Originally Posted by scoony
Originally Posted by rainshot
With that many Indians I’m not so sure a Gatling gun would’ve made much a difference.

I had read somewhere that they had difficulty traveling with the Gatling guns. The parts would constantly come loose from the packs and cause the teamsters to stop and repack/lash them up again.

As for the Springfields, the one downside was the copper cases would cause jams which negated the speed at which they could be fired. I believe they were using the 45/50 which was a down loaded 45/70 for use with the carbines

It was actually downloaded to 45-55 and had a paper wrap inside the case that took up room inside the case to keep the case full of powder. Copper cases did stick once the rifle got hot and dirty, but battlefield forensics show that the failure rate was around 2%. If you are one of the 2% it could be catastrophic, but it wasn’t the cause of the battle to be won by Indians.

Because of the stuck cases, they put a trap door in the butt plate and put a cleaning rod in it to protect the shooter from the eventuality of a stuck case causing the death of the shooter. They also went to using brass for the cases…

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]