"School of the Musketeer, 2010" Topic

That time of year again!

For any who might like to take a chance at reenacting the 17th century, there will be a "School of the Musketeer" covering 1580 through 1650, held in Philadelphia, PA, April 17 and 18 , 2010 in a brick and mortar Rev War fort! (Fort Mifflin, and for the Google Earth fans, 39° 52' 31.32" N, 75° 12' 47.25" W. ) You will learn to fire a matchlock, crew and fire a cannon, handle a pike (it's not just a pointy stick), and swing a sword (with blunts, of course).
Civilian classes are to be announced, but have included in the past period games, medicine, and writings.
Period food is provided, $30 USD USD USD for pre-registration for the weekend, including meals..
For more details (and there are lots of them) and registration information see PDF link
Registrations must be received by March 31, 2010.

And if this time or location is bad, there is another school, run by the same people, in October at Henricus VA, just south of Richmond.

A 2007 review … TMP link

Sounds like fun! I desperately need to burn some powder, it's been far too long!

Cannon, matchlocks, powder, and match are all provided. Just no shot.

Dear Balin shortstuff,

what macthlocks do you all fire. What are thier caliber or how many balls to the pound (english), Do you have any ballist information. (at the level where dose the ball land)

who would i contact for more information

Lord Ghee

We fire a variety, and I don't think anyone has done a survey.
The standard just-get-me-in-the-field musket is probably a .61 caliber bore, but some can go to .75. I can ask around to see who knows more about it.

For the most part, we fire blanks, but I'm sure someone has done a study somewhere.

I've had a bit of time to look around on the web, and the muzzle velocity has been stated from 244 meters per second, to 430 mps. This is plausible because a matchlock caliber can vary from .61 (an arquebus) to a true musket for the period, 1.00. It also depends on the powder formula you're using; it varied from nation to nation.

link
See the chart. England at this time was using 66% saltpeter, 16% charcoal, 16% sulfer.

And windage would be a factor. European military tended to have a good amount of windage in their loads, the diameter of the ball would be about .9 compared to the caliber. They were more interested in speed than accuracy.

I do recall a bench test was made with a smooth bore muzzle loader of the period, and it could hit a man sized target 50% at 100 yards, but no mention was made windage, caliber, or power recipe. There have been account of men being killed at 800 paces by musket shot, but that was probably the larger caliber, and lots of luck, good or bad depending on your point of view.