There is a civil war battlefield near where I live but they frown upon people searching for bullets and relics. My question is how far would the common civil war bullet travel when fired and not hit anything? The battle occured in July of 1861. If I were to go deeper into the woods, would my chances of finding anything be greater?
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Bullet distance
- Thread starter jonwv
- Start date
spector551
Established Users
First thing's first, make sure that you have permission from the owner of the woods (if it's not your family) before you hunt. That's probably why the land owners around there have such a fondness of TH'ers. My club has to deal with that here in our area (Seige of Port Hudson, Battle of Baton Rouge, Scirmish at Donaldsonville, Battle for New Orleans) and it is very hard to get to a good spot. Of course, that's the case at all places now. Boy, I wish I could have been around when this first became popular before rogues tainted the land owner's perception of Th'ers. To answer your question, Civil War bullets, for the most part, are fairly low velocity and heavy grained (normally measured in oz.) bullets. If they do not strike an object, I would assume (terrible word, but I'm not a physisist) that they could travel quite a distance, but not as far as high velocity, lighter rounds that we have today. Given that the shot was fired level, I wouldn't believe that the velocity rate and weight of the bullet would allow it to travel more than 300 yds. Hopefully, Chuck and Gary can correct anything wrong with my response.
I agree. A carefully loaded and aimed rifled Enfield or Springfield could be accurate at 300 yards, and the bullet would travel much farther than that. Then, too, soldiers did not all stay within the park boundaries. They marched, camped and fought all over. For instance...a lot of the battle and camp areas at Shiloh and Vicksburg are off the National Parks.
Gary
Gary
spector551
Established Users
Same thing at Port Hudson, there is 4.5 miles of CSA trenchworks. But there are miles and miles of area camped and traveled by both armies. There were 6500 CSA troops inside the lines and 33000 US troops outside the lines trying to get in. The were TWO major assaults on the CSA defenses of which both were repelled with great loss to the US Army. During the rest of the 48 days, though, there were scirmishes and little battles all up and down the lines. There is more stuff around that area than can ever be dug - getting to it is the hard part. Can you imagine all of the camps and different areas that solders were occupying during that time? Most battles were not set in this type of "seige" setting, but the same situations apply. They had to camp, there were feild hospitals, there guys passing time carving bullets and shooting target, etc. Like Gary said.... the bullets would travel quite a distance.
BTW, thanks Gary for clearing up the travel of the bullets for me. I was trying to base my knowledge from shooting Dad's old muzzle loader. I know at about 75 yards, the rate of drop is pretty far when shooting level. Of course, it is not a rifled round either. I had NO IDEA that they could be accurately fired to 300 yards. WOW!
BTW, thanks Gary for clearing up the travel of the bullets for me. I was trying to base my knowledge from shooting Dad's old muzzle loader. I know at about 75 yards, the rate of drop is pretty far when shooting level. Of course, it is not a rifled round either. I had NO IDEA that they could be accurately fired to 300 yards. WOW!