Tweet
The following was pulled from the RWProgressive/RevList YahooGroup. It appears that one manufacturer of import Brown-Bess Muskets has some design faults...and a barrel burst at a recent Rev War event.
We all must be vigilant about getting the whole story, as this poses a very real danger to the Living History/Reenactor Community!
"Your information is not quite correct. The musket was indeed a
relatively new India musket. According to its owner (a 30 year re-
enactor I deem very safe!), it had only been out to five our six
events this year. He bought it to see its reliability, and over its
brief life he only fired about 50 rounds out of it.
You are completely incorrect in stating that he overloaded, so please
don't spread such rumours, as it obscures the facts.
The musket incident occured during the Sunday morning skirmish, for
re-enactors only. The owner fired it maybe 7 times during the
tactical, as he was one of two British officers out on the tactical,
and was busy commanding troops (I was the other). The incident
occured near the end of the tactical.
The musket blew along, what appeared to be, a weld or seam line on
the lower side of the barrel, on the lock side. The breach plug was
blown, but not completely out of the gun. The lock was intact. The
stock severly splintered. The barrel split was from the vent hole to
the first pin.
I secured his pouch afteward and measured the amount of powder in the
cartridges to head off accusations of overload. The cartridges had
about 110 grains in them, so even at a double load it should have
been safe, and he was not double loading, as I was by him for most of
the tactical.
The owner sustained two broken fingers, one cut above his eye, and
another on his hand. He, and another man from his unit were taken to
the hospital for treatment - the other man having sustained a micro-
perf of his ear drum.
The conclusion I have drawn is these weapons are unsafe. The
questions I have are:
1.) are all the "new" muskets from India or where ever, from the
same manufacturer?
2.) If not, are some better than others? Have any of them been
proofed?
Please note that in my response I changed the subject, as the fact
this incident occured at Rock Ford Plantation is immaterial to the
incident, and I see no good purpose in sullying their good name for
the sake of this important discussion on these new muskets.
In talking with some of the sutlers afterwards, one very reputable
and long time sutler said he had heard there were problems with these
muskets and that is why he would not sell them. Has anyone else had
first hand experience with problems with these muskets?
Jim McGaughey
HM Marines
Crown Forces Officer Commanding at Rock Ford"
We all must be vigilant about getting the whole story, as this poses a very real danger to the Living History/Reenactor Community!
"Your information is not quite correct. The musket was indeed a
relatively new India musket. According to its owner (a 30 year re-
enactor I deem very safe!), it had only been out to five our six
events this year. He bought it to see its reliability, and over its
brief life he only fired about 50 rounds out of it.
You are completely incorrect in stating that he overloaded, so please
don't spread such rumours, as it obscures the facts.
The musket incident occured during the Sunday morning skirmish, for
re-enactors only. The owner fired it maybe 7 times during the
tactical, as he was one of two British officers out on the tactical,
and was busy commanding troops (I was the other). The incident
occured near the end of the tactical.
The musket blew along, what appeared to be, a weld or seam line on
the lower side of the barrel, on the lock side. The breach plug was
blown, but not completely out of the gun. The lock was intact. The
stock severly splintered. The barrel split was from the vent hole to
the first pin.
I secured his pouch afteward and measured the amount of powder in the
cartridges to head off accusations of overload. The cartridges had
about 110 grains in them, so even at a double load it should have
been safe, and he was not double loading, as I was by him for most of
the tactical.
The owner sustained two broken fingers, one cut above his eye, and
another on his hand. He, and another man from his unit were taken to
the hospital for treatment - the other man having sustained a micro-
perf of his ear drum.
The conclusion I have drawn is these weapons are unsafe. The
questions I have are:
1.) are all the "new" muskets from India or where ever, from the
same manufacturer?
2.) If not, are some better than others? Have any of them been
proofed?
Please note that in my response I changed the subject, as the fact
this incident occured at Rock Ford Plantation is immaterial to the
incident, and I see no good purpose in sullying their good name for
the sake of this important discussion on these new muskets.
In talking with some of the sutlers afterwards, one very reputable
and long time sutler said he had heard there were problems with these
muskets and that is why he would not sell them. Has anyone else had
first hand experience with problems with these muskets?
Jim McGaughey
HM Marines
Crown Forces Officer Commanding at Rock Ford"
Comment