New project in the works...
I haven't been able to get in touch with Eric K., who is the one that pushed me into this project, but Jeff, Chris and I have been talking for a while about a new project.
Folks have been asking for a musket that is appropriate for a ranger or light infantry. The problem is that rangers and light infantry are two different things. The earliest official "light infantry carbine" was the 1745 pattern. While many people imagine a LI musket to be a short, cut-down affair like the ersatz Pedersoli Brown Bess carbine, a REAL light infantry carbine has a 42" barrel in .65 caliber. This really isn't any shorter than the 2nd models that have been around for decades (regardless of authenticity). The thing is, folks want a short gun. My fear was that if we went to the effort to research and design a CORRECT LI carbine, people wouldn't want it because it was too long.
My next step was to read Robert Roger's journal to see what he calls their guns. Rarely does he use the word "musket". He generally referrs to their arms as "fusils" or "carbines". But does he mean a regulation Light Infantry carbine? They certainly existed, but why would the British allow specialized Light Infantry arms into the hands of provincials? Not likely. If rangers brought their own arms from home, they would have had an assortment of fowlers and fusils, not the latest military technology from the mother country.
Jeff came up with a report by Earl Stott who dug the ranger's campsite on Roger's island in 1960-61. He found what is believed to be an armorer's or blacksmith's shop. At the shop site, some of the artifacts recovered were: whetstones, a piece of grindstone, an assortment of axes, musket balls and casting sprue and a cache of 67 musket balls in .59 to .60 caliber. There was also swan shot. An oddity was a cache of four hard glazed pottery balls that are within .002 of being perfect spheres. These may have been used as bore gauges.
Round balls in .60 cal are too small for a regulation Brown Bess, but just right for a regulation carbine bored musket which would have been around .65 cal. They would also fit any number of civilian fowling pieces, fusils, and trade guns. Just to complicate this, they would also fit certain British issue pistols that were made in "carbine bore".
The most controvertial artifacts found at the shop site were cut ends of musket barrels in 4", 6" and 8" lengths. Unfortunately, there is no other information about these barrel stubs. What was the bore size? Were they worn out and cut off to "freshen" a barrel? Were there barrel tennons and/or bayonet lugs attached to them? The wherabouts of the stubs are unknown, but are the stuff of urban legend.
If the rangers did in fact shorten their muskets by 4, 6 or 8", what became of the muskets? Sure, I have an origial Indian gun in my collection that has been cut pretty short, but it started life as a 1777 Charleville, not a Bess.
A search of various gun books turned up only a single example of a mid 18th century Brown Bess that has been shortened. Interestingly in does not show up in Neumann's "Battle Weapons of the American Revolution", but it does show up in Neumann's earlier book "The History of Weapons of the American Revolution" (1967, long out of print) and it also shows up in his "Collector's Encyclopedia of the American Revolution"
After much deliberation and many sleepless nights on my part, we have decided that this single cut down musket is probably what a cut down Brown Bess would look like if the barrel stubs found at Roger's Island are from Brown Bess muskets. The surviving musket sports a 34" barrel. Take 4" off of a Long Land and you get a 42" barrel (that does NOT make it a Short Land Pattern, just a Long Land with a shortend barrel) Take an 8" section off of that, and you have a 34" barrel, like the Neumann example.
The Neumann gun has mid century Long Land features, such as a lack of carving, but still has a wooden rammer. Probably a cut down 1742 pattern. The forend is cut back to recieve a bayonet and the lug has been reinstalled. There is only one rammer thimble plus an entry pipe. All of the furniture is typical Long Land, but the lock does not have the typical Cypher.
We hope to have a prototype of this gun by the Ticonderoga event in two weeks for the rangers and LI folks to critque. Eric K. is coming to Ti, so he will be among the first to see the musket he pushed me to create. Either it will be done by the shop in India or we will do it here using a "second" musket that needed some tweaking anyway, depending on if the shop can build it fast enough.
I work long hours and deal with all sorts of little annoyances every day, but being able to create a new product that fills a need makes it all worth while. It's little things like this that can change the face of living history. Serious study and experimentation DOES make a difference in this hobby. I love my job!
