ignite powder. Wind makes matchlock muskets iffy at times, and the match itself can fizzle out, or have enough ash build up to prevent instant ignition. Also, the match technically has to be removed and replaced after every shot, at least as per manual instructions of the era, and tested for proper placement every time. The match always shortens itself so it is useful even if it were not advisable to keep if aways from your powder flask for loading. The flintlock (and wheellock) sparks burn much hotter, and also manage to ignite the coarse powder from the main charge, making paper cartridges even more fast to use.

[@ducthman4737]

@@lutzderlurch7877 I only know flintlock (Brown Bess) and my experience is that after 8 to 10 shots during 'battle' you get more and more misfires. I have no idea how that would be for the other systems.

[@thesylvanshadow4223]

Great Video, extremely informative. Thank You.

[@Archaic-Arms]

Fantastic work! A top tip for matchlock arms, is that modern powder is graphite coated (less hydroscopic), which the match has trouble igniting. If you re-granulate your priming powder, it then ignites instantly and reliably. Also, here's another good resource for 17thc powder charges, should it be of interest: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2nNipuXnLploaM I've fired a 75 cal musket with a .710 ball and 240gr of Goex FF, and then understood why musketeers leaned heavily into the shot... Very stout recoil with those loads.

[@desthomas8747]

Up till approx 1400 gunpowder was supplied loose, problem with this is when travelling in barrells on the bumpy roads the powder ingredients separated with the lighter ingredients settling at the top it had to be re-mixed. They invented Corned Powder. Believe it or not during the intitial mixing they mixed it with water, proceeding to put it back into the Pug Mills which formed grains size of Wheat corns, this also drove out all the water. this corned powder did not separate, However a small percenage had to be ground down into a finer powder for ignition purposes.

[@doraran2138]

@@desthomas8747 They also mixed gunpowder with urine, preferably priests' urine (if the 'demonic' qualities of gun powder feared). Although they didn't know the chemistry at time, the urea nitrate in the urine actually enhanced the powder. Fast forward a few centuries, and there were urine collection campaigns in the weapon desperate Confederacy to collect, concentrate and extract the urea nitrate to make explosives.

[@tomsterism]

Well done, sir!

[@SafetyProMalta]

Excellent content.

[@user-sq9dv7ru7v]

Well done!

[@makatanau2878]

This was very interesting, thank you!

[@frydemwingz]

I had an idea of what you were going to say about that 17th century powder production just from first hand experience. I've made a few batches of gun powder myself and noticed even though the grain was basically the same as store bought, it was weaker. The recipe I had said nothing of compressing the powder lol. So I just figured out that likely makes it much stronger. Just that alone explains a lot about how guns were designed way back then.

[@hmmm1482]

this video is amazing

[@lifted_above]

I'm a pretty patient person. I watched the whole video. That said, thank goodness for modern cartridge-type, conical bullet type, precision machined rifles of the modern era.

[@redsky8509]

Wow, great job sir.

[@danny_decheeto8300]

those wheel lock pistols are still some of my favourite, liked seeing them in the background

[@capandball]

One of the next films is about the wheellock carbine

[@danny_decheeto8300]

@@capandball ooooh thats amazing man

[@waynestormer7774]

Excellent video! What fun too!

[@capandball]

Many thanks Wayne!

[@GarandGuy2553]

Another great video as usual! Cheers from Virginia.

[@desthomas8747]

You do not need to tighten or untighten the screw on the jaws of the serpent after every shot it takes too long. Splay the jaws, make an initial screw adjustment so it just holds the match will suffice, when it is in place this is easier to remove after firing. Simple checking before the battle is what is needed. Taking off the top of the priming bottle is a bit dangerous, plus you should hold the other end of the matchcord so it does not fly away when the gun is fired, and believe me it often does. The rest was eventually discarded, it was not used to support the gun but to stop it lifting with the recoil.

[@Blackbart5118]

Very interesting, as usual!

[@nickdavis5420]

Your armor is awesome

[@janrobertbos]

Nice...........once again, thanks for making these videos!!! Greetz from the Netherlands!!!

