Recoil of Civil War Rifles and/or Muskets

Many of us have never hefted a Springfield or an Enfield.

My long gun experience is thus: firing five rounds of pellet from a 12gauge pump shotgun at a rabbit.(Yes, I did miss all five rounds; lucky I missed my friend as wel in 1972).

I have fired the USMC M14 7.62 and the M16 5.56mm. .38 Special my forte.

My handgun expertise, and I was a fair shot, consisted of most firearms you can rent on a range.

So , with that, what does firing a Springfield feel like, and as far as little guns like the .36 calibre dragoons...are they similar to firing a .38special?

Years ago a fellow wanted to sell me an NYPD police revolver. Well, two things: I was dumb. He presented a revolver in the caliber 32-20; I subsequently found out this was both a pretty fair rifle round AND the NYPD caliber round.

To those of us logistically or, rather, ballistically challenged, we tend to look at a small caliber and scoff, like I did at the 32-20. For that matter, in the 20th Century we scoffed at the M16's 5.56mm's round as compared to the 7.62 NATO bullet.

Someone got it right: as rifles became repeaters, thus enabling more firepower, the calibers got smaller as well, in order to make smaller bullets for carrying.

Oops, lost my first hair today from chemo. Darn, didn't want that.

I am so sorry to hear that. Hopefully it'll all soon be over and your hair will grow back on (and you will be rid of the disease). I wish you strength.

I have fired lived from a brown bess flintlock musket. Very odd experience. Fire, pause as spark is communicated from frizen to pan to charge (not long, fraction of a second but distinctly noticeable compared to modern arms), then the recoil and the audible whooosh of the subsonic ball going down range. The recoil is quite powerful but maybe not quite as sharp as say firing an AK or the like.

As to enfields/springfields I do not recall live firing one off hand. Have fired flintlock rifles of 50 caliber or so, and the experience was not greatly distinguishable from a modern arm so far as I can remember. There was probably the delay from trigger pull to firing but this was longer in the past and I simply do not recall it.

That almost answers your question.

Without having hefted one and fired, it indeed almost answers the question. I'm always reading about some odd gun or another, that maybe fired seven rounds,etc.
As a teen, my brothers baited me, I was so easy: like betting on a fight.(they knew the winner; it was tv's first replay fight. Or when I scoffed at their saying of their revolvers held seven rounds. Ha! How could a six-gun have seven bullets. Oh, I was easy. But these silly things should be addressed. I'll bet even in a war zone now, some 17 year old has counted six rounds fired from a revolver and knows that it. Maybe its time all the esoteric weapons are given at least a walkthrough.

I am a Confederate Reenactor and, as such, have in my possession a reproduction Enfield 3-Band rifled musket. At .577 caliber (9/16+" Minie Ball), it can definitely send a round down range. I have live-fired it several times. Although it does not kick as would a 12-guage shotgun, it did bruise my cheek for about 4 days. I do think that it was in part to me using 90 grains instead of the recommended 65, but the shots were dead on the mark from 25 yards. This weapon, as it was the work-horse of the Confederate fighting man, is an accurate weapon, and seeing what it did to my wonderful cardboard target, I have a better understanding how the soldiers killed so many enemy.

nice