Shooting An Original 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket 

+chouyi007 Lol

Johnny Reb best take his car back to camp

+Tommy10Man um... ok... why not?

+Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee was actually for the slow freein of the slaves, he helped both black and white alike after the war. Honestly if Virginia had not split off, Robert E. Lee would have been the top general of the Union side of the Civil war.

Jarrett Smith, "You humans are all racists!")) The US Civil War was not about freeing the slaves. Lincoln believed in their inferiority. Even I know that.

Ruberoid Shiferov ,Yup,The war was fought to preserve the union.A house divided cannot stand.

James Longstreet that was hilarious ideology as that would apply to the U.S secession from Britain.... yes a housed divided can stand when it's made two houses.

That's because it was a British rifle.

Its a lot of fun and a lot less expensive than shooting modern rifles and handguns! Thanks for watching!

+murpheysmuskets Really? I always thought those antiques were a lot more costly to shoot. Ya know, not just the rare and worn out gun, but having to find or make your ammo, etc.

Murphey's Muskets ,I fired an original confederate six shooter,cap,ball.Sweet.

After a few shots you will kick yourself for buying it. I paid $65.00 for one back in 1961. The springfield pattern with bandsprings was a better more solid rifle.

I would love to get into Rev war more seriously. Thank you for your support!

edge4006 Thanks! It took a year but I finally got-er-done! lol

carol tenge no sling would be more correct

@@mrv2rocketman NO! Wrong. If actually used by the confederates and a sling was not furnished when it came off the boat then the homespun woven slings were passed out. These made by the reb ladies for the cause.

They tore the cartridge apart before ramming, the cartridge was made in two parts so the lube on the Minie's would not foul the black powder, you would tear open the tail end (with teeth or hands depending), pour powder, tear the paper so that you had the "naked" Minie, then you would ram the ball home.

One thing with these firearms, whether it's a rifle or pistol, is that your follow through is very important. That goes for any firearm. But because of the slight delay between the percussion cap igniting and the powder propelling the bullet (or ball) out of the barrel, you want to keep the sights on target to ensure the highest possible accuracy. It's much more rewarding to hit the x-ring with these old percussion cap firearms.

+Brandon Adkins 1stFallschirmjagerRgt had some excellent advise and I would also say to research what the historical BP load was and then reduce by 10 or so grains if its a smoothbore. I rifled musket shooting a minie cartridge shouldn't exceed 65gr of 2Fg as it could cause a skirt separation.

I like the P53 better than the 61, but I like the M1842 rifle musket the best!

I had a chance to check out a 58 2 band and it was very comfortable in the shoulder. I got to try a 61 before i can decide which one i want to drop a grand on lol

Love my 42 rifled and 42 smoothy.

That knapsack looks like a French and Indian War British issue. Weird.

Think Farb+ At least, that's what we called it when I was reenacting back in the 1980s. Gads! That was before some of you people were even born! Making me feel old! But, he would never be allowed on the field with all that fantasy clap-trap!

Look out we got an expert here

Its not so bad when you have a hundred other dudes loading and firing with you! Heck it only take 4 guys to keep a constant rate of fire. It isn't a modern rifle for sure, but when employed the way it was designed they are deadly. Thanks for watching :)!

By the time of the American Civil War it was already more or less stupid because rifled muskets were in common use already. But before that - say, Napoleonic wars or wars of the eighteenth century, when smoothbore muskets were used, linear tactics actually made sense. For several reasons: 1) The muskets were very inaccurate. This incresed by the stress on the soldier made them quite ineffective at delivering accurate shots. So to shoot down the enemy from a guud distance you had to shoot a lot of bullets into him. (For which all the three lines of a unit fired at the same time) 2) If you scattered too much, cavalry would ride you down with great ease because you wouldn't be able to stop them with gunfire due to your low accuracy and not shoting lots of bullets at once, and your bayonets wouldn't help you much either out of formation. Hope that may make it clearer for you. Cheers

How else do you think they could have controlled the army during a gunfight (which is very loud) if your company isn't within shouting distance. Also tightly packed companies were able to deliver a higher volume of fire. Believe me if there was a better way they would have done it. You have to remember how limited they were. Instant communication didn't exist.

If they can deliver high volumes of fire so can the enemy...and the South did not have the vast resources of men like the North did to replace casualties. Comm's would be a challenge in this era during battle, but with that said, moving over vast open fields taking incoming rifled artillery, then rifled fire, and possibly cannon grapeshot. Just a terrible way to fight a war. You would think all those smart men back then would of figured out a different tactic to wage war.