[@BearMeat4Dinner]

Nice hat man. I always wear one like that all the time! Great video!😊

[@tamaskisparti5294]

I really happy to see a KZbin channel this high quality and scientific :D especially if it is Hungarian ;) csak így tovább...

[@tacfoley4443]

Matchless and truly scientific methodology empoyed to give an answer to many questions - at least, in the case of this particular battle scene. I recommend you to carry out a similar examination in the site of the siege of Kenilworth Castle here in UK.

[@gab340]

Hello, big research work and also for the tests. I saw that you have a very good choice "OPINEL" knife. Good video as always.

[@danielcurtis1434]

I just went into credit debt to save my sick old dog. However when she and my finances are better, I’m definitely buying from his eBay store!!! Never seen a .44 caliber revolver cartridge former. I honestly didn’t know they exist!!!

[@danielsierra3648]

Great video very educational thanks for sharing this type of content greetings from Guatemala

[@timothyruggles3031]

Love your history thank you

[@BygdesonPar]

Wonderful video. Maybe the reason for priming before loading was that you could leave the slow match on the musket? Faster and safer. At least during battle.

[@Moredread25]

KZbin collaborations that may never happen, but should - this channel and Kentuck Ballistics.

[@user-dj4hj3or8j]

Стрельбище у вас интересное.Везде деревья,дорожки,а у дорожки кто-то из мушкета стреляет.Да и вокруг тоже не отстают)))Не видно ведь ничего,куда что летит,куда кто идёт.

[@chrisgabbert658]

That’s a job loading, the skill set. 👍😊

[@christopherreed4723]

I remember a passage from Peterson's excellent "The Book Of The Gun" where he describes the regulations for standing guard at night in the early American colonies. The sentry was to stand his post, musket loaded and match burning at both ends, with his bandolier, powder flask, sword, and bullet pouch, with additional bullet(s) held in his mouth to spit into the barrel for a rapid reload. The regulation went on to admonish the sentry to remain alert and wakeful, and not to fall asleep on pain of flogging. Peterson noted that, given the possible consequences of losing concentration while wearing over a pound of gunpowder and carrying a length of slow match lit at both ends, flogging was the least of the sentry's problems if he nodded off.

[@rebeccaback3287]

Verry informative video! Excellent presentation,shooting, excellent besties test. I like the matchlock musket. I like your history lesson! David Back from Menifee county Kentucky USA.

[@Smi3tankoweCjastko]

Fantasitc work guys! I appreciate what you do!

[@mrfarts5176]

Not this guy again... he talks like he has balls in his mouths.

[@Smi3tankoweCjastko]

@@mrfarts5176 ???

[@mrfarts5176]

@@Smi3tankoweCjastko He sounds like he is talking with balls in his mouth.

[@Smi3tankoweCjastko]

@@mrfarts5176 Maybe because English isnt his first language?

[@mrfarts5176]

@@Smi3tankoweCjastko That might be it but in what country do they go around with balls in their mouths?

[@travisperera2894]

Very informative 👍

[@joeerickson516]

"Nice shot!" 🎯

[@Albukhshi]

This documentary is amazing! A true treasure! The discrepancy between the ideal most sources give (~400 m/s), and practice (305 m/s) is very interesting: I've actually noticed a similar discrepancy with the Brown Bess in the Seven Years War era (I did my own tests, but never put them in video form): the 18th century military treatises from from around that time give the ideal point blank of a musket from a parapet at 300 yards, but said that in practice the balls rarely went past 240 yards; parapet designs accounted for this fact, and so were designed with the assumption that point blank was 240 yards. It works out that the muzzle velocity for the ideal musket was ~420 m/s, yet in practice could be as low as 311 m/s (all this for Brown Bess)--not too far off from what you're getting here. To get close to that low velocity, I had to use a cheap brand of powder, 2F, and ~125 grains (priming included). Fraud was rampant in the British Army's powder procurement, so shoddy powder was a real consideration (the ideal required 165 grains of 1.5F Swiss powder). Of course, in typical British fashion, the people writing the treatises blamed the soldiers... I suspect that what you say at the end with regards to the variability in velocity--probably applies to the mid-18th century as well.

