New and Old: Knight's SR15-E3 IWS and U.S. Model of 1842

[jmoore]

About as modern as I get- "Uber AR" 5,56x45mm KAC SR15 E3 IWS with Trijicon TA31RCO M150 optic. "Short range" carbine. Lotsa letters!

At a bad disadvantage if there's no ammo versus the Springfield!


Springfield 1851 manufacture date. .69" caliber musket

Found it on a wall- really! Just not this one...

Versus the 2/3 scale "Blue Cyclops" paper enemy.

Maybe they're blue because it wasn't very warm..

Two banks of three at 50 and 100 yards. All shots fired standing.


First, the Kuh-nig-it's. Three shots per "eye" standing, but single loading to comply with range rules. Basically- Load, get on target, and shoot straight away... Not going for maximum precision.



Same for 100yds. But the cold is getting to the bare digits! Dang! The "pins and needles" will subside directly, but the transition isn't fun.

As above, targets were engaged left to right. After a wretched showing on the center, the RH target was a relief.

Enough of the modern stuff. Next, for the real reason to be out- Refamiliarization with the musket.

Information

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[jmoore]

The 1842 model percussion musket has not been to the range in quite a while. I remember that it did shoot low and off to one side, "Right" probably. But just in case, the row of three targets. Aim at the middle one about head high at 50 yards and see where the ball flies...

First round- Low left. Well, OK then.
Round two- Center hit! That's unexpected.

What was also unexpected was the difficulty in loading the 0.678" ball with a pre-lubricated 0.015" thick patch. The first one went easily enough...And the "OO" buck calibered squirrel rifle will do fine for quite a few rounds without wiping out the fouling.

So, quick wiping with the homebrewed cleaner and on to round three:

Center left hit in the right "elbow". Sensing a trend here. Clean and load round four:

A little high and also left. And a "miss" off the blue.

First shots in a long time for this musket. 50yds, Four shots.

Well, cleaning between each shot seems silly for a battle implement, so the next string will be fired using paper patching that's much thinner. Moving to the right hand 50 yard target, the front sight will be placed roughly where the black dot is in the middle of the "head" as before. Four rounds are fired without drama, but on the fifth loading the paper patch fails. So a bit of paper wadding is stuffed down the front to retain the ball against the powder charge. No change noted upon firing except it's the lowest hit. Which could very well be operator error!


Next five shots at 50 yards.

No rear sight means uniform head placement IN THE PROPER PLACE is required for any sort of accuracy. I'm definitely fighting this. For one, I'm shooting right handed, which is not my primary mode of operation. So, it's a training exercise as well. Lack of muscle memory on this musket means that every shot is an actual memory test- trying to replicate what the eye saw on the last shot.


This is pretty close to a real sight picture. Hard to juggle the musket and camera both whilst standing , so the aim is a bit off. But not too bad. Rather better than expected, actually. Especially if those would have been 50yard and not the 100yard targets.

So is a 100yard effort going to produce any sort of hits? Last time out- not so much! Maybe one or two out of ten (on the usual 25yd pistol targets that you may have seen on other range reports.)

A little wiping of the bore and one last change to the loading procedure- no patching, just over ball wads. More like what would have been done originally. Five rounds.
Aim is just over the top of the head of the right hand target. Hoping that will get hits on the center "Blue-y".

Round one: Low! And a little right of "ideal".
Two: Miss! First round to get completely off paper. Dang. Hmmm. Hopefully low; Sooo...Bottom of the front sight at the top of the RH target's "head".
Three:Still low, and left. But at least it's on paper. So front sight off "target" altogether and into the embankment.
Four: Center hit! Try again--
Five: On target, barely. Still left.

And out of time... But here's the result at 100yds:


"X's" are roughly where the front sight was pointed for each shot. (100 yards, standing)

In actuality the results are encouraging. I think given enough practice and some minor tweaks, hitting 100 yard targets should be fairly straightforward, but not particularly "easy". However, this old musket won't see too much range time. But every now and again, expect it to see at least a little action. Folk around here like it! So it needs to visit.

[jmoore]

Supplemental photos and info:

Link to a photo thread devoted to the U.S. 1842 musket (click on the underlined bit below):
US Model of 1842 Musket (A Photo Study in Several Parts)






Load was 85 grains GOEX black powder. (Original charge was 110 grains, but in deference to it's age, and the larger than standard balls used, it seemed prudent to back off some.)








Wax in the seams to reduce the amount of internal fouling.

Some additional tries at getting a good downrange shot: