A rifle or a musket?

This was bound to come up sooner or later, so I will address the question here.

A musket is a smoothbore weapon. The barrel is basically a metal tube sealed at one end. A rifle has, as the name implies, rifling down the barrel: the inside of the barrel has grooves (rifling) cut in it, which grip the bullet and spin it, giving it improved accuracy and range. The Baker rifle carried by Hagman, Cotton and Doyle was the first rifle on general issue to British troops. Those who carried it were elite and took pride in their training and marksmanship.

Williams carries the India pattern musket. Fondly known as a Brown Bess (like flintlock muskets since the age of Marlborough), it was inaccurate with a much shorter ranger. Thompson carries a slightly different pattern of Brown Bess, the Sea Service pattern with a slightly shorter barrel that has been browned to stop it rusting.

Thank you for that. I was under the impression that your musket wouldn't be exactly the same as the one my men use. It's probably a good thing that the barrel is shorter, though.

They are still loaded and fired the same way. It would only take me a few shots to get used to extra few inches in length of an india pattern musket.

Aha. ^^ I knew it was something obvious. Well, I'll have to make my decision in a few moments, I suppose. x.x