glenn
To Hayes: re. pumpkin slingers
Sat Feb 10 21:31:47 2001


Hayes,
I noticed a couple of pages back your reference to "buck and ball."
A number of years ago a friend of mine wrote a series of articles on the glory of the "pumpkin slinger," a nickname for the big barreled, smooth bore muskets so widely used by every state, north and south, during the Confederate War.
Of Alabama, he wrote, "In 1860, an Alabama military commission discovered most of the State's weaponry were....69 calibre smoothbores, flintlocks and altered flintlocks. Capture of the Mount Vernon Federal arsenal in 1861 yielded 19,900 more smoothbore .69s and zero three-band .58s. As late as 1863 there were fabricated in Alabama a run of percussion M.1816 .69 calibre muskets."
Seems the soldiers liked them for their versatility. In another installment he states, "The pumpkin slinger, often dismissed as a nearly harmless antiquity, was indeed an extraordinarily powerful weapon. I threw an enormous .67 calibre 410 grain weight ball at an impressive muzzle velocity of 1500 feet per second with the standard service charge. The M-1861 .58 rifle musket, by comparison had a muzzle velocity of 914 feet per second. As to the recipient of its attention, 'the great round ball of the old musket smashed his bones, tore his flesh, let out his blood, and shocked him 'hors de combat'."
Excellent for counter sniper fire. He tells the story of a Georgia unit who countered union sharpshooters by peppering the trees in which they were hiding with buck and ball. They were complimented by the snipers for their "marksmanship." :-)
In part IV, Dave test fired his using as buck and ball, one .675 round ball top loaded with three .31 calibre balls with excellent results.
I wish I could remember even the year the Camp Chase Gazette ran this series of articles.
If you want to know more than you ever wanted about pumpkin slingers, I'd be glad to send you the articles.

• dates — glenn, Sat Feb 10 21:39
• Muskmelon? — Hayes Lowe, Sun Feb 11 07:59