Musket Range
Musket range, in the art of fortification, is reckoned as 60 [Prussian] rods or 300 paces, and therefore this range is taken for the length of the lines of defence.
Musket Range in Wargames
The British “Brown Bess” muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock musket had a maximum firing range of 1200 yards (1,097 m) at 60° elevation, the Prussian Infanteriegewehr M.1801 reached 975 m at 40° elevation. However, these maximum firing ranges differ significantly from the effective firing range of a smoothbore musket, i. e. from the firing range that actually has any effect in combat and at which there is a relevant hit probability. The musket range of 60 Prussian rods (226 m) or 300 paces (225 m) applied in the art of fortification, and the known effective firing ranges of historical smoothbore muskets (300 yards / 274 m), therefore serve as benchmarks in the evaluation of popular 18th and 19th century wargame rules.
| Weapon / Wargame | Musket Range |
|---|---|
| Frederick the Great | 366 m |
| Might & Reason | 366 m |
| Le Grande Armée | 313 m |
| Long Land Pattern Musket “Brown Bess” | 274 m |
| Fusil Charleville Modèle 1777 | 274 m |
| Nothardt-Gewehr Modell 1801 | |
| Infanteriegewehr Modell 1809 | |
| Empire III | 274 m |
| Warfare in the Age of Reason | 274 m |
| The Age of Eagles | 219 m |
| Shako | 198 m |
| Complete Brigadier | 183 m |
| Loose Files and American Scramble | 183 m |
| Napoleon’s Campaigns in Miniature | 183 m |
| Volley & Bayonet | 183 m |
| The War Game | 165 m |
| Flintlock and Ramrod | 150 m |
| Fire & Stone | 146 m |
| Honours of War | 122 m |
| With Macduff to the Frontier | 109 m |
| Charge! | 91 m |
| Charge! – Seven Years’ War Rules | 61 m |
| Song of Drums and Shakos | 33 m |
Quelle: Rumpf, H. F.: Allgemeine Real-Encyclopädie der gesammten Kriegskunst (Berl. 1827)