Because training. It takes a lot longer to make someone effective with a bow than it does to make them effective with a musket. Who's going to win, the vastly bigger army with long-range weapons or the vastly smaller one with more primitive weapons? Don't think you thought that out very well. If you looked up that question, you'd have figured it out much quicker.

Yeah obviously your as dumb as a rock with that response

Indeed you are. Pointless to even debate with you.

Why would I be? I live in Texas.

Your a confederate supporter if yes get a life

+XXPlushtuberpro23XX I'm shooting a historical confederate Enfield in historical garb. Its all representative of that part of our history. I don't have to "support it" to appreciate it. I think it is your sir that needs to get the life, and stop making assumptions about people you don't know on the Internet.

I can shoot 3 rounds in 46 seconds

Murphey's Muskets good on you sir Theres nothing wrong with supporting southern succession whether you do or dont. ..... The war had nothing to do with slavery Until lincoln used it as moral Stonewall jackson was for the emancipation of slaves Ive found it difficult to replicate the texas uniform i cant find much on them Black trim was also standard for Carolina The only thing i dont like is the capie ive always prefered slouch hats .....

There was no official manual of arms demo. The video was made to showcase the rifle not the drill.

Poor excuse. If you're properly trained you will do it the right way automatically.

where did you get this passage?

truuuuuu

I got mine in Richmond in a street ambush, when I awoke it wqas 1954 and in 1971 I was back in the army but as an artilleryman this time.

They weren't even land confiscation wars. Don't be a revisionist, no one likes those.

Thanks for watching!

Yes sir!

bonnie blue

***** Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the video and its great to hear from you!

+Manderson matters ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CNIt8RvGP5M.html

awesome thanks a bunch.

@MusketeerinFlorida....depends on what cartridge you are using. In the federal pattern cartridges, the paper is nothing more than a vessel for carrying the powder and the bullet, and the paper is discarded. With Enfield cartridges, and those constructed like Enfield cartridges, the cartridge is constructed from more pieces of paper. The powder chamber is accessed by biting or tearing open the end of the outer wrapper. The powder is poured down the barrel, and the cartridge inverted so that the bullet, pointed toward the center of the cartridge, is placed in the muzzle WITH the lube dipped outer wrapper still wrapped around the bullet. The stiffer powder chamber is easily snapped off the cartridge exposing the nose of the smooth sided Pritchett bullet, which is then rammed down the barrel with lubed paper wrapping it. There are videos on youtube demonstrating this. I'm casting .566 NOE Pritchetts as well as making the baseplugs that fit in their hollow base....and making 1855 Enfield pattern cartridges.

Yes having the Minie's within the paper would make for a much cleaner shooting gun as paper is abrasive and does and excellent job cleaning the bore. britishmuzzleloaders has an excellent video explaining such cartridges and how to make them. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to make period cartridges but I am sure if I did I could shoot indefinitely. As is I get about 15 rounds before its done.

With the bare 610 ball and paper wadding in the Fusil video I did, by the time I got to the 4th shot I had some trouble seating at the end of the stroke. I guess an undersized ball in paper would load forever.

***** .610 is kinda big. I shoot .590 and have never fouled out or noticed a loss in accuracy.

+Valmir von Vesver The thing is today there is no standard procedure for making cartridges so people kind of just do whatever. The old standard military cartridges were multi-layer and allowed the Minie ball to engage the rifling. I recommend a YT channel called Britishmuzzeloaders.

Hildebrandt von Greunhagen okay here we go. The original cartridge for the Enfield was a Pritchett ball it was smooth sided and had an extra waxed paper over the bullet. These were inserted with the paper backwards after loading the powder, then the excess paper ripped away, then the ball rammed home. The next thing is the Enfield can take a .58 minnie ball same as the springfield. The Confederates used both, they made Minnie balls, used captured, tried to make pritchetts, and were supplied pritchetts from Britain. Today minnies are just easier to make, they're accuracy is similar, and they are still historically accurate. The big thing going for the pritchett ball was that it was faster to load, but had a more complex cartridge. Now with a smooth bore you ram paper and all after loading the powder, this created somewhat of a patch, and paper is abrasive so it helps with fouling a little bit, and once it fouls hard you simply just ram the round ball by itself. I hope this clears this up for you. The Enfield is .577 caliber while the springfield is .58 close enough that generally they can take the same ball since MOST .58 minnies are sized .575. But there were cases were Confederates got balls that were just slightly to big to use.

