TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Bill Adams sends along a link to a very nice Whitworth double rifle on Gunbroker. Many manufacturers made double rifles, primarily for hunting when a quick followup shot was often needed, particularly for dangerous game. As you’d expect that extra barrel made them rather heavy which limited their use in military applications. This particular example […]

[Read more →]

Haven’t had much time to blog lately as I have been getting out another book. Nothing to do with the Civil War, this one’s the fourth edition of River Rescue, first published way back in 1985. If anyone out there in our radio audience is a canoeist, kayaker, or rafter, it might interest you. Did […]

[Read more →]

A gentleman on a discussion group I visited recently assured one and all that the Confederacy would never, nevah! use explosive bullets. Actually they did, on at least on one occasion. The Jacob’s rifle, mentioned previously, was capable of firing a bullet with an insert of fulminate of mercury, which would explode on impact up […]

[Read more →]

Brigadier-General John Jacob One of the more unusual sharpshooter rifles was the Jacob’s, the brainchild of John Jacob, one of those brilliant, eccentric British Army officers who spent his career in India. He had spent 25 years improving rifled firearms, carrying on experiments unrivalled even by public bodies. A range of 200 yards sufficed in […]

[Read more →]

During a discussion about the bore diameter of the Jacob’s rifle (about which I will have more to say later), Bill Adams got carried away with his micrometer and checked a number of other rifles, Enfields and Lorenzes, as well. The results, as you can see below, were rather surprising. Keep in mind that quality […]

[Read more →]