I have mentioned Research Press Journal in this column before. It is a British publication, but there is a lot to learn in its pages for Americans, especially because British and European military shooters were far beyond their American counterparts up to and including the Civil War years. Training programs had been established in France and Britain in the 1850s, along with the introduction of rifled small arms as standard issue weapons in each nation’s military. Research Press has just released Journal – Issue 9, Summer 2020. It covers all aspects of nineteenth century shooting, from historical profiles to modern marksmanship matches. The 36-page PDF is free to download.
Although several Americans did travel abroad and studied European training methods, and even provided manuals for American use, in the decade before the Civil War, American armies seldom practiced shooting. The 13th New Jersey Infantry, for example, joined the Army of the Potomac just before the Battle of Antietam but had never loaded or fired their rifle muskets. There were exceptions, of course, with Confederate sharpshooters and General Patrick Cleburne’s command. After the war, the American army and National Guard made up for lost time, and, along with civilian shooting hobbyists, held a number of long-range target matches.
The magazine covers the history of 19th century arms, but also modern shooting of original arms and quality replicas. It
by Joe Bilby
is also an asset to historians and researchers, who post their needs at the beginning of each issue. It is a perfect merge of shooters and historians. In the current issue, firearms scholars are asking for information on British army percussion rifles and the famed Whitworth target and sniper rifle.
Not unexpectedly, Research Press is an authority on 19th century European arms particularly British ones, although the magazine has expanded to cover aspects of American marksmanship and history. The initial article is on the Black Powder Rifle Association, a new organization based in Colorado and Wyoming that has 55 active shooter members, including its “first ever junior shooter, Emily Hayes of Wyoming.” The matches thus far are at “medium” ranges, from 200 to 600 yards, but there has been at least one “long range” match at 1,000 yards. The Black Powder Rifle Association is working on attracting top shooters from across the county to its future matches. For more information on the group, check out their website at https://bptra.org.
Arthur Hare’s account of the history of the Brunswick Rifle, the predecessor of the British P53 Enfield, in this issue of the Research Press Journal is very comprehensive and well-illustrated. The Brunswick, originally a German design, used a special spherical ball and was not overly popular among rifle regiment troops it was issued to. It went through a number of variations during its service. During the Enfield trials one officer wondered how the Brunswick was ever approved, due to difficulty in loading its round ball ammunition that included a belt around the ball intended to facilitate loading into the two-groove barrel.
This issue also has an essay on the powder mills of famed British powder maker Curtis and Harvey by a direct descendant of the original owners, W.S. Curtis. Starting with the Hounslow works in 1820, the Curtis powder empire soon took over the market, along with a number of other black powder manufacturers across Great Britain and even one mill in Canada.
After giving a brief background on the firm’s history, Curtis provides a reprint of an account about an 1896 visit from William Oliver Greener. Greener, the editor of The Sporting Goods Review and son of the renowned gun maker William Wellington Greener, went to the Hounseville
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September 2020
powder mills, the initial mills acquired by Curtis and Harvey.
Another reprint in this issue is a chronicle of Military Rifle Shooting in America, first published in Arms and Explosives magazine in London in July 1903. The author laments the decline of public interest in such shooting. Beyond that, there is a detailed look at sights in use at the time.
There are other articles and book reviews and the history of the British National Match in this issue as well. If you are interested in the evolution of 19th century military shooting, you should take a look at this publication. The current and back issues are available at: