Originally Posted by OldBob47

Uh, yeah, I thought that's what I said. Not that I'm a revolutionary war buff, exactly. If you are, then certainly you are familiar with the fact that many of the guns on both sides of the conflict were smootbores, which required a PRB. The switchover to rifled arms freed them from that limitation. The primary advantage of a weapon is range. Thus, the Continental Army's rifle-equipped soldiers (mostly the snipers) had a decided advantage over the British Army's standard Brown Bess, with its effective range of maybe 75 yards. This had nothing to do with the lock. A smoothbore caplock would fair no better than a flintlock musket.

OldBob