Related link:cthulhu wrote:With pre-patched balls you can fire three shots a minute with a Napoleonic war era musket. It's hard fucking going though. But you get do aimed sustained fire at 100 yards.TheFlatline wrote:A skilled marksman could take around three relatively aimed shots per minute with a civil war era rifle.PoliteNewb wrote: Loading was somewhat slow (slower than a smoothbore musket, anyway), but wikipedia cites 1 minute, and I think it was faster with patched balls.
You get pretty damn fast if you practice consistantly.
Demonstration here, after a TV episode thing (ignore that bit): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvc86ggLUY4
Good stuff starts at 0:40. Disclaimer: I know all the people in that video.
The problem was period training was pretty shitty, and doctrine called for minimization of the disruption to formation caused by reloading, it was generally better to hold your fire and give them a bayonet charge.
3 rounds through a British military rifle (Brown Bess) in 46 seconds. If you allow a full minute, the guy would get an extra 5 seconds per shot roughly to aim.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJMbxZ1k9NQ