It depends if you are re-enacting as a French or British soldier during the F & I War and the Rev War...

Both are equally inaccurate having a smoothbore and no sights--flatter trajectory is because you are shooting a .69 instead of a .74 ball...Brown Bess [officer's] carbine is also .69...Oh, and the 1.5" of muzzle length won't make a bit of difference in handling as they're both five feet long...

Both were converted to trade guns and the long barrels were to burn off the BP not to get more furs...

 

Brownbess repros, work well and I can load shot too! Don't no that it matters, it was a gift!

 

Both are Illegal in Commieforia, they are both over 50 cal.
(If they passed the 50 cal law, not from there so dont keep up)

The fore Fathers would be so proud.

.69 vs .75 cal, we dont use metrics here.

The .69 is the more accurate, but you can load either with shot (or nails)

Id go with an eastern US rifle, lighter, way more accurate.

 

Firstly, how would it be germane to the question even if the OP lived in Calif, which he doesn’t, because you see, unfortunately, you are incorrect! The .50 calibre ban doesn’t apply to any of the larger bores in any powder type, in any way, shape or form -- it only applied to the .50 BMG/12.7x99mm round…Not the .500 S&W, not the .50 round ball or sabot, not the .500 NE, not the .500/416 NE, not the .50/70 Government, not the .50/90 Sharps, not the .56/50 Spencer just the .50 BMG/12.7x99mm and then it isn't it's not really an outright ban, but is far more complicated than that--you can still have them, they have to be registered as "assault weapons" and you can't import new ones etc.…In overly simplified terms…

The .69 isn't any more accurate or inaccurate then the .75 is, just a little faster; both are fired from a smoothbore barrel without sights--the offset nob on the front of the barrel is a bayonet stub, for a socket bayonet, not a front sight...It was said you had to have really offended the gods if you got shot at and actually hit at ranges of beyond 75 yds...At Rendezvous I'm see some superb shooters place five shots into a silhouette target at 100 yds and with very impressive groups of around ten MOA...

They were sold to the Indians as trade muskets to shoot buck and ball loads from but were limited the amount of lead they could buy in any given period so they would have to revert back to bow and arrows and spears for their hunting and warfare on occasion...

 

I own a Pedersoli Brown Bess. It's leaning on the wall behind me right now, loaded with buckshot awaiting a pesky raccoon. It is a .75 caliber musket,it shoots a .735 ball. I once shot a 55 gallon steel drum to see what would happen from about 25 yards. It penetrated both sides easily,the exit hole was immense, continued on for 6 feet , striking a tree and tearing a 1/2 inch gash through the side of it,ball was never recovered. The Pedersoli Charleville is a .69 caliber musket, I don't have one,but I would like one someday! I don't buy into one being a "flatter shooter" than the other. Both are smoothbore , have a limited effective range and a rainbow trajectory. Accuracy is a relative term. At 25 yards, I have clover leafed shots from my Bess,I have no doubt someone could do the same with the 1766 Charleville. Both are good muskets,I chose the Bess for historical reasons. TP

 

Sorry, but the Tunica Horde was set to gague pattern and most of the parts were interchangable from a stash of parts that dates to before the first model Bess existed, As stated in Hamilton's "Colonial Frontier Guns".

Ther are numerous references to the shortened muskets used by RR, althought it was a personal decision. Concrete examples of anything F&I are almost nonexistant. Try to find a documented powder horn of shooting bag fron that era!

Brit light infantry muskets and carbines were smaller gauge than the regulation Bess, as were officer's fusils. Neumann shows mold blocks with graduated sizes for musket, carbine, fusil and pistol all in one block.

 

Stunned to find this thread here!
I worked for several years as a military interpreter at a local historic site. Between reenacting and doing it professionally, I've put more powder through a Bess than any other gun.
When I was employed doing it, we did a 'center company' of infantry, and standard issue was the Second model Brown Bess in .75". When I started doing it for fun, I switched to a Light Infantry unit, and figured I'd have to buy a carbine. Not really. Our unit commander was a stickler for historical accuracy, but it seems that many units in North America were pretty randomly resupplied, and it would not be at all out-of-place to find LI running around with full length and full-caliber Bess'.
I can't state the veracity of this, but I had heard that the 'gauge' of the Bess referred to the number of lead balls that could be poured from a pound of lead.
I am also lead to believe that while they had parts built to the same orders, that they were virtually never interchangable - and we had several actual pieces at my historic site. This amusingly managed to carry over to the modern reproduction pieces (completely coincidental I'm sure). If you've ever tried to refit an Italian Pedrosoli with Japanese parts, you'll be cussing them both out roundly. Someone in our program once got a good deal on some Jap Bess' and issued them out one season - when we otherwise only stocked Italian parts and muskets. That was a disaster. Because we'd have a whole room of guys cleaning guns at the end of a day, we'd get cross-installation of locks and smaller parts, and if you've ever fired one you'll remember that fit is kind of important. I saw one kid put a full priming charge down in between the flash pan and the barrel once, and blow the lock right off the stock demonstrating the firing mechanism. I couldn't see exactly what he was doing at the time, but you can believe we had a talk about how big a priming charge was supposed to be after that, and why it should be in the PAN.

