British regulation issue rifle.

[buffermop]

Could anyone tell me what the regulation issue rifle the British used during the Revolution? What was the projectile weight and accuracy limits.

[flintlock]

Most of the British troops didn't use rifles, they used Brown Bess muskets, .72 caliber...They did have a few rifles that came over here...the Ferguson rifle, about 200 but we took them away from them after the Battle of Kings Mountain...

btw...The British did bring over troops from various areas of what is now Germany, about 25-30,000 total during the war...some of these (about 1500) were special light infantry, armed with Jaeger rifles, but there was no standard caliber, just as with the American Long Rifle...

A .72 caliber round ball weighs about 560 grains, if my memory is correct the standard powder charge was 70 grains...British General George Hanger (who captured several American riflemen and shipped back to England, with their rifles to show the British how well they could shoot) is quoted as saying that a good shot with a musket could hit a man at 80 yards, but at 150 he would miss, as long as he took aim careful at his target, whereas he noted that a rifleman could (and did) kill an individual at 2-300 yards...

[HillBillyFarmer]

aaaaaahhhhhh... yes... the Ferguson rifle, now there's a gun ahead of its time 

[simonkenton]

Yes the mainstay of the British was the Brown Bess musket.
It was designed to hit someone in a line of infantrymen at 100 yards.
That big round ball would have done a number on a thigh bone, or the lungs, when it did hit.
This classic musket was the front line weapon of the British forces for about 100 years.
Many of the Mexicans at the Alamo used the Brown Bess.