fields full of musket balls

[Chef Geoff]

Your right in the undersized ball bit Dale and exact fit will cause powder fouling that's why a the Brown Bess has a muzzle bore of 18mm but takes a 17mm ball for normal battlefield tactics of the time but for long range and greater accuracy a tight fitting ball was used.

[dances with badgers]

i got undersized balls

[Spooyt Vane]

I found a musket range over 35yrs ago on the coast,many of  the shot from the firing butts was unfired...But shot near the targets looked unfired,because they had missed target and gone into the soft ground undamged

[digitup]

i got undersized balls

  lmao well funny

[celticspikey]

Nice interesting post you guys, things said here I never knew

[Spooyt Vane]

I remember two men in a trench on a Scottish battlefield and musket shot was been recovered on the Scottish Attacking lines fired by the English and they found shot at optium range.and short range..The conclusion was that short range shot had had been slowed down by going through the bodies of the scots,but the shot looked undamaged..
Futher research proved this was the case by firing muskets at pig carcases.

[wet feet again]

They could bo grapeshot used by navy used to smash riggin
of french ships napoleonic  era. ?