Poll, best Civil War firearms/ rifles

[TGC]

Your a soldier in the American Civil War, you get to pick or pick up from the battle field the two rifles you would like to use. what would they be?

Please leave a comment.

And for those of you who ask, what no Whitworth rifle, thats to put in civilian target rifle.

 

[delta1]

Just because I do not want to be standing with the volley fire boys.One accurate round down range is better than 10 that go who knows where.

 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

I chose the lever action as to me, any gun that doesn't have to be reloaded after each shot is a bonus. If three guys are running at you and you have a single shot and miss, your in a world of hurt because all of a sudden you have just a club.

 

[TGC]

Well thats on reason why I put the volcanic rifles first, figured people would like the volume of the fire the first 3 rifles would put out. Plus every firearms listed is a rifled barrel, so there is accuracy. Longer range accuracy with the last 7 rifles. Short range caauracy with the first 3.

 

[mooncoon]

Well thats on reason why I put the volcanic rifles first, .

The Henry was not a volcanic rifle and I would never choose a volcanic because it was so anemic. I chose the Henry, presuming it to be a .44 rimfire which although weak, thought that it might have slightly better penetration and slightly higher velocity than the Spencer. I am having second thoughts however because the Spencer would be slightly easier to load and particularly, you would not have to worry about the magazine getting dented and rendered non functional.
I chose the civilian rifle for sniping and was thinking of the Whitworth in particular

cheers mooncoon

 

[JohnC]

The Henry for firepower, the SHarps for longer shots.

 

[TGC]

So I used the wrong term, but you know what I meant, surprised that the Colt revolting rifle has got no hits, the 1 ST Bradan shape shooters where armed with them when first formed, only about a hundred has civilian target rifles, the shapes was issued later, and the Henry was usually a private purchase

 

[Levi Garrett]

I wish I knew more about this, so I went default, Springfield

 

[DATAM]

Enfield and Spencer for me, but only if the Enfield has the cutlass bayonet otherwise the Springfield.

 

[TGC]

That would be the two band enfields, but i should have been more specfic. that this a 3 band rifle poll, sorry, did you know that the confederate governemnt was producing sword bayonets right up to late 1864, than went totally to socket type.

 

[Rupert]

No Whitworth rifle???

 

[TGC]

yes rupert, thats the civilian target part of the poll, and we know the civilian traget rifles where of much better quilty and acurate, also it was a british rifle if you want to be specfic

 

[Alonzo]

The Sharps rifle had all the best of the time...strength, accuracy, reliability, power, rate of fire. Oh yeah, the Henry and Spencer were faster shooting, though lower power and rather fragile (especially the Henry). The Spencer was a tougher gun, though you had to #### the hammer for every shot, and not as fast the Henry.
If memory serves me, an Illinois infantry company were given Henry's. The misconception that the Henry was named (by the Confederates) "The Horizontal Shot Tower", is wrong...they were referring to the Spencer. The Henry was referred to as "That damn Yankee rifle you load on Sunday and shoot all week".
Another very interesting poll...Thanks TGC

 

[TGC]

Wish i had more poll opitions, some aother 3 band rifles could go in, especiallym if i spell it right that rifle with the trigre system, i would have to check my notes but i am to lazy

 

[mooncoon]

Wish i had more poll opitions, some aother 3 band rifles could go in, especiallym if i spell it right that rifle with the trigre system, i would have to check my notes but i am to lazy

Do you mean the french carabine a tige? The tige was a post and was intended to prevent the bullet from crushing the powder ( also known as the system Thouvenin, I think).
The Colt revolving rifle relative to a Spencer would have been slow to load and awfully hard on the left wrist unless you were wearing guantlets. It did have the advantage that you could cast your own balls (so to speak) rather than relying on factory rimfire cartridges which might be in short supply at any given time.

cheers mooncoon

 

[TGC]

I am glade someone can spell, at least information is going out, we all know more now or are reminded of it, of course there allways those 90' cals from that country thats starts with a B, again to lazy to look it up, and also the fact that the early part of the war still saw use of flint locks

 

[TGC]

See the Henry, the Sharps and the Spencer are the top 3 rifles, beginning to think i should have put the repeating arms in their own poll. But one thing you must all consider is the availability of ammo at the time.

 

[nessy357]

No Whitworth rifle???

IIRC correctly the South bought 250 Whitworths and had sharpshooters in each company to snipe on the cannoneers
Great idea for a poll, very interesting

Cheers nessy

 

[TGC]

Well again had only 10 poll opitions, so consider the Whitworth in the civilian target rifle section, if you liked this poll youer should look up all my other old ones,

 

[Musketfire]

I'm sticking with the 61 Springfield, tough, reliable ,accurate, easy to fix and hard hitting.

The breech-loading arms were a rarity at the time no matter which side you were on


Here's a original I almost have back shooting, its been a honor working on this veteran!

Cheers