Brown Bess didn't use a .75 caliber ball, it used a smaller ball (.71 I think) to facilitate ease of loading, and a service charge was more than 90 grains, I can't recall off hand, but I think it was 140. And they were effective at more than 50 yards if properly handled. And I'm confused as to why you even mentioned Matchlocks, they were extremely outdated.
That’s exactly right! The British Land Pattern Musket (Brown Bess) had a .75 caliber bore but shot a .69 caliber ball to make ease of loading especially after many shots, as fouling from the black power built up in the barrel. The French on the other hand, had their muskets with a .69 caliber bore and fired a .61 or .62 caliber ball. The French had access to better quality gunpowder so they could get away with smaller projectiles. Matchlocks came way before the flintlock mechanism. Matchlocks were used during the age of exploration and the conquistadors; way before the 18th century. By the time the 1600s came around, the matchlock was starting to become obsolete in favor of the wheel lock, and an early form of flintlock known as the snaphaunce. In fact, an early form of flintlock saw use in the English Civil War. The way the matchlock was presented here, I feel like made firearms history kind of misleading
Pennsylvania and Virginia rifles were used but the musket was the workhorse of the revolution. Kentucky rifles didn’t come about until later, they were typically made in Pennsylvania but were shorter than the original Pennsylvania rifles.
That is a misconception regarding bayonet lethality; you can very much stitch a bayonet wound, also technically the style bayonet is NOT outlawed! Someone else covered this very topic, also the shape had nothing to do with making it deadlier but to give it strength and simplify construction! Metallurgy was a factor back then so to ensure durability they developed techniques over time, it is why the knife bayonet took so long to develop before adoption.
Frizzen (hammer) guards were not used during the period, neither were the brass plates on the side of the pan, they are a modern safety “reenactorism”, also most people who say muskets cannot hit a barn past the magic number of fifty yards (50 yards is almost the perfect range for buck and ball) have never even live fired their muskets.
