78 G&A october 2019 |rifle of the future
to 100 yards after I got a feel
for things. I never had to
make that trip downrange to
post 100-yard targets. Bul-
lets, when they didn’t keyhole, dotted all over the silhouette; not
much better accuracy that I’ve achieved with my smoothbore Brit
Pattern 1842 using patched round balls. Because of the rough
rifling piece fouling quickly, it was necessary to scrub out the
bore after every second shot or so or risk a Minié getting stuck
about half way down the barrel during loading.
I tried firing the gun several ways: With and without patch, and
altering the powder charge, all to no avail. In study-
ing the original period tests and checking targets, I
can see the rifle was capable of much better results
than I was getting. I put my failure down to five
problems: The tapered shape of the bullet; extremely
thick bullet-cavity walls; excess bullet weight; lack
of a culotte expander; and a rough bore. Any one
of these could have been a problem. Taken together
they were fated to produce poor results.
Finding a P51 in any kind of shape at all nowadays
is a challenging project, and getting one with a good
bore would be even tougher. Most extant specimens
that come up for sale generally show some pretty
hard usage. Still, I haven’t given up, and perhaps one
with a decent tube will reveal itself anon.
Though an important evolutionary arm, one
gets the feeling that even at the time the ’51 was
considered as something of a stopgap. Before it was
sealed, authorities began working on an upgrade,
resulting in the aforementioned Pattern 1853, a rifle I’ve had
much experience with and can attest to its superlative qualities.
Still, in the Crimea the British Pattern 1851 Minié, being the
most sophisticated arm of its type to see widespread use, showed
its worth, and gave solid legitimacy to the concept of a general-
issue rifle and to the Minié system. The Minié’s influence would
far outlast its actual period of service.At the time of the
Crimean War, the russian
luttich rifle fired the
sugar-loaf-shaped Kulikov
bullet. two studs on
the side mechanically
engaged the gun’s dual
rifling grooves. the rifle
and bullet were inferior to
the Pattern 1851.A rare original P51 cartridge. originally these
were of white paper, but when the P53 rifle was
introduced paper color was changed to red to
avoid confusion. from “the english Connection,”
courtesy of tim Prince.
early conoidal version of the
P51 Minié bullet. the curved
iron expanding culotte may
be seen in the base.Yard &
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