Musket

Nicknamed Brown Bess, the smoothbore, flintlock musket was used by the British Army’s Infantry from around 1720 until the 1850’s.  Soldiers formed up in either two or three ranks, and loaded their muskets at the muzzle with a gunpowder charge and a musket ball rammed down the barrel with a rod.  Standing shoulder to shoulder, ranks fired together in volleys. Well-trained troops could fire up to three, sometimes four, volleys per minute. The musket’s effective lethal range was up to about 160 metres.  The Brown Bess is 1.5 metres long and weighs about 4.8 kilos.