1861 Springfield Rifled musket.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejxByA-siSs


this is something you might find interesting. This person is shooting an open sight 1861 Springfield Rifled Musket with minnie ball. The amazing thing is, he is shooting a 24" plate at 650 yards and hitting it more then missing it.

So the next time you hear someone tell you that the traditional muzzleloader is not accurate at long distances... well ask them if they would be willing to stand out at 650 yards in front of this person. Even a minnie at that distance has enough energy to plow right through you, or worse yet, tumble right through you.

cayugad

Cool! I wanna do that....

Cayugad
 

Thanks for the heads -up. I find it very interesting,as I just got one of these at Christmas time, pretty much planning to use it for a wall decoration - my wife bugged me till I got it for her, but after seeing the video - I'm gonna start shooting that old smoker. It really is a beauty.

You have to be kidding me. At 650 yards you could hardly even see that 2 foot plate let alone hit it with a muzzleloader with open sights.

That feller gots lot better eyes than me, IMPRESSIVE

That's awesome. I was watching a TV show the other night and they were claiming that "muskets" were only accurate out to 30 yards. I just laughed and changed the channel.

Cool, cool, cool, I would love to ve able to shoot like that. Or gave a rifle like that.

The old 1851 451 Gibbs rifles were so accurate back then that today they still do great in long range competition. Pedersoli has a sweet replica but my pockets are not that deep.

TNHagies

The key here is RIFLED musket. Muskets back then were usually smooth bore and preferred for close range use by many soldiers only because fouling didnt slow down loading as much. Revised bullet designs greatly helped that problem.

True and I agree. However, this program improperly used the term "musket" to discribe all muzzleloaders. I would have bet my life savings they couldn't have told you the difference between a smoothbore and a Long Range Hunter.

When I first saw that You Tube video.. I also thought, "Man I can't even see that far."

There was another video of a man shooting a 45/70 or maybe it was a 45/90 Sharps Rifle. And the cool part was he had a video feed camera on the target. So you'd see him shoot and then in the corner of the screen was the video of the target. And suddenly a huge hole would appear. All of sudden he was shooting a group with that Vernier Tang sight. When he gets up to check his shots.. They pan out to the target. I'd hate to guess how far that thing was, away from him. But his group was really impressive.

That just goes to show you, what a good rifle, and especially a good shooter can do if they KNOW THEIR RIFLE.