Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire American snipers, 1860's style

Woo Hoo... found a book I had been missing in a while, The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat 2009 by Earl J. Hess...

The author's premise is as follows...

http://www.civilwarnews.com/reviews/2009br/august/musket_hess_b080904.html



Never mind the catty review, Civil War historians are about the most petty crowd I've seen when it comes to reviewing each other's works.

Hess points out that, contrary to popular belief, the rifle musket was so mis- and under-used in the War Between the States that they coulda done as well with smoothbores.

All well and good, but the best part about the book, is that in a chapter on sniping he also explores what the best muzzle loading rifles of that era were capable of and describes some incredible shots including an account of a Federal Officer hit at 2,250 yards by a Confederate Whitworth at Petersburg.

Anyways, over the days as I get time I'll work my way through the Chapter....

The author commences with The Civil War was the first conflict in history in which men were specifically detailed to perform the modern role of sniper....

[1862]...In the East, the Peninsula Campaign afforded opportunity for sniping to develop. The First United States Sharpshooters detailed two companies with James target rifles some 800 yards from the Confederate defenses to fire on gun crews. The contributed to the wear and tear on Confederate nerves during the month-long confrontation at Yorktown. A Confederate soldier wrote home that "the Yankees pick a fellow off if he show so much as his head."

Must have been regarded as a sort of super-weapon in its day, Wiki has it that in the 1840's or earlier Morgan James target rifles were among the very first rifles, anywhere to be equipped with telescopic sights...

http://www.cfspress.com/sharpshooters/arms.html



I wonder if this guy was related to Lt. Pat....

While their accuracy was excellent, loading was a slow and cumbersome process. Many of these rifles used a "false muzzle," (shown top right) a protective metal cone that slipped over the muzzle to protect the lands when loading�and rendered the weapon nearly useless if lost. Though quite effective in a static situation, these [17 lb to 50 lb] rifles were unsuitable for a mobile campaign. If the tactical situation allowed the Yankees to use their scoped target rifles, however, they soon proved the worth of their weapons. South Carolina sharpshooter Berry Benson described a meeting with his friend Ben Powell, who was the battalion's Whitworth marksman. "I remember Powell coming up one day with a hole in his hat. He had been dueling with one of the enemy's sharpshooters who proved himself an excellent shot, that Powell though it prudent to retire."

Birdwatcher

I have a book around here somewhere that deals with the history of sniping that has some really good pictures of the Civil War rifles that were used. "The Complete Book of US Sniping" by Senich IIRC.

This guy from down in Western Tennessee took the chore upon himself with a rifle that he had purposely built for the task.

http://www.guns.com/2012/02/09/jack-hinson-the-civil-war-sniper/

It's not a particularly sleek rifle,...weighs 18 lbs, but by all accounts it was up to the task assigned to it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_fam_pics/sets/72157614976106266/

Good read Bristoe. I want to say I saw a good account of that in a book I read. Probably going to bug me all night too.

Looks like he's got a helluva taper in the scope mounts....

I do believe our own Digital Dan has and shoots one of the behemoths.

Hopefully he will post his experience with loading and shooting it.

He's posted drool worthy pics.

Keep in mind though that Dan was ingwe's reloader in the Great War...

RWE, you are gonna smoke a turd in Hell for that one.

Two....



Them old guns are too cool and that's a fact. Amazes me what they are still capable of doing and the relative measure of performance compared to modern arms. Yeah, they have been surpassed, but not to the degree most think.

I would have to do some archive research so don't quote me for reference, but my recollection has a record sting measure at 220 yards of something in the range of 4.something inches for 20 shots.

The .50 cal D.H. Hilliard rifle has 16x glass. He was a Cornish, New Hampshire resident who lived from 1805-1877. I am not certain of the date of build for that particular piece but it appears to be a transition rifle between PRB rifles and the bullet guns popular in the last several decades of the 19th century. It has a 16" twist but a mould and form dies that construct a 490 grain picket style bullet.

Of course I'm going to make a longer conical for it, fill it full of BP and let it kick the snot out of me. Weighs only 16#. More advanced bullet guns sometimes weighed as much as 60+ pounds, shot 1300 grain bullets over 200-300 grains of powder. Them lads were serious...

Dan

A newer build with a .40 caliber Krieger barrel of 32":



100 yards test run after scope mounting. I've not wrung this one out at all, but it has potential I think.

that's approaching "crew served" there

Has it been Baptized in pig blood yet?



Question for you smoke eaters. How does one keep from blowing nipples out of the threads with that much powder? Eventually one has to give way and you lose an eyebrow or nose.

It went past crew served I think. The gun referred to was built by a fellow named Billinghurst during the heyday of the National Rifle Club. He had a lad hired as gun handler. Primary duties related to transport between vehicle and line and then the juggling act between loading and shooting etc. I misspoke on one point, that particular gun used a 1800 grain bullet as I recall. It was .69 caliber on the bore.

Crow, I haven't blooded any of these beasts, probably won't unless we get invaded by armed Yankees again. They are a lot like having 25 wives I imagine.

