10:30 - De-syncronizing from Animus, please return to play area

Brandon is the most British non-British person I’ve ever seen. So posh, I love it.

Looking sharp in that new suit, Brandon.

Sorry for the strange clipping effects about ten minutes in...it doesn't last long. Not sure what happened there!

The technical term for the bit of extra lead coming from the casting process is the sprue.

Are you lindybeige's long lost son?

I'm a simple man. I see a video uploaded by this channel on my birthday, I like.

Even Minie balls deformed severely when they hit, because they’re made from that soft lead.

Hey Brandon f. I have to throw in a minor correction, a large portion of British military Musket balls were produced in shot towers (large smokestack like buildings where lead was melted at the top and poured through a sieve to fall down the tower (and cool) into a large pool/tub of water giving a near perfect/perfect sphere rather than being produced in bullet molds (much more common among colonial militiamen, though when possible made in as similar a manner when possible). Shot towers are little known today (sadly) in large part due to the fact that most if not all were destroyed/recycled for material.

Here in the States, we have Gettysburg. There are musket rounds that were fused together due to the amount of shot being sent at the lines. You can still find chunks of the stuff all over the fields.

A very interesting video. I have fired a lead ball from my matchlock musket into a box packed tight with newspapers, the deformation was quite marked. The ball ended up splayed out around the 'sides', with small frahments breaking off. If the physical damage from a lead ball didn't kill you, the uniform and soiling carried into the wound would promote infection (a lose-lose situation). Suddenly, a full metal jacket begins to hold a definite appeal - or not!

Something that I have always wondered about muzzleloading rifles and muskets: What did a soldier do when a ball became stuck in the firearm when loading due to fouling?

You should do a video on the farbiness of the Pirates of the Caribbean East India Company and British regular soldiers.

Very noble to admit that you may possess a false memory of that event, people are often very protective of their childhood memories. I know from personal experience that even the strongest ones can be proven unreliable. Great video.

Great Job!:) One suggestion though. Cloud you please make a video on the US Army in the War of 1812, or maybe the early US Army in general?

Even tough your Videos not covering the Time Period I reenact in (16th century mostly), your Videos still are very entertaining and useful, not at least because of how heavily inspired 18th century tactics still are by pike and musket formations. Also, Matchlocks fire basically the same projectile, so I can full on implement this. Thanks for the interesting video!f

Another great video Brandon. Merry Christmas to you and a very happy New Year.

Brandon, do you get much banter from your normie friends/girls regarding your hobbies? Great video, as always.

This is one of my new favorite channels, very nice!

one of my best memories of being a school child is the chester roman re enactors legion taking my class around the various historical sites in my town. rather fun

Another great and informative video Brandon. I never get tired of listening to that intro.

Pretty impressive presentation. It never occurred to me how musket balls behaved or I just didn't mind. Thank you for opening this up for us.

One point that must be made very late is that bullet manufacturers are generally optimizing for energy transfer, not penetration for anti-personel rounds. The spitzer (pointed) shape is for increased accuracy and range due to lower drag. However, for low range applications hollow-points are common. These are generally somewhat parabolic with a large cavity, with spoke like slot connecting the cavity to the outside. This allows the bullet to flatten out to several simes it's original diameter under the force of drag and collision, increasing the energy transfer significantly (absolutely obliterating the targets internal organs). They are actually often used by air marshals or guards on prisoner transport planes because they are much less likes to penetrate the target and hit a bystander or perforate the fuselage.

On a visit to Monmouth Battlefield years ago, I remember seeing a musket ball with a front tooth imprint on it. That has stuck with me rot the last 30 years.

Nice on again Brandon!

Very good video! The flat spot is where the "sprue" sp.? (tag end of lead left from casting - looks like a little tail or spike) is cut off. Thanks again.

Anyone else want to see a history or evolution of the musket? Maybe it's implications in the British military

I love how the top comment is always a compliment to Brandon. Love that.

I recall seeing a documentary years ago where a musket ball was found with the impression of human teeth--not bite marks--the ball had cracked straight into some unfortunate mouth. Can't imagine the pain or mess it caused. Also, something horrific was the experiment in the Sean Bean Waterloo documentary where they fired a live shot into simulated flesh and bone, and they recorded the impact with a high speed camera. Seeing the 'bone' bend in anticipation of the force of the ball before it even made contact. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Anyway, great video as always!

