Last edited Wed Jun 4, 2014, 02:08 PM - Edit history (3)
The "American Rifle" as it was called in the 1700s (the name Kentucky and Pennsylvania Rifles is a late 1800 or early 1900s name adopted name for that type of rifle) had two bad characteristics when compared to smooth bore muskets.
The first was speed of reloading. A smooth bore musket could reload as fast as six rounds a minute. The American Rifle was restricted to two rounds per minute (which was better the the Jäger or hunting Rifle used by the Hessians which could fire only one round per minute). Worse, misfires occurred every six shots (this would continue till the percussion cap was adopted starting in 1830, with percussion caps misfires dropped to one in a thousand shots).
Side note: The reason the American Rifle was faster to load then the German Jäger Rifles was that the Americans had adopted the Greased Patch to speed up loading in the Rifle barrel. The German Jäger Rifles did not thus took longer to load and to fix if a misfire occurred. On the other hand, the Jäger Rifles had greater range and Accuracy and used against the Americans with Great effect by the British during the Revolution..
Second side note: The Percussion Cap burns at 800-1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sparks from a Flint Lock runs about 300 degrees. This difference is temperatures is why the Percussion cap is that much more reliable. At 800-1000 Degrees, a Percussion Cap can get even damp, and sometimes wet, powder to burn. This difference also explains why the Bow and Arrow stayed competitive as a Military Weapon till the Percussion Cap. The Bow and Arrow has a removable bow strings, which could be kept dry by simply putting it in your pocket. Thus in damp weather, a Bow and Arrow was still usable when a Flint lock rifle was not. This is the chief reason the Mongols and other "Tarters" of Russia and Siberia kept using the bow till the late 1800s. Poles also used bows in the 1700s, as did the Scots in their Battles with the English in the early 1700s. The Battle of Culloden in 1746 is noted for being the first battle of the 1700s between Scottish highlanders and the English where the Bow was NOT present. Several Historians had said that was the key to the Scottish defeat. The Fire power of the English was NOT that Great to explain the victory. The reason for the absence of the Bow, is that the Bow was the weapon of the Peasants and by the 1740s the process of turning out those peasants and replacing them with Sheep was already in full gear. Thus the peasants saw no difference between the two sides and stayed home, thus no Archers and the battle was lost. The Peasants acknowledge this over time for they came to hate sheep. During the Crimea War, the British set up recruiters to the Highlands to get recruits. When they came to a Village and started to ask for recruits all they heard from the people of the Villages was "Ba Ba Ba". The British in 1854 wanted men from the Highlands, but since the early 1700s the British Policy had been to replace the Men of the Highlands with Sheep. This was being felt by the Peasants of the Highlands by 1746, but had NOT been felt by them in the earlier battles of the early 1700s. My point here is the Bow and Arrow was competitive with the Musket and the Rifle till the percussion cap came into general use and that is after 1840. This had to do with the Technology and the change in Technology used in Warfare. Just because a weapon is viewed as "old fashion" does not make it ineffective. During Vietnam the US used native with Crossbows, for their were quite and had longer range then the silenced weapons the US had available. Thus in much of the Frontier it was the Rifle vs the Bow, and they is some evidence the divide was not as great as it is reflected in the Historical Record.
The real effect of this high rate of misfires is in a muzzle loading rifle, you had to pull out the bullet. This could take cover five minutes. Thus after about a minute of combat any rifle unit had seen its fire power drop by 90 %. Smooth bore muskets fired undersized bullets, that could be removed, by just just turning the musket with the barrel to the ground and watch the bullet roll out. Total time out of action less then 10 seconds.
The second problem was no bayonet. Given the high rate of misfires a serious defect (fixed with the adoption of the 1803 Harper's Ferry Rifle).
These two restriction forced Washington to issue an order that no Rifle regiment could go into combat without being supported by TWO musket equipped infantry regiments.
By the time of the US Civil war, the percussion cap had been in use in the UK since 1830 and the US Army since 1842. In 1854 the US adopted the Minie ball, which permitted undersized bullets to be used in rifle barrels with loading time equal to smooth bore muskets. The percussion cap eliminated most misfires, so misfires were not a big a factor as in the Revolution. Thus during the US Civil War Rifles were used by both sides, unlike the Revolution when rifles were important for they much longer range, but the problems of misfires and loading times restricted they use, as can be seen in Washington's order that any rifle regiment by supported by two musket equipped regiments.
As to the American/Kentucky/Pennsylvania Rifle, it stayed in production till the 1950s in Appalachian Mountains for it was cheap to operate (Small bore meant you only needed small amounts of lead and powder, things imported into the Colonies till the Revolution, Powder being imported till DuPont build his first powder mill when Jefferson was President). Thus in the 1800s the price of lead and powder declined and as people ran into larger game that existed in the West, other weapons became preferred on the Frontier. On the other hand Annie Oakly's first weapon was her father's American Rifle and she started to use it in the late 1860s (In her days with the Wild West Show, she opt for 22 caliber rimfire rifles, a little bit more expensive to operate but a lot easier to use).
Thus the American Rifle was popular east of the Mississippi till about 1880 when the 22 came into its own (yes the 22 was invented in the 1860s, but it took a while for people to switch). By 1900 the American Rifle had been restricted to Appalachian Mountains (Sargent York, the most decorated American Soldier of WWI, grew up using such a rifle, through he was known also as an excellent pistol shot). If you had money you opt for a more modern rifle, but in the poorest parts of America the American Rifle was King till the Great Depression finally forced many of its last users out of the Mountains and into Northern Cities.
Winchester copyrighted the term "The Gun that won the West". but the gun that actually won the West was the American Rifle. IT was the America rifle that was the main weapon on the frontier (Through they was probably more shotguns on the Frontier then anything else). The Winchester came late to the conflict and being expensive rarely used (Till the 1886 model, Winchester tended NOT be the weapons of choice even in the west, Sharps and Remington Rolling blocks were more popular for they could be had in 45-70, the main Army round of the time period, the early Winchesters were designed for much weaker rounds such as the 44-40). In 1886 Winchester had Browning design a completely new lever action rifle. Browning not only designed a weapon that could fire 45-70 rounds, but could be produced at much lower costs then the earlier Winchesters. This was followed by the Model 1892 (to replace the 1873 with a design based on the 1886 but set for the still popular 44-40 round) and the 1894 (Designed for the then new SMOKELESS round 30-30. which was more powerful then the black powder 44-40 but not as powerful as the 45=70). Browning also designed a model 1895 for the then Army round of 30-40. another smokeless powder round the Army had adopted to replace the black powder 45-70 round). Till Winchester Finally stopped making all rifles just a few years ago, the 1894 was in production. The 1894 was for decades the preferred deer rifle in Pennsylvania, and thus you can say was the rifle that finally replaced the American Rifle in Rural Pennsylvania.
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