Anyone having interest in deeper investigation on the topic of muzzle loader shooting sports needs a copy of Ned Roberts' book, "The Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle" by Stackpole Books. Available from Amazon. It is a remarkable trove of historical information/photos and tech from that era.

another book ill have to find

Ya, the elevation screw is the rear mount, and in use they put their eye in contact with the back end of that brass scope, bruised the heck out of 'em or so says that James Rifle link I posted.

Birdwatcher

BW, I don't know source other than the link, but I can assure you that nobody eyeballed up to one of those scope eyepieces with intent to shoot. Least ways, not after the first time. Despite their weight they do have punch on both ends.

The Hilliard rifle I own does have fairly short eye relief by today's standards and a shortish LOP as well, but there is no necessity to crowd the scope whatsoever. Guess on my part but eye relief for that one is about 2.5".



LOP is about 12.5" and I installed a nested extension secured by a leather boot to address that. I guess the citizens were shorter then, or at least the fella that had it made, dunno.

Another piece habitating in south Florida at present. Built by HV Perry; .56 caliber, around 45 pounds and fueled by 200 grains of BP. 1,300 grain 2 piece bullet for serious work, and a 900 grain cast for plinking.\



For scale in this photo is a Peter Reinhard picket rifle resting in the shadow. 8.5 pounds, .38 bore, 33" twist.

dammit Dan, if gun metal was ever fap worthy I'd need an IV to keep my fluids up....

Correction noted Sir, and I cannot quickly refind that link either. But for the general edification of us regular folks here's a pretty good scope history from the Berdan Sharpshooters' page...

http://www.berdansharpshooter.org/target_scopes.htm

While researching the subject, I discovered that the first documented telescopic rifle sight was invented between 1835 and 1840 by John R. Chapman, he was an English civil engineer, and as an engineer he was very familiar with a surveyors transit and therefore was very familiar with it�s fine cross-hairs, precision lenses and good definition of distant objects. He was also an expert rifleman and familiar with rifle sights of that time. It is believed that Chapman designed the first practical telescopic rifle sight and that he and Morgan James worked together to produce a telescopic sight that came to be known as the Chapman-James telescopic rifle sight.

Chapman did not patent his telescopic sight, but authorized Morgan James to manufacture and sell his telescopic sight.

Morgan James of Utica NY was a well-known gun maker who produced very accurate muzzle-loading rifles, he was considered to have made some of the most accurate muzzle-loading rifles in the world. When he started producing telescopic sights for his rifles they were considered to be among the most accurate rifles made....

The Morgan James sights were considered to be the best telescopic sights available until 1855 when William Malcolm, of Syracuse NY designed and produced a telescopic sight.

Malcolm established the first rifle telescope manufacturing business in this country in 1855, he produced the best telescopic rifle sight up to that time and it was considered superior to any other telescopic sights made for many years. Malcolm did not copy the Chapman-James design; while working for a telescope maker he had learned optical principles, how to make lenses, the importance of precise lens adjustment and to fabricate the metal tubes to hold lenses.

Malcolm also was the first to use achromatic lenses, which are a combination of lenses that limit color refraction in an optical piece. Achromatic lenses gave a much better definition of the target, a flatter field of view and a clear definition at the edge of any object. He also made the windage and elevation adjustments more precise than the Chapman-James sight. All of these design improvements were due to his telescope making experience.

The telescopic rifle sights he produced were between 3X and 20X power and considered to be the best available at that time; they had lenses ground for the �normal eye� or were custom ground for the person purchasing the telescopic sight. They were not adjustable and therefore the telescopic sight could generally only be used by the person for whom it was made unless your eyesight was �normal�. I�m not sure what �normal� was at that time, I assume he calibrated the sight to someone he used for that purpose or perhaps to his own eye. I haven�t found a description of what Malcolm considered �normal�.

Non-achromatic lenses have a "halo" of rainbow colors around the edges of the view field and therefore are not as clear, but that is what other telescopic sight makers used at that time.

Another telescopic sight maker was L.M. Amidon of Vermont, a jeweler and expert rifleman, he also designed and produced telescopic sights before and during the war, although none of his telescopic sights had achromatic lenses, they were still considered very good scopes for their time.

Fascinating stuff.

Birdwatcher

Fascinating indeed. I marvel that these things were made before the advent of precision measuring instruments such as dial calipers (1876 as I recall, in France). They are, nonetheless remarkably precise and consistent in geometry. The Reinhard Picket rifle was built in 1876. Groove dimensions are consistent to .001" as to depth and width variation cannot be identified.

The barrel in the Perry rifle has 18 grooves that are gently radiused, giving the appearance of waves when looking down the wrong end. Oh, they are also something akin to microgrooves, depth in the range of less than .003" as I recall. Most if not all used paper strip patches in the day and that in itself is another book or two of debate, dogma and ultimately success for most. Sperm oil is/was a popular lube.



You can see the relieved face of the false muzzle here in an X pattern. The strips are laid in the recesses, bullet pressed in slightly and then a bullet starter nests on the round form of the FM. Whack with the palm, it all goes down the pipe and time for the ramrod. False muzzles are properly constructed by cutting off a piece of the drilled barrel, reattaching with pins and then rifling the entire assembly as a unit. Following that, a very light taper (front to rear) is honed in the FM to aid in bullet seating.

BOOM!