Just a quick comment about "modern" bullets - Most rifle bullets will either be ripped into fragments by the force of the impact when hitting a body (For example, 5.56x45mm M193, which is what you used as an example photo) or at the very least tumble end over end after they hit. Pistol bullets will tend to punch straight through since they don't have enough energy to rip themselves into fragment and typically aren't long enough to tumble. The exceptions would be jacketed hollow points (JHP) which will tend to expand as they penetrate.

So a musket ball works like a modern shotgun slug while modern day bullets work like arrows? Saying it then is there any examples of musketry with pointed ammunition?

Is there any data on or resources about the ballistic performance of roundballs?

The sprue of the musket ball I believe is the term for the spot where the tail (or sprue) was removed

Ur the best KZfaqr

In the Napoleonic Wars some soldiers would turn some musket balls into cubes and use them as dice

i have wondered about rifles vs muskets in warfare and how rifling fouls up and makes it more difficult to reload faster than a basic musket. my question is did soldiers armed with rifles ever carry both minie bullets as well as balls so that they could fire more rapidly like a musket as the enemy advanced on them?

While the idea that a musket ball would boomerang around and hit the shooter is rather ridiculous, do you know if there's any information on how a deformed musket ball would fly straight? While 'perfectly round' is probably never actually achieved, I could very well believe (although I've done no research on my own) that a rounder ball would fly straighter than a more deformed ball. You might not hit yourself, but you also might not hit the formation you're shooting at if the ball is too badly smashed up by say, overzealous ramroding it into place.

look up the Delvigne chambered french rifled muskets which you actually pushed the round down and hit it a few times so that it would conform to the shoulder of a chamber. this was before the Minie conical round was developed and some of the belgian copys of those muskets didnt even have rifling but were 72 cal roundball

Can I get a link to the discord?

The cloth impression may also be from the cotton patch it was loaded with. A .45 caliber Kentucky log rifle, for example, is actually a .44 caliber round ball with the cloth patch making up the remaining hundreth of an inch in order to fit the bore snuggly.

although patching a musket ball would not be common, A Patriot with a fowler type might just might patch a round ball with cloth and the would leave an impression . though an expensive thing to do as all cloth was made on a hand powered loom. I patch my rifle balls and when i have pulled them, after forgeting the powder i saw the cloth and lands engraved on the ball.

A bit off topic here but I've searched through your channel and weren't yet able to find the titles of the military marches you are using in your intros and outros. And I quite like military marching music. Would you also happen to know where to find some nice playlist for XVIIIth century marches (from any country)?

That ball spinning and flying back to you "idea" is actually partly true, although, as you said in the video, it wouldn't happen because the ball would have to either fly extremely slow, or would have to turn extremely fast. Even though it will, when it began spinning, start making a slight curve, the effect causing this phenomenon is called Magnus-Effect. Felt like making that point, greetings from Germany.

It is true that a musketball will have a "Magnus effect" but this will only be exacerbated by surface imperfections as it will cause more spinning as it goes down the barrel (as there isn't equal friction on all sides of the musketball so therefore will be a net torque effect) and more resistance in the air so a stronger magnus effect. The consequences of this isn't as extreme as the bullet flying around to hit you but it does mean that smoothbore muskets have qualities fundamentally different from modern firearms. Modern firearms aren't just more accurate, the little inaccuracy they have is consistent. When weapon with a rifled bore is shot alignment usually isn't perfect and it ends up flying a fraction of a degree off course, the direction and magnitude of this error is within a predictable range so that you end up with a cone of fire you know all bullets will travel in. This means that if a bullet is 2 inches off target at 100m, then it will be 4 inches off target at 200m and still only 6 inches off target at 300m. The size of target you're guaranteed to hit (assuming you aimed rightly) is directly proportional to the range. But with a musketball from a smoothbore barrel, the "side spinning" means the musketball isn't just inaccurate at first, it's continually being pushed off target so it misses by a greater and greater margin. So effective range is hugely important in the age of smoothbore muskets, the deadliness of fire suddenly increases exponentially. So you see the importance of drill, the importance of the volley of fire being at the right range. Too far away and the overwhelming majority of your rounds will miss... yet within a certain range no bullet could have begun to curve much and all musketballs were flying pretty much straight and a rather consistent lethality of volleys. Expertly judging that distance and firing at the right moment made such a huge difference.