Ah, those were the days. Powder burns and missing eyebrows.

 

I have a .73 cal. Enfield musket. Shooting it is a contest as to who gets up first. The shooter or the shootee.

 

Historically the Brown Bess comes out the winner more times when head to head with opponents armed with Charlesville muskets.
References: Wikipedia

While true that the Brown Bess often was on the winning side it was not because of the musket as far as I can tell from my read of history. It was tactics.

Not unlike our AK vs. AR match up. Which is better? PLEASE DON'T START THAT THREAD AGAIN! But centuries from now they might argue which was the better weapon and the correct answer is that they were both good weapons with tactics and training being the deciding factors.

The difference between the Chalesville and the Bess are not worth a hill of beans. It was the men using them and the men commanding the men using them. Napoleon had no problems with French muskets beating the Brits - save for Waterloo which Napoleon did not even take part in. He was there, true. But was not in overall command until after his generals made the situation truly FUBAR. That is another thread.

If you were on the receiving end you were toast whichever musket was doing the shooting.

Also beware of Wikipedia - great for trivia on your favorite TV show or singer but too often crap on most everything else especially serious subjects.

 

If you like old guns, thats fine. However, for blackpowder flintlock's I'd much rather have a 50 cal with rifling over those.

 

The .76 cal Doglock of 1640 was used as the pattern for the first Bess pattern (curved doglock plate) was introduced in 1717…Although the Charleville did come out earlier, 1712, it wasn’t until they standardized it with the 1746 Model that some means of interchangeable parts came about, which they got from the British… Oh, by the by, screws had been sized since about 1400 through the guilds just not the degree of the threading—some where fine and others coarse but they would be nearly i.e. #8 x 2” whether in France, Venice or Britain but called differently because there wasn’t a system of measurement that was the same between the countries until after Bonaparte and of course England opted out which meant that America (later) did as well…

By the time the American colonies got the Charleville musket from France, near the end of the Revolutionary War both countries had standardized musket parts and the new USA bought lots of them from France to construct the first muskets by US makers the Model 1795 Musket, which was manufactured at the federal arsenals at Springfield, Massachusetts and Harper's Ferry, Virginia and based on the 1763 Light Pattern and was used by the Continental Army right through the War of 1812-14…

Read this excellent NRA American Rifleman article By George C. Neumann

 

I shoot a brown bess I love it and the accuaracy isnt as bad as every thinks for a smouth bore round ball I have killed 2 deer with it ..I really want to use the bayonet to kill a deer but think the game warden would have my head

its also a really good duck gun I load it with a leather patch a bunch of BB's and thene slap another patch on tp to keepem from rolling out the barrel only bad thing is if the powder in the frizzen gets wet you usually got to touch it off with a match of some sorts(I use my cigar LOL )

 

I have been re-enacting for 20+ years and shooting competitively with these weapons and I have to say that the Bess does seem to preform just a bit better than a Charlliville. (wouldnt want be getting shot at by either) I M O the Bess is more accurate at 50 to 75yds. than the Charlliville as well as the Bess seems to have less hammer falls/flash in the pans. But there again,just my opinion.:thumb::

 

I'll always have a love affair with the Bess, but the stock doesn't fit me.

I think it was actually designed not to fit anyone.

I typically use my 20 gauge fowler. Lighter, quicker, more ergonomic.

Come at me with a bayonet and I'll just run the other way! :

 

shot them both much prefer the Bess

 

Once a member of the British 10th Regt. of Foot (circa 1775 Boston), I had much experience carrying and firing the Brown Bess musket in both First Long Land pattern and Second Model edition. We Soldiers of the King got quite proficient with the Brown Bess in drill, ceremonial use and (reenactment) battle per the Royal Warrants of 1768.

The fastest shooting and loading episode that we managed to pull off with the Brown Bess muskets was volley firing in ranks working at four rounds per minute. That's one every 15-seconds! That choking black powder smoke fest went on for about five minutes. This was back in the 1970s! Remember hands with fingers covered in greasy soot bleeding in many places having been cut by the flint.

With all that . . . if I had to choose between the two muskets . . . even with affection for the Bess, the Charlliville gets my vote. That musket seemed far more elegant being a superior item with better feel and balance.

One thing that I did learn with so much handling of the Brown Bess was that it does not stand as a firearm alone. Military muskets in those days were part of a weapons system which included the disciplined soldier himself. The Brown Bess and Charliville muskets, known as "firelocks" in their day, were also bayonet platforms. It is nearly impossible for another guy to get within five feet when that bayonet gets fixed. Aside from the blade up front, the heavy firearm has the big brass butt plate on the other end for clubbing to death an enemy and smashing down doors. There are several ways to kill a man using those arms with no flint to steel ignition happening at all.

For close quarter defense, in the hands of a person with even moderate proficiency, the long military musket is a fearsome weapon.