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The Ferguson rifle was one of the first breech-loading rifles to be put into service by the British military. It was designed by Major Patrick Ferguson (1744–1780). It fired a standard British carbine ball of .615" calibre and was used by the British Army in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, and possibly at the Siege of Charleston in 1780.
Based on the Jäger rifle, [3] these long rifles, known as "Pennsylvania Rifles", were used by snipers and light infantry throughout the Revolutionary War. The grooved barrel increased the range and accuracy by spinning a snugly fitted ball, giving an accurate range of 300 yards compared to 100 yards for smoothbore muskets.
Brown Bess musket – precursor to the early British rifles. The origins of the modern British military rifle are within its predecessor the Brown Bess musket.While a musket was largely inaccurate over 100 yards (91 m), due to a lack of rifling and a generous tolerance to allow for muzzle-loading, it was cheap to produce and could be loaded quickly.
The ball magazine was situated in a cylindrical cavity in the stock under the barrel. [6] Many Kalthoff guns used a magazine located in the ramrod cavity, and featured a cap designed to look like the end of the ramrod. [1] This style of magazine was around a 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length and could hold over 60 14 mm (0.55 in) balls. [3]
The Long Land Pattern musket and its derivatives, all 0.75 inches calibre flintlock muskets, were the standard long guns of the British Empire's land forces from 1722 until 1838, when they were superseded by a percussion cap smoothbore musket. The British Ordnance System converted many flintlocks into the new percussion system known as the ...
Nearly 250 years ago, hundreds of militiamen lined a hillside in Massachusetts and started firing a barrage of musket balls toward retreating British troops, marking the first major battle in the ...
His forces were on their way to the pivotal Battle of Yorktown, where the British suffered great losses and surrendered. The war officially ended in 1783. The war officially ended in 1783.
The rifle was four feet (1.2 m) long and weighed ten pounds (4.5 kg), about the same size and weight as infantry muskets of the time. It fired a .46 or .51 caliber ball and had a tubular, spring-fed magazine with a capacity of 20 balls. [8] [9] [10] Some of the weapons were also made using