I particularly enjoyed your article on the Flintlock Musket (see Issue 1). This was probably because I found a couple of things to disagree with. When you quote the casualties at several of the great battles of the Flintlock Era you forget one factor in determining the number of effective hits by smoothbore muskets. How many of the casualties at any of these battles were hit by more than one ball? When reading first person accounts from any of the battles of this era it is not uncommon to hear of soldiers being struck by several balls; and often surviving!

I spent twenty-odd years doing re-enactment and target shooting with various smoothbore flintlocks and a bit of time with percussion rifle-muskets. I find that they are not as inaccurate as is made out in much of the literature of our hobby, and hold some medals to prove it! I shoot better with smoothbores than I ever did with the old (Canadian Army) FNC1!

Regards misfires I disagree with some of the article too. Cool, damp weather is probably the best for reliability with a flintlock. Hot humid weather causes the fouling to be oily and wet and much worse to try and clear. My own best ever record for shots without a misfire is 22: in a torrential downpour! On the other hand I have had hot, dry days that I couldn't get a shot off.

In the case of wargames rules that give a bonus for "first fire" or to British troops I have two comments to make ("Warfare in the Age of Reason" by Tod Kershner & Dale Wood is one example of this practice). First Fire bonuses should only be given troops standing stock still and not marching all over the board. The moment you move a body of troops with flintlocks about things begin to happen to the muskets: priming falls out, flints get knocked out of alignment; frizzens get opened; etc. Then muskets don't go off. As regards bonuses for British musketry: this was more due to the British doctrine of holding their fire 'til the last possible moment than any better drill or weaponry. One might as well give a bonus for the British having better gunpowder as well! Having been mostly moustachioed during my re-enactment career I think the British clean-shaveness probably had a strong effect on firepower. Many is the time I've pulled out huge, bloody chunks of moustache when biting open my cartridges and loading at speed! I can imagine many Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard doing the same!

Well, that's my two cents worth. I hope to see another issue of Sabretache soon. Congratulations.

--Donald Cameron, Five Arrows Figures and Fine Art.

(I have written Don requesting an article on this subject and I hope that he does submit something. I need more contributions so that I do not have to rely on Terry to supplement my contents.)