Live firing of a Brown Bess - Slow Motion

[snowdogthewolf]

A 545gr round ball at 1075 FPS would certainly put the hurt on someone. That's some 1300 ft/lbs at the muzzle. Not too shabby.

[rattinox]

One more thing: muskets were not exactly cheap in the Colonies before the Rev War, so the Americans almost always used their Bess's for double duty: hunting and their militia requirement. When hunting, they used patched ball, which is FAR more accurate as you proved. Patched ball was also used against the British during their retreat from Concord & Lexington, and many times thereafter!

[sockschappercat]

@rattinox both side using the same weapon? hmm...

[rattinox]

Great video!

Just FYI, the "Colonials" (Americans) used an Americanized version of the Brown Bess, usually made up from a hodgepodge of parts from older British Bess's (1756 model, for example), from French muskets, Prussian, Dutch, etc. All these older, usually obsolete, military muskets were scavenged for parts and rebuilt with an American-style stock. From a distance, though, you'd find it hard to tell the difference between a Colonial/American Bess and the British Army Bess...

[desertfalcon]

Of course, you would likely not need to load and fire 10-12 rounds as you would be using the bayonet long before then. :) 2' x 2' is still not bad for 100 yards given the sighting. You can see where even using a smooth-bore for hunting would be possible. I always wondered when militia were required to have muskets if they would use them for general hunting weapons when not in military service. I guess you could.

[linkzenos]

the only reason bows were being replace ever though they were way better than muskets was because bullets were ways easier to create than arrows both took long to create n be really skilled though new recruits on muskets were easier to train n the industrial revolution created metal muskets very quickly

[canwejustgo]

The Brown Bess is still a cool gun even today ...I use mine as a shotgun ..2 0z of #8 shot ...fired at a squirrel ...everything in the tree dies and falls down...good game getter

[twostrokeornill1]

Great Details. Thanks ! I just picked an original 2 groove Brunswick .703 cal that uses the "Belted ball" . I'm having the barrel re-lined, making a custom mold , and can't wait to live shoot this thing !

[pokefan68]

i have a question is the brown bess a smooth barreled musket? if so then is it a rifle?

[sotemot]

Yup, the brown bess is a smoothbore, which means it isn't a rifle.

[BtoZproductions]

@pokefan68 its a smoothbore and not a rifle

[Hathman60]

Is that a replica brown bess or an real brown bess

[PootWilliams]

0:33 Very Cool

[DrArschlock]

A lot depends on the size of the ball and the tightness of your patch, mine has a .745 bore. I've used .690 rb in mine with the paper cartridge a .690 with jean denim patch and a .715 with a pillow ticking patch. The accuracy with the paper cartridge .690 rb was not great by any means but that was not necessary in the days they used them firing in shoulder to shoulder skirmish lines, you were probably going to hit someone somewhere. The patched .715 gives me the best accuracy

nice vid!

[Treblaine]

Wow, 6 inch at 50 yards... without sights.

I think the inaccuracy of Muskets has been greatly exaggerated, that is still much more accurate than a Bow and Arrow or a typical pistol.

It's clear now why this was considered the best weapon of the era and with bows being virtually unused, even if limited to only about 4 shots per minute.

[LutzDerLurch]

Well, the inaccuracy of the musket is s little bit exaggerated quite often, but the accuracy of bows and the speed of bows are very often exaggerated. MOST people do not understand the difference between ultra-precise target-range and warfare. in fact, the bolt most loose on a musket, was the guy behind it, with the next iportant factor beeing battlefieldammunition. Many Bow-Lovers simply ignore the Effects these things would have to a bowman.

[Treblaine]

Yeah, I'd say in terms of man-hours and money needed to train and equip JUST ONE bowman to fire fast, accurately and far (for sustained periods), you could train & equip 3-4 musket-men with a combined rate of fire of around 9-16 shots per minute.

