"Military Buckshot in the Mid-Eighteenth Century" Topic

"Today, we are going to examine a particular type of ammunition used by eighteenth-century soldiers: buckshot. For those unfamiliar with the term, buckshot consists of smaller projectiles, which spread out after leaving the barrel of the weapon. It is often used in a shotgun today. In the eighteenth-century, German language speakers called this specialty ammunition Cartatschen-Patronen, which gives us the modern German term, Kartätschen-Patronen, a catch-all term for submunitions including grape-shot (Traubhagel).

It appears that while this type of ammunition was common amongst American, British, and French irregular forces, and it was utilized by American, Austrian, British, French and Russian regular troops as well. In the eighteenth-century, buckshot was used to help compensate for the smoothbore weapons in common use at the time. By firing more projectiles at the target, troops generated a larger wall of lead with which to damage enemy forces. Far from being an exclusively American innovation, this weapon was employed by multiple European regular armies. This post will examine the use of buckshot in the mid-eighteenth century. I want to thank Dr. Grzegorz Podruczny for his advice and help with source material…"
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Amicalement
Armand

A fascinating read! For small-time farmers, as many American militia were, their musket would serve both for hunting and fowling. Most would have a ready supply of both "buck" and "ball". The article does not specify the size of the "buck" shot but its modern equivalent (00) is about .32 caliber. Combining several such shot with a musket ball (anywhere from .69 to .75 caliber) would certainly be a highly effective round. Oddly enough, despite bearing no resemblance to its 18th century counterpart, standard US military rifle ammunition is still classified as Ball.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand