Marksmanship in 1775: Myth or Reality?

[Unbridled Liberty]

Marksmanship in 1775: Myth or Reality?
http://www.americanrifleman.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2455&cid=5

I would be surprised if someone had not already posted this somewhere in the past, but I just stumbled upon it and found it full of interesting info. 

Conclusion of the author: "It is not the gun that matters, we should remember, but the man behind it...Americans were nearly 12 times as effective at hitting their foe than British or European soldiers."

UL

[Spartan24]

There is a book that would explain this very well: On Killing. The fact that Americans were more used to death with hunting and slaughtering of animals, could have helped them become better at shooting and killing their enemy.

[Kaylee]

Good piece!

I think also the fact that a substantial portion of the American colonists were French and Indian war vets is telling. And while it's no longer PC to talk about, fighting natives was a whole different ball of wax than fighting European rank and file armies. From what accounts I've seen so far, getting taken prisoner was usually a heck of a lot more like the Nick Berg video than Dances With Wolves.   Terrifying, sad, horrible time - but it no doubt hardened the colonists in a way even the 10th and 4th King's Own service at Culloden could match. 

Hunting in the Lexington/Concord area was mostly small game and (especially) waterfowl - it was pretty settled by the 1770's, but there's lots of swampy areas in eastern Massachusetts that didn't start getting filled in until the 19th century - and even now there's tons of wetland. (One of the things living here the last year has done is give me an appreciation for how deep the historical roots are for Anglo New Englanders as more a "shotgunning" people and Appalachian Scots-Irish/German hillbillies a "rifle" people.  )

Finally, the sights on surviving fowling pieces and muskets in the area are rudimentary by modern standards- and tiny.  but the precision they afford even for a smoothbore fowling piece is a noticeable improvement on a Bess musket. So far, I'm inclined to think the hit rates were only as low as they were because British flanking parties managing to keep the colonists out of smoothbore musket range from the main column for a noticeable part of the journey back. And even then they were awful precise by the standards of the day.

[mtmisfit]

There is a book that would explain this very well: On Killing. The fact that Americans were more used to death with hunting and slaughtering of animals, could have helped them become better at shooting and killing their enemy.

If you ever get a chance to hear Col. Grossman speak, don't pass it up. Very dynamic speaker.