Cho minh hoi đan sung la kim loai gi ạ

I'd eat my damn shoe if any bullet in history, in all of history, has ever managed to blow around back at the person that fired it for any reason whatsoever.

Apparently musket ball were occasionally hammered into flint pads. "If you have no sheet lead with which to fix [the flints] to your arm, flatten out a bullet on a stone with the back of your hatchet, and make it into an envelope, which will be an excellent substitute." Antoine Fortune de Brack, Light cavalry out-posts, page 47.

In terms of soft lead, they where then verry effective when turned into a Meniè ball, that fired trough a musket rifle. Or the p53 Enfield.

5:04 That's why they replaced wooden ramrods?

The diameter of a British musket ball was .693. The Americans and French balls were .638. There actually is a reason why a soldier in the field would pound a musket ball flat. It was used to hold the flint in the jaws. It was common for a musket ball to go through a body at close range. The Boston Massacre. 5 muskets hit 9 people. The balls were obviously going through the rioters in the front of the crowd, and hitting people behind them.

I was considering buying a musket,and I wanted to know what kind of musket would be best to start with?

I would say that pass-throughs would be very common in the battlefield judging by deer hunting I've done and other pictures I've seen of people using muzzleloaders.

Is that a bayonet on your shelf? If it is which one and whys it there? Just wondering

i always wondered, just me being silly, if you losded the powder charge enough, could you theoretically fire 2 musket balls at once? And more?

Oh by the way Happy Christmas for next week to you and your family.

For another description of the effect of musket balls: John Keegan’s “The Face of Battle”, the part on Waterloo.

The last vid was nice I didn't watch this fully yet

But doesn't imperfections due indeed affect accuracy? I still think it make sense given the point of a round projectile is so it doesn't tumble in mid air. Of course it makes no sens that slight imperfections would cause a ball to boomerang back... Also do those musket balls pose any health risk considering it is lead and all.

But was they made of pure soft lead as modern pure lead? Some 18 century bullets was actually cast from alloy of lead, tin and antimony and are much harder than bullets made of pure lead

A question for you, Brandon (or anyone who knows Flintlock/Wheellock/etc. weapons) In shows and movies they'll show the soldier pull the trigger, the powder in the pan lighting and then a delay of around 3 seconds (in my experience at least) before the gun fires. Is that actually how those guns worked? If you made a video on this let me know instead of explaining it. I've been watching your videos for only about 5 hours now (not consecutively). My specialty is, seemingly sadly, with their fully/semi automatic distant cousins on steroids.

You're like the mini version of my ethics professor in college. Save for the mangled Quebecois cadence he spoke everything in.

I know I am late to the discussion, but one practical use of hammering musket balls is to use them as a lead jaw pad. Cushioning the flint with lead instead of the usual leather seems to work rather well, perhaps better than leather.

Can you do a video about why armies stopped using armor? Not sure if that's within your area of expertise.

Minh có nhiều viên cua súng hỏa mai

actually today modern-day bullets like the 5.56 in the 5.45 by the Russians are designed when they enter the body to tumble instead of pass through so they instantly spin and yaw when they enter the body because the back end being heavier than the front tumbling it within the body spins around to cause a larger wound cavity

My dear, dear Brandon! This video is one of your finest I think. Like you as a school child I was fascinated at how long it took a British soldier to ram his balls down the muzzle ready to shoot in proper fashion for maximum effect. You certainly know your balls used during the revolutionary war. Thank you for debunking the 'myth of the not perfectly' round ball outcomes. Glad you trashed that idea. In future, however, could you do a vid on the 'ramrod' itself as it is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, insuring the balls do their job. For instance, was any thought given to making the tip of the ramrods 'soft' so as not to damage the balls? Was there a 'ramrod gap' (size) between British and American men? Do opine. Curious minds want to know.

Right folks I need USA help I have friends over from your happy land for Christmas dinner. Am doing full turkey ham stuffing etc. And Christmas pudding . But what do you have for Christmas dinner and pudding. ? So I can get stuff that they might want.

Don't you mean a .75 caliber ball, Brandon? That is a Brown Bess you have there, is it not? Or is the ball that much smaller than the bore?

