Originally Posted by
tacfoley
Sir - not sure what you mean by this comment. The British were among the first to see the advantages of elongated bullets - back as far as 1842, IIRC - and actually went to the Crimean War with the Pattern 42 and 53 rifled musket - both of which shot a Minie bullet and not a round ball. True, they were rather slower to adopt metallic cartridge, bullet-firing handguns, but so was everybody else. Over the other side ofthe Atlantic Ocean, The War of Northern Agression was fought on both sides with ball-firing handguns.
tac
Sorry, Tac, you're quite right historically. I meant in the modern BP shooting fraternity. I might be out of touch since it's 20 years since I shot a front-stuffer revolver, but all of the BP shooters in the pistol club I was in used round ball, and conical bullets were never to be seen.
(I got an impressive picture of a repro 1861 .44 going off around that time, but can't find it now... )
Regards,
MikB
...history... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. (Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)