Whitworth Rifles

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Bushfire

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Recently I've become very fascinated about the whitworth used mostly by the confederates in some civil war books I've been reading.

Curious if anyone here shoots one with hexagonal bullets and whether the accuracy is as good as they say.
 
We’ve shot a lot of original Whitworth rifles at my Oak Ridge matches and Friendship over the past 3 decades..
No difference in accuracy with Hex vs a good cylindrical bullet.. out of original molds or reproductions.

Display at 2018 match
33B2F7C4-D5EC-4B6D-B9AA-AF97D410D7F5.jpeg
 
We’ve shot a lot of original Whitworth rifles at my Oak Ridge matches and Friendship over the past 3 decades..
No difference in accuracy with Hex vs a good cylindrical bullet.. out of original molds or reproductions.

Display at 2018 match
View attachment 10058

That's interesting regarding the accuracy between bullet types. I would have thought the hexagonals would be better.
 
Occasionally parker hale models come up for sale might grab one next time.
Yes
Pedersoli is also now the only one making them as they bought the PH rights from Euroarms (Navy Arms). Sadly, NA is completely out of the ML repo business.
 
I purchased a Parker Hale Whitworth about 30 years ago. It is a beautiful rifle. I have never fired it. It sits in my safe and I take it out to look at it occasionally. I have many other black powder rifles I shoot. I just can't bring myself to shoot it for fear of scratching it or otherwise damaging it. One day tho...
 
Shooting a Whitworth or any other LRML maker of the times at 1000-1500 yds is not difficult. History books state rounds hitting all around the subject until 1 connects.. its was luck back then, it wasn’t 1 shot kill as we might imagine today.
I would say today - with known rangefinders/distance a LRML has a good chance at a hit on the 1st shot from 1000. The bullet still has tremendous energy- I’ve witnessed them going thru 4” of pine and into the hillside behind like the 2x4 wasn’t even there.
 
I read union general John Sedgwick was chastising his men for hiding from confederate sharpshooters that were shooting at them from about 1000 yards away. His last words were "they couldn't hit an elephant from that far" before being shot through the head.

Crazy when you think about it.
 
I wish there was more written about them. I'd be fascinated by a book focussing on those sharp shooters.
 
I'm sure there was a lot of luck involved but they did have competitions and only the best shots received the Whitworth rifles.

I watched a YouTube video with a bloke talking about them. They were getting the equivalent of around 3 MOA at 500 yards. Easily miss a bloke, but easily kill him too.
 
I watched a YouTube video with a bloke talking about them. They were getting the equivalent of around 3 MOA at 500 yards. Easily miss a bloke, but easily kill him too.
Parker Hales shot better than that
 

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