Closest shot for me was about 30 feet. Shot with an original M1861 Springfield (Bridesburg Contract musket built in 1862), .58 caliber Minié ball, 60grains FFFg- while hunting on the edge of the Antietam battlefield, fittingly enough. That ball tore an incredible wound channel through its chest, and sprayed what looked like a bucket of blood across the bushes behind the deer. Dead right there needless to say. Afterwards I found myself thinking "...and they used to shoot people with these things."


"You can lead a man to logic, but you cannot make him think." Joe Harz
"Always certain, often right." Keith McCafferty