Folks have been asking for a musket that is appropriate for a ranger or light infantry. The problem is that rangers and light infantry are two different things. The earliest official "light infantry carbine" was the 1745 pattern. While many people imagine a LI musket to be a short, cut-down affair like the ersatz Pedersoli Brown Bess carbine, a REAL light infantry carbine has a 42" barrel in .65 caliber. This really isn't any shorter than the 2nd models that have been around for decades (regardless of authenticity). The thing is, folks want a short gun. My fear was that if we went to the effort to research and design a CORRECT LI carbine, people wouldn't want it because it was too long.
My next step was to read Robert Roger's journal to see what he calls their guns. Rarely does he use the word "musket". He generally referrs to their arms as "fusils" or "carbines". But does he mean a regulation Light Infantry carbine? They certainly existed, but why would the British allow specialized Light Infantry arms into the hands of provincials? Not likely. If rangers brought their own arms from home, they would have had an assortment of fowlers and fusils, not the latest military technology from the mother country.
Jeff came up with a report by Earl Stott who dug the ranger's campsite on Roger's island in 1960-61. He found what is believed to be an armorer's or blacksmith's shop. At the shop site, some of the artifacts recovered were: whetstones, a piece of grindstone, an assortment of axes, musket balls and casting sprue and a cache of 67 musket balls in .59 to .60 caliber. There was also swan shot. An oddity was a cache of four hard glazed pottery balls that are within .002 of being perfect spheres. These may have been used as bore gauges.
Round balls in .60 cal are too small for a regulation Brown Bess, but just right for a regulation carbine bored musket which would have been around .65 cal. They would also fit any number of civilian fowling pieces, fusils, and trade guns. Just to complicate this, they would also fit certain British issue pistols that were made in "carbine bore".
The most controvertial artifacts found at the shop site were cut ends of musket barrels in 4", 6" and 8" lengths. Unfortunately, there is no other information about these barrel stubs. What was the bore size? Were they worn out and cut off to "freshen" a barrel? Were there barrel tennons and/or bayonet lugs attached to them? The wherabouts of the stubs are unknown, but are the stuff of urban legend.
If the rangers did in fact shorten their muskets by 4, 6 or 8", what became of the muskets? Sure, I have an origial Indian gun in my collection that has been cut pretty short, but it started life as a 1777 Charleville, not a Bess.
A search of various gun books turned up only a single example of a mid 18th century Brown Bess that has been shortened. Interestingly in does not show up in Neumann's "Battle Weapons of the American Revolution", but it does show up in Neumann's earlier book "The History of Weapons of the American Revolution" (1967, long out of print) and it also shows up in his "Collector's Encyclopedia of the American Revolution"
After much deliberation and many sleepless nights on my part, we have decided that this single cut down musket is probably what a cut down Brown Bess would look like if the barrel stubs found at Roger's Island are from Brown Bess muskets. The surviving musket sports a 34" barrel. Take 4" off of a Long Land and you get a 42" barrel (that does NOT make it a Short Land Pattern, just a Long Land with a shortend barrel) Take an 8" section off of that, and you have a 34" barrel, like the Neumann example.
The Neumann gun has mid century Long Land features, such as a lack of carving, but still has a wooden rammer. Probably a cut down 1742 pattern. The forend is cut back to recieve a bayonet and the lug has been reinstalled. There is only one rammer thimble plus an entry pipe. All of the furniture is typical Long Land, but the lock does not have the typical Cypher.
We hope to have a prototype of this gun by the Ticonderoga event in two weeks for the rangers and LI folks to critque. Eric K. is coming to Ti, so he will be among the first to see the musket he pushed me to create. Either it will be done by the shop in India or we will do it here using a "second" musket that needed some tweaking anyway, depending on if the shop can build it fast enough.
I work long hours and deal with all sorts of little annoyances every day, but being able to create a new product that fills a need makes it all worth while. It's little things like this that can change the face of living history. Serious study and experimentation DOES make a difference in this hobby. I love my job!
posted by MVTCoPete | 11:40 PM
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