Buck&ball question

[kepi]

Was there any advantages of buck&ball other than covering a wider area?

 

[John Winn]

It was a little quicker to load than a rifled musket but I think that's about it.

 

[thomas aagaard]

more pieces of lead going down range bigger change of hitting something and the chance of hitting more than one enemy with each shot.

 

[kepi]

It was a little quicker to load than a rifled musket but I think that's about it.

What about vs a standard ball? Was there an accuracy difference?

 

[John Winn]

What about vs a standard ball? Was there an accuracy difference?

I'm not sure about that but would guess no. The buck shot sat on top of the ball so it just added a few more projectiles to the load and the ball itself would have travelled down the barrel just as if there were not shot (or so it seems to me). I'll defer to our weapons experts but those are my thoughts.

 

[rpkennedy]

What about vs a standard ball? Was there an accuracy difference?

It was as accurate as a regular smoothbore round. Most of the units that ended up keeping their smoothbore muskets switched to buck and ball pretty quickly.

Ryan

 

[rpkennedy]

An example of the use of buck and ball ammunition:

At Gettysburg, the 12th New Jersey of the Second Corps was holding a portion of the line just south of the Brian home. As they watched Pettigrew's men approach, the men loaded their smoothbore muskets in a unique way. Instead of loading the ball and three buckshot as they normally would do, they opted to break open several cartridges, remove the ball, and load their weapons exclusively with more than a dozen buckshot, effectively turning their muskets into shotguns for the coming short range combat.

Ryan

 

[John Winn]

An example of the use of buck and ball ammunition:

At Gettysburg, the 12th New Jersey of the Second Corps was holding a portion of the line just south of the Brian home. As they watched Pettigrew's men approach, the men loaded their smoothbore muskets in a unique way. Instead of loading the ball and three buckshot as they normally would do, they opted to break open several cartridges, remove the ball, and load their weapons exclusively with more than a dozen buckshot, effectively turning their muskets into shotguns for the coming short range combat.

Ryan

Thanks for that, Ryan; hadn't heard of that.

Frankly, though, if it had been me I think I'd have opted to just load and fire more rounds than spend the time sorting them out. And I'd have got one big shot in every bang to boot ! Shame to throw away good lead. Just a thought.

 

[Legion Para]

The tactical concept at the begining of the war was that with smoothbores using buck and ball a greater rate of fire could be applied in a shorter time to overwhelm a defender before routng them with the bayonet.

 

[UCVRelics]

For the up close and personnel touch the buck & ball was it. Not much on long range but the CW really wasn't a long range war. Bottom line in the trenches I would have preferred the buck and ball as in today I would prefer the Remington Trench shotgun.

 

[rpkennedy]

Thanks for that, Ryan; hadn't heard of that.

Frankly, though, if it had been me I think I'd have opted to just load and fire more rounds than spend the time sorting them out. And I'd have got one big shot in every bang to boot ! Shame to throw away good lead. Just a thought.

At under 50 yards, I'd prefer putting 18 rounds down range than just one. Of course, that was just the first volley; I'm sure that the follow up fire was more standard.

Ryan

 

[Tin cup]

What about vs a standard ball? Was there an accuracy difference?

I have shot plenty of Round Ball, and Buck-n-Ball out of my repro 1842. Shooting at 50 yards at a man sized target, I could stay on that target for a good while shooting a .660" 420 grain round ball with 110 grains of FFg powder. Now, when loaded with that same .66" round ball with 3 .31 cal buckshot in front of it, well, there were times only one buckshot would hit, or maybe two of them, or at times only the .66" round ball would hit the target. One time, NONE of the 4 balls even hit the target!
All these loads were made up and loaded as per the originals, (See picture posted) and they are fun to shoot!

Kevin Dally

 

[upton j.]

Here's a few examples of fired round balls from buck and ball you can see the depression in them from the 3 buckshot. I dug these over 40 years ago at Antietam.

 

[John Winn]

At under 50 yards, I'd prefer putting 18 rounds down range than just one. Of course, that was just the first volley; I'm sure that the follow up fire was more standard.

Ryan

I'm saying I'd have just loaded faster using the buck and ball packaged round rather than having to dig through a bunch of rounds and throw the larger balls away. So, I'd have got one good-sized solid shot and three bucks for every bang and would have saved the digging time and just reloaded. Good thing neither of us had to make that decision !

 

[rpkennedy]

I'm saying I'd have just loaded faster using the buck and ball packaged round rather than having to dig through a bunch of rounds and throw the larger balls away. So, I'd have got one good-sized solid shot and three bucks for every bang and would have saved the digging time and just reloaded. Good thing neither of us had to make that decision !

They had the time to prepare. The range of their guns was so short they had to wait a bit for the Confederates to get within range. Also, in all fairness, some guys were doing this during the bombardment and it continued among the men until the fire started.

Ryan

 

[kepi]

I have shot plenty of Round Ball, and Buck-n-Ball out of my repro 1842. Shooting at 50 yards at a man sized target, I could stay on that target for a good while shooting a .660" 420 grain round ball with 110 grains of FFg powder. Now, when loaded with that same .66" round ball with 3 .31 cal buckshot in front of it, well, there were times only one buckshot would hit, or maybe two of them, or at times only the .66" round ball would hit the target. One time, NONE of the 4 balls even hit the target!
All these loads were made up and loaded as per the originals, (See picture posted) and they are fun to shoot!

Kevin Dally

View attachment 120749

That's exactly what I needed to know. I suspected the extra shot in the buck & ball would interfere with the main projectile

 

[Tin cup]

That's exactly what I needed to know. I suspected the extra shot in the buck & ball would interfere with the main projectile

THAT is the conclusion I came up with.

Kevin Dally

 

[John Winn]

They had the time to prepare. The range of their guns was so short they had to wait a bit for the Confederates to get within range. Also, in all fairness, some guys were doing this during the bombardment and it continued among the men until the fire started.

Ryan

Well ... fine, just fine ! I hope they thought about all those women who so carefully tied all those cartridges. I still say I'd have just stayed with the standard round. One or two buckshot likely wouldn't drop a guy but one good-sized round ball would. And dinking with tearing up a bunch of cartridges and improvising paper wadding still seems to me a waste of time. That's my opinion and I'm staying with it.

 

[rpkennedy]

Well ... fine, just fine ! I hope they thought about all those women who so carefully tied all those cartridges. I still say I'd have just stayed with the standard round. One or two buckshot likely wouldn't drop a guy but one good-sized round ball would. And dinking with tearing up a bunch of cartridges and improvising paper wadding still seems to me a waste of time. That's my opinion and I'm staying with it.

You could take the route that others along the wall took. Members of the 69th Pennsylvania and other units policed up some weapons from the fallen from the day before and loaded them. One soldier wrote that every man in his company had at least 3 rifles ready to go when the attack started.

Ryan

 

[John Winn]

You could take the route that others along the wall took. Members of the 69th Pennsylvania and other units policed up some weapons from the fallen from the day before and loaded them. One soldier wrote that every man in his company had at least 3 rifles ready to go when the attack started.

Ryan

I could surely get behind that strategy !