#smoothbore

“Shotguns, scatterguns, boomsticks, whatever you call it — everyone has something to say about the good old smoothbore shooters. But if you think 12-gauge is all we need, then you're surely mistaken—everything from the commies of the Cold War to the lessons learned from weaponized greed—sometimes we need to turn it up beyond 12!” — Henry H. Gomez, THO Founder

TACTICAL HUNT ORGANISATION (THO, Super Shotgun): A 4-round, 6-gauge, pump-action super shotgun originally hailing from the Soviet Union, now proudly used by the most prideful hunters across the fields, whether it is used for riot-control as intended, or even used to break down armoured barricades, this is the shotgun to use!

Known as the ARK-CLASH (Clancy's Ludicrously Anarchistic Shotgun Handler), this Cold War Era super scattergun has seen extensive use by the Gomez family due to its unique uses and design.

ALL GROUPS-OF-INTEREST (G.O.Is, Super Shotgun): Speaking of, due to the overwhelming popularity of the super shotgun above, a lot of G.O.Is started requesting orders for a super shotgun of their own.

I’ve just come across this article. It’s the sort of stuff I hear about but didn’t actually think existed. Am I going to be a bitch about it? A little. But such is the work of a historian, right? 

In fact there’s so much to unpack I’m going to do it almost word by word. From the top; 

“In this article, we’ll be talking about speed vs. accuracy. Unbelievable as it is, many European soldiers of the day were not taught to aim.”

Anyone familiar with this tumblr will immediately see why I’m doing this. 

Anyone not familiar with this tumblr, I’ll provide this link. tl’dr? British soldiers, like all soldiers in the eighteenth century, were taught to aim, and rigorously so during wartime. The idea that any professional army universally equipped with projectile weapons would not be taught to aim is insane. 

“They counted on massed volley musket fire and the bayonet. That’s not the case with the Continentals, who aimed not just their muskets but their rifles — to deadly effect.” 

Eighteenth-century armies did indeed count on massed volleys and the bayonet, and Continental firepower was indeed generally better than that of Crown Forces during the war, but becoming adept with bayonets was also a huge step in the Continental Army becoming competent enough to actually win battles.

“The American Revolution was the turning point in our country’s history, as it was the creation of the nation itself. Tired of the laws and taxes of our former British masters, the colonists took arms to fight. After many years of virtually impossible odds and bloody battle, we won our independence as free men.”

The virtually impossible odds were the ones faced by Britain once the colonists resolved to fight and not give up, especially after 1778.

“More than just a remarkable story of simple peasants beating an empire, the American revolution stands as a historical lesson. The idea that common farmers, tradesmen and townspeople could take up arms and beat the most powerful army of its day is amazing in itself. The fact that they did it while outgunned and outmanned is even more impressive. One factor that likely contributed to their success is their superior understanding of accurate fire, and the ability to deliver it effectively.”

That first sentence is actual fairytale stuff. The British Army wasn’t the most powerful army of its day. It was second-rate at best. The Prussian, French, and probably the Austrian armies would have beaten the British Army in 1775. The Spanish would probably have given them a run for their money.

The outgunned and outmanned part is even better. There were no major battles (and almost no engagements of any kind) where Crown Forces weren’t outnumbered, sometimes two or three to one. The size of the forces sent to the colonies was utterly paltry compared with the population they were expected to subdue. 

While The British redcoats carried smoothbore “Brown Bess” muskets, many “Minute Men and colonial soldiers carried the rifles they already owned. The Colonial Army possessed a mix of personal, issued, and captured weapons, and the availability of ammuntion was a constant worry throughout the war. As early as 1774, with tensions rising and militias forming, requirements for the “Combat Load” were laid down.

We’ll come back to this, but it isn’t the case that “many Minute Men and colonial soldiers carried rifles” at all. 

