An inspection of the targets produced some surprises. At 100 yards only three balls struck the board at the bottom, with a spread of 11 1/2 inches--a grouping that was caused more by chance than any other factor. At 50 yards we had a 100 percent hit rate with a grouping of 20 inches, and at 25 a deadly eight-inch spread of all five balls. Basically, up to 50 yards, if someone were firing at you with a Brown Bess it looks like you were pretty much toast.

Our evaluation India-pattern Bess was fired at (left to right) 100, 50 and 25 yards. Accuracy at the farthest distance was pretty much catch-as-catch-can, but at the closer ranges the results were impressive and potentially deadly.

A few years ago I worked on the "Boston Massacre" segment of the Unsolved History television show. We fired a Brown Bess musket at a side of beef from a distance of about 20 feet and photographed it with some sophisticated high-speed equipment. The destruction caused by the ball was jaw-dropping. At that range the bullet ripped right though flesh, gristle and bone, tearing out huge chunks of meat, barely changing direction along the way.

It can only be imagined what damage it could do to a human target, especially when one considers that it would be taking bits and pieces of uniform and equipment along with it into the wound. If a soldier was not killed outright by the trauma, there was a good chance that he would die of infection later on, even if not hit in a vital area.

Given the mayhem caused by this heavy lead ball, coupled with the primitive, haphazard battlefield medical attention of the period, it's amazing that the survival rate was as high as it was. British surgeon Dr. Adam Neale summed it up well: "[A] simple inspection of their wounds with a few words of consolation or perhaps a little opium, was all that could be recommended; prudence equally forbids the rash interposition of unavailing art, and the useless indulgence of delusive hope."

After 1815 the British introduced the more sophisticated New Land-pattern smoothbore with a 42-inch barrel. Issued solely to Guards regiments, the New Land, along with the India pattern, still in the hands of most infantry units, was retired in the late 1830s, when the percussion system was introduced into in British service. Many older Besses were relegated to reserve or colonial use, and some were sold surplus to countries like Mexico, which used them against gringos during the Texas War for Independence and in the Mexican War.

Firing an original or replica Brown Bess musket is both an instructional and enjoyable pastime. Perhaps the simple fact that you really don't expect to get great accuracy out of the thing allows the shooter to relax and become involved more in the techniques and nostalgia of the exercise rather than trying to get minute-of-angle groups. I've seen some enthusiasts fire their smoothbores with patched ball, and once one eliminates the windage and effects a tight bullet-to-bore situation, it really is amazing just how well the old warhorses can do. I'd say accuracy increases by at least 25 percent.

Being a purist, though, I'll stick to the old paper-cartridge method. If it was good enough for Wellington's troops, I suppose it's good enough for me. It certainly made the Froggies run.