TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

I found this from a couple of years ago by Cap and Ball, who compares the relative effectiveness of the Minie ball against a single smoothbore ball and the buck and ball cartridge. No question that the rifle is more accurate but OTOH a brigade firing off a volley of buck & ball puts a […]

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Cap and Ball tries out the new Pedersoli Whitworth rifle reproduction. Unfortunately this rifle remains vaporware here in the US. It was supposed to become available in mid-2016 but no one has actually seen one for sale. Too bad, since I think there’s a ready market for them out there. Suggested retail was to have […]

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Most students of the Civil War are familiar with the term “buck & ball”—a load consisting of a single large ball and three buckshot fired from a .69 caliber smoothbore musket. Now it can be yours! Well, sort of. An Italian ammunition company now makes a 12 gauge shotshell for home defense that sports a […]

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