[LutzDerLurch]

Hm, I'd doubt that. The Man-Hours (money is only a measure for them) going into a musket are many times that of a bow. Also, if you'd train a bowman not like they did in the medieval times with his normal everyday trade running alongside etc., but train him for a full 8-12 hours, 6 Days a week, like musketeers were trained, you'd surely end with a extremely shortened timespan. The "Many-years-vs.-few-Weeks" Training times are, imho, at the most caused by a different system of training.

[Treblaine]

Well one consideration is with the industrial revolution iron barrels, lead shot and powder could be made at an increasingly faster and cheaper rate. While good quality bows + arrows remained a slow and expensive art form ill adapted to mass production.

You see the scenarios where a bowman outshoots a musketman are when the bowman has had a lifetime training and the musketeer is usually a conscript.

If it didn't then firearms wouldn't have overtaken bow till breech loading rifles appeared.

[LutzDerLurch]

The Industrial Revolution took place after the firearms have become the weapon of choice. The 1600s have already bee an age of powder and shot, the 1800s saw the industrial revolution. I consider myself informed about the 16 to 1700s gun manufacturing, and it was becomingly well organised but still craftsmaship and an art. Stocks were carved by hand, barrels were forged by hand, their final shapewas filed by hand. Even cannons were bored mainly with oxen power, taking several days.

[Treblaine]

Hmm, point noted, maybe I was a bit hasty with crediting the Industrial Revolution since it wasn't there till the late 18th century while firearms were the order of the day since at the 15th century.

I still think by that time iron-technology had advanced enough to make it easier to produce gun barrels than bows. The stock of a musket can be any old wood while the wood for a good bow needs to be very carefully selected and treated over a long period to manage the bending stresses.

[LutzDerLurch]

You are correct about making a Bow. But there are only a few Woods suitable for gunstocks. The woodneeds to be wellseasoned and of a certain grain structure and quality, or it would otherwise break or crack from the enormous stress when the gun is fired. Also, barrelmaking was very complicated. A very good piece of iron had to be forged around a steel pin to form a tube and the seam mustbe perfect, for not tear upon firing. The barrel was then straightened, then bored, and straigthend again.

[LutzDerLurch]

[cont.] All these things were done by hand. the barrel was then filed on the outside, threaded in the rear. The breechpin entered and the touchhole drilled. The Underlugswere then attached strongly. Now the finished barrel was proofed. The Serviceload was enormus back then, but for the proofing the barrel was tested with up to trice the load and tree bullets, several times.

[LutzDerLurch]

[cont.2] As far as I am aware, Bow can be purchased hand made today for 100s or 1.000s $, but traditionally made Flintlocks for only 10.000s. At least the weapon of the musketeers was surely much more expensiv. :-) However, I like both ^^ (And our conversation...far too often on youtube people prefer to fight each other)

[Treblaine]

Well the question is not merely which is better but WHY was there a massive switch from bows to firearms around the time of the Renaissance?

I don't think it is helpful comparing costs of weapons in today's economy (especially considering google found me several $500 flintlock muskets for sale) and anyway it was only the most advanced and hard-to-use bows (like the English Longbow) that could match a Musket's performance.

[LutzDerLurch]

Uh,jeah,that $500 India crap ^^. Well, there are very few people building the firearms as they were made back than, with forging the barrels etc. however, i think that there is not a single reason to chose firearms, and finding those and rating their inportance could proof very difficult without having bowmen armies today. And I guess apart of the muskets bad reputation come from the generaly romantasised image of the medieval "Warriors" vs. the dispised  Soldier and Mercenary Scum.

[LutzDerLurch]

[cont.] Well, it's all History by now,and none of them could rival modern weaponry, which I do not like. I presume, that there will be no final expalnation within short, considering the debates of bows vs. plate armor going on for decades. BTW. do you know goodsources fine Reproduction Longbows? :D

[k9hays]

Treblaine, The real simple answer to why the bow was replaced by the firearm is that Bowman were trained from a very young age and well into manhood to be effective with a bow...This meant that Bowman were harder to come by. Military leaders found that they could arm relatively unskilled conscripts with firearms in great numbers as years went on. There's more to that story but that's it in a nutshell.