“Many of these pre-war militias mandated that volunteers muster with their own weapons and ammunition. This also meant they needed their own support gear as well, in form of powder, molds, flints, patches and small tools. This loadout was often what men already carried in their bags and gunny sacks to survive the wilds of the frontier. The men who reported to the first militias were a mixed bunch, but many had mastered their personal weapons and understood accuracy long before the first shots at Lexington and Concord.”

The comments about militia having to rely on their own gear are accurate, but they absolutely weren’t men equipped “to survive the wilds of the frontier.” The vast majority of revolutionary militiamen hailed from the settled areas of the Thirteen Colonies. Only a small number were ‘wild’ frontiersmen, most were simply agricultural workers or small-scale semi-urban employees. 

“The British soldier was regarded as the most professional of his era, and touted as the best trained. He carried his Brown Bess .75 caliber smoothbore musket and drilled constantly with it. His combat load on paper was around 30 rounds, but often in excess of 60 rounds were carried into battle. The Brown Bess was often fired en masse at 50 yards (46 m) to inflict the greatest damage upon the enemy.”

Even a British officer in 1775 wouldn’t have claimed his soldiers were the most professional of the era and the best trained. Every major European military would have laughed that statement out of the room. The start of the war exposed the deficiencies in the peacetime British military establishment, and the first three years of conflict were spent playing catchup. 

“Military tactics of this period stressed coordinated volleys and massed bayonet charges, instead of individual marksmanship. This stood opposite of the volunteers, most who had never stood in a company formation before, had no idea of “proper” tactics, and were accustomed to killing game for survival. While the Brits could achieve a devastating effect at 50 yard with volley fire, their effectiveness drastically dropped at distance. Their smooth bore weapons reloaded quicker than the colonists’ rifles, but limited their ability to hit at greater distance, particularly on individual targets.”

British soldiers were also volunteers, it was what the army’s degree of effectiveness was based on. Militiamen drilled in company and platoon formations and would have had at least a basic grip of tactics. Tactical manuals for the militia were common during the period and widely distributed. Smoothbore muskets, while certainly not as accurate as rifles, were still effective up to 200 yards, and an experienced shooter with a smoothbore was more deadly than an inexperienced rifleman. See, for example, the letters of Captain Dansey during the war. 

“The early Americans might not have been as well trained in infantry tactics, nor as well equipped, but they made up for it in grit and what Washington’s Von Steuben (a professional Prussian) admired as the American spirit. These were hard men, accustomed to a tough life in what was still a brave, dangerous new world. Outside the small towns and cities, they carried weapons as a way of life. Earlier engagements with the Native Americans, dangerous animals and highwaymen taught the universal lesson of self-protection.“

Again, very few revolutionaries hailed from the frontier. Life in the settled parts of America was considered less strenuous than life back in Britain. American colonists in general by 1775 likely enjoyed a higher standard of living than anywhere else in the world. Very few militiamen in 1775 would have been experienced in fighting Native Americans, highwaymen and feral animals. 

“The famous Pennsylvania Long rifle many carried offered superior accuracy to the Brown Bess, as far out as 300 yards. The Pennsylvania long rifle came in many calibers, styles and lengths, but all shared the lands and grooves cut into their bores. The rifle, not the smoothbore, allowed for greater accuracy but at the cost of reloading speed. Because of supply problems throughout the war, it was rare for our soldiers to be issued more than 30 rounds at any time, and many were forced to melt down lead or mismatched projectiles over campfires when they found it. This wide array of different calibers was a logistical nightmare, one that forced each man to solve it for himself.”

This bit is pretty fair. 

“Let’s look at the data from the colonists’ first clash with the British Army:”

Just when I thought we might be past the worst of it...

“Let’s assume that every casualty inflicted during the battles of Lexington and Concord resulted from musket and rifle fire (obviously they all didn’t, as the bayonet, knife, tomahawk and rifle butt also were used). But for the sake of argument, or to validate this point, let’s just say it was only small arms fire. With only around 70 shooters at Lexington and around 1000 by the end of the engagement at Concord, these men fought approximately 1,800 redcoats. Only 15 out of every 100 rounds fired from the colonial militiamen found their target (inflicting about 15% casualties on the British or about 270 hits.) The British force, on the other hand, did worse despite their superior experience and training. Only 1 out of every 10 shots fired struck a colonial militiaman, which amounted to about 90 casualties. This is astounding to think about, considering it was the first conflict of the war!”