[@Marmocet]

I've noticed a similar discrepancy in muzzle velocities people get with historical service loads using modern powder and what historical sources indicate their historical counterparts would have gotten. It is often said that the muzzle velocity of a musket ball from a Brown Bess fired with its service charge is anywhere from 450 to 550 m/s. In "The British Gunner", the "first grazes" range of the Brown Bess musket is listed as 169 yards, where "The above arms, with flint locks, were severally fired, loaded with the service charges* given in the General Table of Musquet, &c, Cartridges, over a horizontal plane, at the height of four feet, six inches from the ground." For a 0.68" lead ball to have 169 yards of horizontal displacement by the time it hits the ground after falling from a height of 4'6", as described above, its muzzle velocity would have to be almost exactly 349 m/s (~Mach 1.03). *The service charge listed for the "Brown Bess" musket in the General Table is 6 drams (164 grains) of powder.

[@Albukhshi]

@@Marmocet " It is often said that the muzzle velocity of a musket ball from a Brown Bess fired with its service charge is anywhere from 450 to 550 m/s." Whoever said that has likely never fired a Brown Bess or chronographed it with service charges. I'm wondering if these people simply didn't rip this off the Graz tests; if you can tell me more, I'd be happy to read up. What follows are data from my actual tests, which I did with a friend (I have part of the results at Project SYW): 125 grains of 2F Goex gave 305 m/s (this was the cheap powder alluded to above) 125 grains of 2F Graf gave 297 m/s 125 gains of Swiss 1.5F gave 334 m/s 165 grains of 2F Goex gave 335 m/s (not exactly 164 grains, but close enough: I wanted to specifically test the official charge, which bear in mind was set in 1775; we don't really know what the charge was before then, but it could have been as high as 220 grains) 165 grains of 1.5 Swiss gave 404 m/s (Old Gynsford gave a similar result) As you can see, using the powders I could get, and testing those did not produce anything close to the 450-550 m/s range; it's simply impossible using the powders and quantities available to me. The theoretical velocity (420 m/s) I got from Lochee's data (where I got the 300 yard point-blank) is doable, if you use 125 grains of the powder tested by Mordecai (an 1838 batch); however, this powder is no longer produced; indeed, I can't find a powder as strong as the British one from this period on the market--or rather, I haven't had the luck to find any. The powder used in the test you mention-- the one that yields 349 m/s--sounds like it's somewhere between 2F Goex and 1.5 Swiss, but closer to the Goex. You may notice from the above that, when using the 1838 batch (going by the technical data Mordecai provides--so this is all theoretical), you need to cut the charge of original powder by 25% relative to the official 6 dram charge; the weapon's kick is already quite savage at 404 m/s, so at 420 m/s,. it was probably a little worse. Keep in mind though, that the batch Mordecai tested is for military powder made 40 years after Congreve was done reforming powder production (and getting all the fraud out of the way). My ultimate conclusion, based on the tests me and my friend did, I'll quote here from my article at the project: "Overall, the evidence suggests that the ideal muzzle velocity was in the region of 400 m/s, *though in practice the range could have varied between 3-400 m/s.* " So at 349 m/s, the value you give is pretty much in the middle of the window that I got from testing. Which brings up my question: where can I get a copy of that source? and what year is the test itself from?

[@Marmocet]