Very good video! I'm not going to read all the comments to see if anyone pointed this out. The standard British musket during the Revolution was .75 caliber (the British Land Pattern Musket, aka "Brown Bess"). It was the French Charleville 1763/1765 musket (the most common musket in the hands of the rebelling colonials after the first couple years of the war) that was .69 caliber. Later, the 1795 Springfield musket - almost a copy of the French Charleville used during the Revolution - was also .69 caliber, along with all of its derivatives. Viva La France! (That last bit is a bit of humor. I'm an Anglophile who's not a fan of the French after 1789 and a very patriotic American who solidly supports the treasonous acts of our Founders, British citizens who rebelled against their legal monarch, and I hope to own a replica of the 1795 Springfield sometime soon.) Also, the sprue wasn't cut off until you removed the ball from the mold. The musket ball is very inefficient at penetrating, but it is VERY efficient at transferring every bit of energy it had into the target. That is a Good Thing, unless you are the target.

It’s fine

Does anyone know Brandon's opinion on the other famous British user Lindybeige. They'd seem to be made for each other.

Is it safe to be handling lead with your bare hands?

What age do you need to be to become a part of a reenactment regiment

Released on my birthday. :)

I think i know where that idea come from: during WW2 there were two documented cases when submarines shot themselfs with their own torpedoes. One was german, one american if im not mistaken. Quite spectacular cases, why not project it to musketballs, to fascinate children.

My buddy has an American Civil War bullet that was bit down on so hard it’s mangled flat, there’s deep bite marks all over it

They should have made the end of the ram rod concave so it doesn’t flatten the side of the ball.

At appx 10.41 you talk about being in Ohio with "my best" [or that's what I think you said].... and I'm curious what you meant. Thanks.

What can't you do with lead? You can write with it, you can shoot it and Superman can't see through it.

Did the British use .69 ball? I thought the Brown Bess was .775 or something. Did the wadding make up the windage?

Why bullets have a gilding metal (copper, steel, etc.) jacket so the bullet won't rip itself apart on the rifling of a firearm. It's about 2,000 fps with a gas check lead rounds can be fired. Once past that, full metal jacket. I haven't handloaded with cased rounds. Could for my Lee's due to the price, but I just keep with factory bullets.

Sounds like he was pulling a young re-enacters proverbial leg. He probably figured, with your interest, you'd check it out. I would have told you a similar story just to mess with you a little bit in fun. 😏 "There was an infantryman, who in the Battle of Waterloo, had to load his musket so many times, he died from lead poisoning from handling all the musket balls he had to load." Tragic eh?

Suggest two lights...one left and the other right...eliminate moving ghost shadow

But why did they chose led not iron?

42

I should know they're soft, I chewed one up like a gummy. It was very yummy, with a deep taste.

Did they not have any sort of protective coating to protect the iron/steel on the guns back then, such as bluing? I believe I heard they did in the 1800s and well, if you find an original a century of time, especially of constant use, would wear it off.

Modern hollow point rounds are designed to mushroom and expand in the body to cause greater injury

I read eyewitness accounts of pieces of the fellow soldiers bones injuring other soldiers from shots . They were packed close together

Brandon - have a look at an aerodynamic phenomenon called The Magnus Effect on spinning spheres. It may provide some plausibility to this exaggeration.

We need full metal jacket musket balls.

I remember in some history class being told that musket balls were some times made using a shot tower. The molten led would cool into a perfect sphere as it fell. Is there any truth to this?

actualy sou somtimes find playing pieces or dices made out of lead musket balls hammered flat or square ish

you might have mentioned buck and ball loads.

I guess the guy simply meant that by damaging the shot you were more likely to miss, which could be bad for you and your comrades since it meant 1 more gun firing at you.

Also in the civil war the rifling was engraving the in to the ball/bullet of time

The wound a musket ball would cause would be much more akin to modern hunting ammunition designed to mushroom & expand on impact to maximise lethality rather than military rounds designed to poke holes in you and not violate the Geneva convention hahaha. The wound a musket would cause would be utterly devastating.

Yes. Those balls sure are soft also how you dont use jumpcuts are impressive

Tonight on Brandon F, we talk about soft balls and their impact on warfare.

My name is Brandon F, too. Nice.