The Minie vs Pritchett World Championship Competitive Shoot-Off

It only took to four years from the teaser video made in 2019 until we finally did it! Promise kept!
We shoot the Minie and Pritchett from rifle-muskets and embarrass ourselves for your entertainment.
Acknowledgements and thanks to Rob from Britishmuzzleloaders for his fantastic Figure of Merit calculator used to determine the scoring.

[@arronjameshook]

I'm glad that the Minie's Reign of Terror has finally been recognised publicly! That time the Minie walked up to a dachshund, waved cooked bacon in front of the poor dog's nose and then ate the bacon itself without a single, solitary morsel left for the little hound was terrible!

[@AdelaideRegiment]

It's ok, I had the exact same thing happen to me TWICE last Pritchett shoot, the paper stuck to the bullet on shots 6 and 7 out of 10, resulting in wide fliers (I actually found the paper lying in the dirt beside the target at 150 yards! I fixed it 'on the go' by getting a knife and making the 4th slash on the outside of the cartridge, like they ended up doing originally. After that, shots 8-10 went where they should. I'll be making that slash in future on all my cartridges.

[@papercartridges6705]

As usual, they identified the problem back then, and solved it! I need to make sure my rounds have that fourth external cut in the paper. That might be the solution.

[@andyedwards9222]

Fantastic intro. Excellent video.

[@glennwhitehead6484]

The British cartridge just looks and loads far more efficient than the US cartridge. The dexterity needed to remove the "naked" Burton bullet after pouring the powder seems a perfect opportunity to fumble and drop the bullet, especially in the heat of battle.

[@thompsonjerry3412]

I will call it a flinch of historic proportions.

[@geoffpeck1043]

Excellent film . Well done sirs 👏🇬🇧

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

Surprisingly similar results. Not that i was sure of the winner going in to this, and both were obviously considered sufficient in their time, but i did not expect the result to be so similar, i thought there'd be some deviation.

[@Everythingblackpowder]

I’m betting it was the welsh!

[@arronjameshook]

Cymric Perfidy Strikes Again!

[@papercartridges6705]

Given the evidence, I think that makes the most sense. Definitely the Welsh.

[@dorsetdumpling5387]

As a Welshman, I take great exception to this slur……

[@warwolf416]

As much as I love the Springfield and Burton type balls, you really make me want an Enfield. I want to try things like this myself and experience the differences. I’ve always like the two systems but find them is super hard anymore!

[@vicroc4]

I always wondered how the Pritchett was loaded. Nothing I'd seen or read about it mentioned the break-away cartridge, and I always assumed it was just torn off like the tail. Makes a bit more sense like this. Then again, much of what I've seen and read had a heavy focus on the Burton "Minié" style bullet, so there was a clear bias.

[@mikeryan9479]

Beautiful! Just beautiful!

[@thanhle-vj2qp]

nice video , i've been waiting for so long to see it , you guys are doing great job , keep going👍👍

[@thanhle-vj2qp]

Maybe the velocity is not the same but the stopping power of these things can effectively result in the loosing of a limb or even the wounded person life

[@papercartridges6705]

Low velocity, but a very heavy piece of lead, and you're absolutely right, it is devastating.

[@thanhle-vj2qp]

@@papercartridges6705 ACW soldiers fought within the range from 150 yards to 200 yrds thus making these more deadlier , pritchett have a better accuracy at long range than burton ball , but at that range the accuracy is nearly the same, plus soldiers gives volley in formation making the chance getting hit is higher , absolutely carnation !!!

[@incognito_1111]

Minie forever!

[@louruggiero2295]

the Minie skirts seemed quite thick, compared to what many people shoot.

[@GunDoc39402]

Couple of thoughts and please feel to flame me, nothing I am going to say meant in mean sprit. The exercise was flawed, there were two different people shooting. The two relays should be shot by the same person with the same shooting style. Second, an independent weapon should be used or in lieu of a third party weapon, The Enfield should fire 10 Burton balls as well as the Pritchett, and the Springfield should use the exact opposite. In the end, We need to include the Williams Ball's into the mix and have a Rifle Match target range death match. Until then, we will never prove the overall superiority of the American Burton ball.

[@henryofskalitz2228]

Seems like your having more range time dude. I've got so much work lately I couldn't go out to the range with your or contact you that much recently.

[@ahwilson1744]

Those misses were just an excuse to HAVE TO go back to the range and do more shooting.

[@wittsullivan8130]

When you break your paper cartridge, it looks kind of like your snapping a small animal's neck. :) That scene in the Avengers where Roadie talks about going back in time to kill Thanos as a baby? :)

[@papercartridges6705]

While I would never hurt a small animal (unless they are delicious when fried and dipped in Ranch), there is nothing more satisfying in black powder shooting than the crisp snap of an Enfield powder cylinder, and the bullet left in the muzzle with a neat paper patch.

[@stevensheldon9271]

So, I don't think it was stated what the charge was for the Burton ball? Also, for a future test, I would recommend using the same gun and the same shooter.

[@papercartridges6705]

Nick was using 60 grains of Swiss Fg. We both were using 1.5Fg but found we got better results with Fg. Both of us have Whitacre progressive depth barrels.

[@johnfisk811]

Hence the extra cut in the paper of the later pattern Pritchett cartridges. Are any of your orphans of the Cambrian persuasion? Thank you Brett. And thank you the French for inventing that style of paper cartridge copied by perfidious Albion. An interesting hyphen match between the Pritchett-Haye and Delvigne-Burton. Perhaps someone with a Lorenz could add in a Wilkinson-Lorenz compression bullet for a three way match?