​@@Albukhshi The original source of the claim that the upper bound of the Brown Bess is 550 m/s seems to be Wikipedia. I don't know where the source of the lower bound 450 m/s velocity comes from. Wikipedia puts the lower bound at 400 m/s. The 450-550 m/s figures are ones I read on message boards and hear bandied about among muzzle loader enthusiasts who like to talk about the huge muzzle energies their favourite weapons allegedly produced. I suspect that this claim from Wikipedia has informed a number of casual experiments that prove the claim by assuming the conclusion (in fact, I am personally aware of one such casual experiment). The source cited on Wikipedia to back up the 400-550 m/s claim is Benjamin Robbins'"New Principles of Gunnery", published in 1742. I read this treatise as well as converted the ballistic pendulum data to velocity data (to the extent that that it is possible to do so, because Robbins doesn't provide enough information about one of the pendulums he used to permit conversion of a large portion of his data into velocity figures). I doubt whoever cited this work actually read it, or did more than extract a few figures without understanding their context. The problem with citing "New Principles of Gunnery" is that Robbins never evaluated the muzzle velocity of a Brown Bess musket with its service charge. What Robbins did was use a barrel with walls nearly 0.775" thick and a bore diameter of 0.775" (meaning it weighed something like 19 kg) to shoot musket balls with 0.75" diameters. He left so little windage that at one point, he notes that even with a hammer, he had great difficulty ramming the balls down the barrel. Not only did Robbins not use a Brown Bess for his tests, he actually warns anyone who wants to replicate his experiments not to use a standard musket barrel because he says he that when he initially tried using standard musket barrels for his experiments, they invariably exploded after just a few shots. This is the reason, Robbins says, why he had to have a barrel custom made for him (the fact that his barrels exploded when he loaded them with enough powder to produce 500+ m/s velocities actually suggests that the metallurgy and barrel construction methods of the day yielded musket barrels that weren't able to withstand the pressures required to create these velocities). In "New Principles of Gunnery", Robbins was not interested in speed testing Brown Bess muskets, nor is that what he did. What he was interested in was developing a theoretical model for predicting muzzle velocity using Newtonian mechanics, and for evaluating the ballistic pendulum, his invention for measuring bullet velocities. I think you may also be right that the Graz test data to many people "proved" that muzzle velocities of historical muzzle loaders approached 550 m/s.

[@Albukhshi]

@@Marmocet Yeah, I soon as I saw the name Robbins, I knew exactly what the problem was: you sum it up here accurately (I read the treatise myself). I didn't mention him here regarding muskets, as his experiment is, as you know, not directly relevant to what we're trying to do: the velocity is naturally too high.

[@Marmocet]

@@Albukhshi Yes, it would be nice to see people stop claiming that Robins' data shows things that it didn't show. I made a numerical model a few years ago to try to determine what the muzzle velocities of 18th and 19th century military muskets with their service loads would have been. For the Short Land Pattern Brown Bess, the highest velocity it predicts for a .68" ball and a 6 dram service charge is 494 m/s. This velocity is theoretically possible, according to my model, under the following conditions: 1. The barrel length is 42.49" - lightly longer than average. 2. 100% of the powder in the service charge is used, with no spillage. 3. Five of the 164 grains of powder in the service charge are used to prime the pan and all of the remaining 159 grains go down the barrel. 4. The powder is packed to a density of 1.073 g/cm^3, which is probably higher than what would usually have been the case and higher than the average values in the historical data sets I used to validate my model. 5. The powder burns to produce gas extremely efficiently, yielding ~286 cm^3 of cold gas per gram of powder. 6. The combustion gases are extremely hot - 1682 °C. This gas temperature suggests powder that has a moisture content of 0% and a barrel that is either already extremely hot or that is very well insulated. 7. The musket ball's diameter is 0.6849", sightly larger than average (this results in a slightly increased ball mass which decreases muzzle velocity, but this is more than offset by the increase in velocity due to reduction in windage). My model indicates that muzzle velocity was especially sensitive to the temperature of the combustion gases. I don't consider condition 6 to be realistic, but it's useful for attempting to establish what the maximum possible muzzle velocity for this weapon could have been, given its service charge. The conditions I have listed above, taken together, are what I would consider the absolute limit of "reasonable parameters" based on the research I conducted. In practice, I strongly suspect that such conditions would rarely have been achieved, if ever. The lower bound velocity I get for the Brown Bess is 308 m/s, which seems to agree with your findings. Strictly speaking, of course, with damp enough powder the velocity would drop all the way to zero. Using what would appear to have been typical values instead of the ones listed in the above conditions, my model gives me a typical muzzle velocity of 344 m/s, just a hair faster than Mach 1.

[@brettharrison8280]

Nice work. My historical group did some informal testing, in less detail, in the 1990's. We obtained similar results.

[@capandball]

Dear Brett, It would be interesting to hear more about these tests.

[@trextraining7116]

Dear Sir, I must say that while I always enjoy your work (and videos), this one was was exceptionally good. Thank you for the work you do, and for sharing your findings. Please keep up the good work.