Historical Figures

What kind of guns did minutemen use?

The primary firearm used by minutemen was the smoothbore musket.

- These muskets were typically .69 or .75 caliber and could fire a ball, buckshot, or grapeshot.

-Muskets were inaccurate beyond 100 yards and had a slow rate of fire.

-To reload a musket, the shooter had to pour gunpowder down the barrel, insert the ball or shot, and ram it down with a ramrod.

-This process took around 20 seconds.

In addition to muskets, minutemen also used other firearms, such as:

- Rifles, which were more accurate than muskets but had a slower rate of fire;

- Pistols, which were used for close-range combat;

- Shotguns, which were used for hunting and self-defense;

-And blunderbusses, which were short-barreled guns that fired multiple projectiles at once.