[Judokkaa]

What about an original brown bess that was converted to percussion cap in the 1840's? I recently identified a musket I've inherited as this.

[Cosmoline]

The Bess and other muskets of the 18th-mid 19th century were designed not only to kill a man, but to stop a charging war horse! That's one reason the calibers remained large (.69 to .715) even after hunting rifles had shifted to .45 - .54 cal. The infantry had to be able to drop a charging horseman or they'd get lanced, stomped and slashed to pieces.

[bellator11]

To answer the question of how powerful these guns were: The killing power of most muskets lies mostly in the projectiles they fire, as they are extremely heavy and comparatively soft (lead is), weighing some 437.5 grains in the case of the ball fired by the Brown Bess. And this ball was propelled forward to a muzzle velocity of over 1,070 ft/sec. That is a lot of energy! And to top it off the soft lead ball would rapidly expand upon hitting a target, creating horrendously large exit wounds.

[HeavyGhost]

@stg44rulz - powerful enough to kill a man with one shot. Especially when you step up to .52 cal. shots. I've not shot a flint lock, but I've fired 2 "Black Powder" rifles. One was .50, the other was .52. Both with maximum powder loads. It'll rock your shoulder pretty well.

[WTF1920]

God, that is really cool how you slowed it down like that. I can actually see the hammer move before the powder goes off.

[stg44rulz]

how powerful are these guns? please respond

[colecoffey]

kill a deer at 100 yards

[stg44rulz]

how many people could this kill?

[colecoffey]

like standing in a row? front to back mabey 2 or 3 because it doesent have much muzzle velocity so it doesnt have lots of penatraton but all that depends on the gun

[Treblaine]

Hate to contradict bellator but though the bullets have a lot of energy and usually lack any hard jacket, the velocity is too low for the bullet to significantly deform.

This is seen in contemporary accounts, musket wounds were deep and as wide as the calibre but uncomplicated and a flesh would would usually heal without need for amputation. But a hit to a bone would likely cost the limb.

The bullet energy was most valuable in penetration of light defences (wood) and the thick body of a horse.

[stg44rulz]

how powerful were these guns? PLEASE RESPOND

[95thFoot]

"Flinch-lock"! ;) It takes time to cure that reflex....BTDT. Keep at it!

[glifencible]

Actually I didn't have it at the beginning, it came on after the first 30 or 40 rounds and got worse. By that time, my shoulder was like ground beef. LOL

[PSFE05]

that hurts your shoulder? What are you doing, putting 200 grains of powder in it or something? I shoot 80 grains and it barely kicks at all. Nowhere close to even shooting target loads out of a 12 gauge.

[colecoffey]

i shoot 90 grains from a 45 and it doesnt kick at all and it only weighs 6 pounds

[LutzDerLurch]

Well, but modern shooters usually chose modest loads to achieve the best accuracy. Back then the powder war not as significantly worse than most believe, and they used a load enough to dump halv of if while loading, and still beeing more than enouh to batter the ball out at horrendous speeds.

[oldsmobile96]

great video, i recently purchased a traditions flintlock Hawken rifle. It is accurate out to 100 and possibly beyone because of the rifled barrel. Black powder definately holds a special place in the shooting sports. And i dont mean the inline type.

[colecoffey]

flint locks for ever no thompson centers can stand up to flint locks

[ahz123]

Rifling is the difference between old guns and modern guns.

A 6" group at 50 yds with a rifle would be a display of terrible marksmanship. With a musket, well, I'm sure I couldn't do better,

[LutzDerLurch]

Rifles existed even back then ^^

[Fwbs]

cool!