There were no rifles at Lexington and Concord, on either side. Okay, so we don’t have data on weapons from the day of the battle itself, but there are regular returns of the firearms owned by people in New England throughout the 1770s, and there was almost not one rifle among them throughout all those north-eastern colonies. Smoothbore muskets would have accounted for 99% of the weapons used by the militia at Lexington and Concord, if not more. There were also almost 4000 militia engaged over the course of the day against 1500 British regulars. The British were also in no way more experienced than the militia in that first battle. A clear majority had never seen action before.

“The rifle, with its greater accuracy and in the hands of hunters, woodsmen and those accustomed to the frontier can likely be thanked for the superior number of hits.”

Again, militiamen were rarely ‘frontiersmen’ or ‘woodsmen,’ especially in New England. They were just ordinary labourers or small-time tradesmen living in small but well-established communities in the settled interior of the colonies. The nearest guy trading fur from a cabin in the woods was many miles distant from the action on April 19 1775.

“But there is also another point: not everyone was a great marksman. The rifles were viewed as a drawback by many early officers, mostly due to the above-mentioned logistical reasons, but also because of the training issues that came with them. The country boys mostly did fine with them, but the new shooter did not. As the war continued, the colonists recruited all men that could fight. Unfortunately, not all of these soldiers were familiar with firearms, or were too young to have much experience with them.”

Fair, kinda. 

“These shortcomings and issues led George Washington to argue for a limited role of rifles in the Colonial military, as he was trying to build a modern force equal to the British. The reports of superior accuracy and effectiveness of rifles simultaneously reached the Congress, which remained more enthusiastic for the weapon and created specialized companies of pure riflemen. Later in the war, long rifles played a significant part in the battles of Saratoga and New Orleans...”

The latter occurred so much later in the war that it was actually fought 32 years after the American Revolution had ended... 

“where rifleman units focused on engaging key targets, such as enemy officers. The extended range of their weapons allowed them to disrupt British command and control, much as modern snipers do.”

The British Army didn’t suffer higher casualties among its officer corps in the American Revolution compared to any other conflict it was involved in during the eighteenth-century. Only at Bunker Hill were there notably high officer casualties, and Don Hagist has recently postulated that this was actually because of a series of friendly fire incidents brought on by the inexperience of British soldiers (there were also, again, very few rifles at Bunker Hill). 

The comparison to modern Scout Snipers goes further: the riflemen required protective support by men armed with smoothbore muskets to keep from being overrun. They were deadly effective at distance, but the ability to rapidly reload remained the stuck thorn. The American Revolution (or as it is called elsewhere, the “War of American Independence”) ended in our success, thanks to many factors. The superior notion of American accuracy and fighting spirit is undoubtably among those factors, and lives on today with our Second Amendment. Our modern military has some of the best snipers in the world, and our infantrymen are deadly even past 500 yards.Our weapons continue to focus on accuracy, a trait we should never abandon.”

It would presumably shock the author to learn that Crown Forces also utilised thousands of riflemen, in fact it’s even been suggested by the leading authority on small arms during the American Revolution DeWitt Bailey, that the British had a readier access to rifles for most of the war than the revolutionaries did.

So, that’s that I guess. 

Today I put the finishing touches on this piece. I attempted to design a plausible breech loading firearm that didn’t require all of the technology of the industrial era to be an effective and economical replacement to muzzle loaders.

Seven barrels better than one? The Nock volley gun with firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson.

"Merry Christmas, superpowered homeless child! Have some spiked eggnog to keep you warm! And y'know what else can keep you warm? The sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with joining the Wards program!"

This is the kinda thing Lily was doing before she transferred to Brockton. #1 Recruiter for the NY Wards, three years running!