Thursday, May 8, 2014

Weapons: Baker rifle

(via Wikimedia)
A counterpart to the Brown Bess musket used by British infantry, the Baker rifle was used by rifle regiments, who in turn were deployed as skirmishers and marksmen during battles. While the Baker had a much longer range and better accuracy than the Bess, the rifles had a longer loading time than the former. Supposedly, a soldier could fire off four shots with a Bess compared to the two of a Baker. Still, it was a fine weapon and was even used once to kill a French general (Auguste-Marie-François Colbert during the Peninsular War of the Napoleonic Wars at a range of 600 yards! Behind impressive considering that the rifle's nominal range was like 200 yards, so shout out to Thomas Plunket for that feat. He repeated the feat by shooting a drum major who was trying to help General Colbert, just to prove that it wasn't a fluke. The rifle also came with a 24 inch sword bayonet, which is the just awesome as all hell. A two foot long sword attached to a rifle? Damn, son.

I tried looking for more pictures, especially outside of Wikipedia, but the only sites that had any were ones selling like replicas.

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