Friendly Fascist During the time, bolt action rifles weren’t quite as popular until a couple of decades later. Most countries still preferred breech loaded rifles like the Henry Rifle, the .52 Sharps rifle and etc. Also, the Dreyse Needle rifle was just introduced Prussia at the time, then later came other implements of Bolt-Action rifles.

Also Prussia is around Central Europe and wouldn’t really want to give/trade new improved rifles to the America’s. Most of the Rifles that were given to the U.S, were British rifles like the Enfield.

debateable...if you look up some of the history of the minie ball, during the nearly 10,500 skirmishes and battles of the American civil war, more than 110,000 Union soldiers and 94,000 Confederates were killed, and an additional 275,000 and 194,000, respectively, were wounded. Rifle bullets, primarily the minié bullet, caused 90 percent of all these casualties. Artillery projectiles accounted for less than 9 percent, and swords and bayonets, less than 1 percent. Of course this wasn't entirely the Enfield, there was reportedly about 800k Enfields and over 2 million Springfields in use on both sides

roadsweeper1, I must add that the "skill" of the Union ranking commanders was matchable with one of Russian generals at the beginning of WW2. The North won by using technological edge and cannon fodder: Casualty rate was 2 to 1. Grant used to say: "I never count dead men" or something. And the mentality of James Ripley was purely Russian: cost-cutting. Speaking of "The God of war", the star time of artillery began in WW1. Mortars mostly.

24footsoldier Actually the jacket isn't even close to a North Carolina pattern shell. Why don't you research 4th and 5th Texas uniform regulations and look for period photographs (to see what they actually wore) before commenting on things you obviously know very little about .

He looks very period correct to me sir. Maybe your the one that isn't period correct.

Murphy if you don't care can you shoot me an email at bigshow0067@gmail.com

Its rifled. I would love to do a video on the Manard tape muskets but unfortunately I do not have one at this time. Thanks for watching!

velocity550 i love how things from the civil war still live on discreetly Like manard tape being used in toy cape guns.

the 1853 was one of the best guns in the war

James Hart Just cause you got a 1853 Enfield doesn’t mean everything else you wear would be british I do 8th Tennessee I have a .69cal Box with a 1853 Enfield The bullet is pointing up towards the power you would insert it then break the top paper off then ram it down

+Alex Sacco Not really, just a little muzzle heavy.

+murpheysmuskets thank you sir! Love your confederate gear!

Lawrence Stanley the originals had a 1:78 twist with progressive rifling Shallow toward the muzzle Deep toward the breech Usually got about a half a twist before leaving the muzzle

tinkandtory I would look for a used Pedersoli Brown Bess on Gunbroker. They can be had sub 1K and are 10x better than what Indian made muskets are. For more info visit my website www.murpheysmuskets.com/recomended-muskets.html

Thanks a million for the quick response. I have been watching your videos for four years now. When I started I didn't own a firearm (too young to), but now I am buying and fixing center fire rifles. Once again, Thanks

TheLoyalOfficer it is. What you had on you. Were YOURE possesion your personal purchased sidearm Canteen possibles bag Belt cook wear socks. Bed roll Rations You were issued Things like flour beans Corn meal Salt pork Cartridges caps And occasionally socks Hats n whatnot. If you left your gear behind you risk it being stolen They would even sleep in full uniform. It sucked

Yeah but there were camps and such where the guys left behind their extra stuff, right?

TheLoyalOfficer while possible. Its unlikely. As. Your camp equipment was yours. You carried your cookware and blanket with you If you were at the front you would lay out your bed roll And open your possibles bag take out your canteen half most rebs cooked and ate out of tin canteen halfs. It was easy to carry light weight and universal Then in the morning put it up check your gear and go Units often got rotated early on so camps were far behind the lines. If you were on furlow then yes But as a flontline camp no. They never left it behind The union didnt have this issue because of supplies But for confederates we very rarely dropped gear During the battle of Gettysburg Rebs were fighting without shoes. He says in the video is accurate Its the same way in the military now Your rations Cookware Munitions And gear go with you

TheLoyalOfficer in all honesty there isnt a definitive answer but its for the most part true. They took home with them on their backs. Wool uniforms that dont breath in the summer and breath to much in winter made it miserable Disease from cross contaminated possibles bags mad it even worse

But what about the photos and art from the period? Some images show men fighting with packs, true. But many images do not have men fighting with packs. It would seem to me to be a great burden and would slow the men down during charges and hamper them badly in hand-to-hand fighting, which, while uncommon, did happen from time to time - Chickamauga especially for example.