[@papercartridges6705]

I have an original Lorenz, and will eventually match that up too, once I figure out the right load.

[@Afro408]

It's the fault of the Irishman Murphy. He's everywhere! Looking forward to more embarrassment at the rematch. 😄

[@Albukhshi]

@ 15:44 Well, as someone who doesn't given a toss one way or another who wins, it looks to me like they're pretty much identical in terms of accuracy--at least under 200 yards. In that respect, it's a victory for the Pritchett, since you did state at the start that people are going around saying the Burton supposedly has a tighter group @1:18

[@noapologizes2018]

I assume, by the way great video, I assume the rules were to use the military powder charges for that time period. My one question was what brand of powder was used. Good quality powder can make a big difference.

[@robertstallard7836]

Brett usually uses Swiss. He has found through research and experimentation that it is made from the same charcoal (alder-dogwood) as and produces the same velocities as the original powder did, as reported in period references. It also shoots to point-of aim whe used with the service charge. All this suggests that it is very close to the historical RFG powder used in the Enfield.

[@dm1126]

I agree with your conclusion Intentional dirty sabotage could be the only explanation for 2 rounds going awry As a kiwi I would blame the Australians The Welsh would be my next guess Followed closely by The earths rotation stuttering at a vital moment which used to affect my shooting quite regularly

[@nomadpi1]

Interesting results and interesting rifles. WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR RIFLES?

[@markstambaugh3273]

I'm not going to skip ahead and look, but I will venture that the target on the right has 12 holes?

[@duncanandrews1940]

Personally I would ALWAYS blame the Welch

[@mountainholler290]

Wait.....what ? The aliens are bringing back Elvis ? 🤔

[@ditzydoo4378]

A good test, but still subject to the individual shooter. Any true test of accuracy would be from a Ranson type rest taking the shooter out of the loop..

[@aleccrombie7923]

How many countries completed in this WORLD competition?? As usual in America, one!

[@papercartridges6705]

And the winner moves on to the Universal Musket Championships.

[@nlwilliamsj]

Comparing an American minie ball paper cartridge to a British Pritchett cartridge is like comparing a Ford Pinto to an Aston Martin.

[@thompsonjerry3412]

Cool!

[@masonhaggerty186]

I live about 20 minutes from the state game lands there. I was at that range last Sunday. Ironic 😅

[@papercartridges6705]

Im about 20 minutes away also. But I avoid it on weekends entirely.

[@kenethcollings2173]

Where can I get a mould and sizing die for those nice .5775 Burton bullets?

[@papercartridges6705]

Lyman makes a good Old Style mold and any decent machinist should be able to make a push through sizer for you.

[@kenethcollings2173]

@@papercartridges6705Thank you. The machinist route sounds pretty expensive. Will keep my eyes peeled. Going to get that Lyman mold on order tonight. Thanks again.

[@AirsoftEli2000]

That Pritchett loaded correctly

[@AirsoftEli2000]

The Burton had to thick of a skirt. And loading technique was flawed never remove cap till next shot to avoid possible stove pipeing

[@pm8465]

Com on ...😂 you didn't miss those two shots you just hit the wrong target

[@user-vf3gf4xq3v]

They’re both about the same except for the two misses. Black powder rifles do weird things.

[@ralfrude3532]

Guess you used the wrong aiming black of both. The lower one! 🤔😉

[@patrickkelly7838]

If you truly want to test the bullets you should use the same rifle, and shooter.

[@CheemskoGiondau]

Most ACW soldiers fought within the range from 150 yards to 200 yards make things more terrified cuz these new type of ammuntions and rifles could effectively hit a man size target up to 300 yrds without problems , the soldiers were taught to fire in line and using volleys to engaged enemy formation , thats why we've seen so many old pictures of deads laying in pile together

[@robertstallard7836]

That is very true. However, the standard to training for the troops in the American Civil War wasn't very high and most of them didn't have the skills to properly estimate range or to shoot paricularly accurately. Had they been able to do so, you would have seen battles fought at much greater ranges with similarly devastating effects - something the rifles they were equipped with were perfectly capable of doing in the right hands. In other words, the potential of the rifle was by no means fully realised during the war. Indeed, many units armed with smoothbore muskets did about as well as those armed with rifles, with the latter using their rifles pretty much as if they were smoothbore muskets a lot of the time and not opening fire until the enemy were at similarly close ranges.

[@CheemskoGiondau]

@@robertstallard7836 they didn't had so much training so we can not blame them for that. The new rifle were more capable but if they did not use it properly , it is not so different from a musket . You can receive low quality weapons but if your troops were properly trained , they will perform much better than the one who receive good weapons but were poorly trained

[@robertstallard7836]

@@CheemskoGiondau It's a pity, really, from a historical point of view. Had they been, the final iterations of the muzzle-loading rifle and its ammunition could have been given a proper test. Yes, there were a few instances during the Xhosa Wars, for example, the Indian Mutiny and the Crimea (albeit in that case with the 1851 rifle), but not much in the way of full-scale, European type conflicts with well-trained, professional troops able to demonstrate the 1853 to its full effectiveness against similarly-armed opposition.

[@tacfoley4443]

Dear Brett - my dear wife, who is Welsh, is keen to know your rationale for blaming the Welsh for your ineptitude.

[@limevader]

I grew up in Colwyn Bay, North Wales - I'm going to have to come clean and own up to sabotage on behalf of my fellow countrymen - sorry

[@wb5plj]

hehehe, interesting thanks for the video, but do you realize that you too are a "cool kid" just with a different genre.

[@mountainholler290]

Wait.....what ? The aliens are bringing back Elvis ? 🤔