[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Editorial note: the article used the words musket and rifle interchangeably, but this is not accurate. This gun is a musket, a smooth bore weapon fired at the shoulder.

Rifles are distinct from muskets by having a rifled, or grooved barrel interior that imparts a spin to the bullet, drastically increasing its accuracy and range. Effectively, they have only existed since the middle of the 19th Century, but were a major breakthrough.

Typically, a musket only had a range of 50 yards, with an effective range of half that, at best. The rifle increased the range to 300 yards, with accurate fire perhaps 2/3rds of that distance.

Hat tip to French Army captains Claude-Étienne Minié of the Chasseurs d’Orléans and Henri-Gustave Delvigne.

By the time of the US Civil War, until rifled artillery could be developed, rifles had a range just slightly less than field artillery. Bad for field artillerymen.

[ClearCase_guy]

This single-shot musket was originally chambered in .50 caliber rifle, though ages of heavy use have worn away the majority of the rifling.

You are saying this sentence is incorrect?

[Arlis]

“Effectively, they have only existed since the middle of the 19th Century, but were a major breakthrough.”

Not so. I used to think the same thing, until my son sent me this. They were rifling barrels in Europe in the mid 1700’s......

And riflemen in the Rev. War could hit a 7” target at 250 yds. WITH OPEN SIGHTS! I’ve got some great rifles, but couldn’t do that with any of them.......

http://www.sniperinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?938-The-American-Rifleman-in-the-Revolutionary-War

[SampleMan]

Because of the commonality of the term “musket” in military drill and terminology, it appears to have been used even early on as a synonym for “military long guns”. I have seen the term “rifled musket” in contemporary letters from the Revolution.

[Ditto]

Barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany at the end of the fifteenth century.[5] In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work. Though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

**** Effectively, they have only existed since the middle of the 19th Century, but were a major breakthrough.***

I have a book THE AGE OF FIREARMS by Heald which shows rifles were used as far back as the 1500s. They were super accurate back then but not good for the military as they were too slow to load.

Rifles were rejected by George Washington as they were too slow to load and could not be fitted with a bayonet. Only certain riflemen used them, but not the main body of troops.

[ZULU]

Gaspard Koller in the 15th century or Augustus Kotter of Nuremberg in the 16th century made the first KNOWN rifled guns. German gunsmith were building them here at least as far back as the French and Indian war. Rifled guns originally took longer to load and fire as the bullet needed a tight fit with the bore in order to receive the spin of the rifling. Fowling mandated frequent cleaning. It was rare for a rifled long arm to have a bayonet which made it useless in hand to hand fighting without damaging the gun. It was used by hunters, skirmishers, scouts and sharpeshooters.
Muskets were thin walled, smooth bored military pieces more quickly loaded and fired and capable of holding a bayonet. As such they were used in a line of battle by average troops.
By the time if the civil war, the invention of the minie ball allowed the use of a rifled musket capable of the quick loading of a musket and the long range accuracy of a rifle ( hence, “rifled musket”).