Anyone here ever shot a Brown Bess (or replica)?

by A K Church, Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 16:12 (7 days ago) @ AaronB

A little.

Friend of mine in the Ford/Carter/Reagan era had one set up as some believed the Roger's Rangers muskets were.

DGW replica, which I think was Italian. Lopped back to around 30" of barrel, and some brass tacks. Best I recall even 47 or so years ago, Brown Bess replicas were decently expensive.

Memory says, a French "black" flint, and paper cartridge with a .710ish roundball, and 95 grains by vol. of FF. We torch Casenite treated the frizzen.

GOOD sparking old beast, it was not hard to keep all your shots on the FBI silhouette at 50 yards. Fouling built up slowly enough you could keep loading it past 20 rounds uncleaned. Recoil was tolerable. Reliable if it was not raining or snowing. His had the proper white leather and brass sling, and damned handsome it all was.

Marcus's had the front sight/bayonet post reattached, but the bayonet was no longer functional.

Yes, it was great fun to shoot. Even with over 1/3 or so of the barrel gone, it was still heavy, and still balance forward.

He fell into bad ways, and I assume his musket was sold at an IRS tax auction. He dodged convictions on both embezzling, and tax fraud, but he lost everything else.