A few days ago, in an author’s forum on an almost deserted corner of anti-social media, a fan posted this.
I pointed out (as has the author, who’s fan group this was posted in, has said many times) that the colonists had better than milspec, and that is part of what made the difference in the American Revolution. The usual group of pedants came forth then (why do you hate potatoes, they had potatoes back then, you didn’t write an encyclopedia entry outlining every possible variant, etc.) and missed two key points. One, I wasn’t out to write an encyclopedia entry (though I have written the firearms sections for a major technology encyclopedia back when there were still such things) but a one line response; and, that the technological superiority extended beyond the obvious.
It’s one of my big problems with the NFA and other “taxes” and open regulations: it limits the ability to innovate and the ability of the average citizen to have not just milspec (which frankly often sucks in base form) but better than milspec. The colonists had rifles as they were accurate and made it a more sure proposition to be able to feed their family. Their muskets could also be rather innovative. If you are not familiar with the term “lock, stock, and barrel” then you are not going to understand how and why the colonists tended to buy the best they could and got delightfully innovative as soon as they could do so.
Fact is, most firearms innovations have come from outside the government. Take a look back around the Revolution, then move forward and while many hoped to make their money selling to the government, the innovations came from outside the government. Even today, that still holds true in my opinion. Note, however, that the government through the ATF and other agencies does all it can to hamper such development and innovation these days.
Me, I don’t want milspec, I want better than milspec. That holds true for firearms, communications gear, and more. I want rugged, dependable, reliable (which, yes, can be different from dependable), and cost effective. Why buy stock when you can often get far better “add ons” and custom for the same cost or less. Milspec is a best a good place to start. It is very easy to make it better in many cases.
Which is why I have a serious question for Elon and the new third party (more on that soon): don’t tell me you support the 2nd amendment and expect me to take you at your word. You’ve said more than once that you believed in regulating and restricting. I want specifics out of you, and in particular I want to know where you stand on repealing the NFA and other “taxes” and open regulations. I want it spelled out in detail.
I also want the NFA and such gone. It’s time to ensure that the Citizens of the Republic not only have milspec, but better than milspec. If you are proud that you have milspec, good on you you’re special. If you have made sure you have better than milspec, whether you admit it or not, you’re my type of people. I don’t care if it’s a better iron sight or using a 2-cent O-ring to improve the water resistance of an electronic device (versus the $2k special container sold to the government), you’ve still improved it and made it better than milspec.
The Revolution wasn’t all rifles versus muskets. It was much more complex and frankly far more rich from a technological standpoint than the pedants will ever truly realize. I think they fail to realize some of the true importance of Saba, but that’s for another day. What matters is that in more than one way the colonists had better than the milspec of the day. It’s what we need today as well. Just a thought.
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Would love more details about the colonists having better than milspec if you get the time to write more, or can point me to a good reference!
Let me see what I can do, but the short version is metallurgy and design. There are ways to make muskets more accurate, but they cost more and the bureaucratic mind is not a new thing. Troops get what costs least possible and still work, while individuals are willing to pay more for better. Early on, we could make stocks and barrels, but the locks had to be bought from Europe. This was a means of controlling the colonial populace. However, we got very good at both, and designs and materials improved. Once we could make our own locks, again, materials and designs improved. With the right metallurgy and design, you get more robust systems that operate well in more environments. Think wheel-locks: great idea but the metallurgy of the times was not up to the job. Later, tech caught up. Flintlocks went through a number of upgrades in design and metallurgy, a number of which were pushed by inventors here in the new world. The advent of better paper cartridges is also a thing. Really wish my library was not in storage as may still have a good book or two in there.
As far as Milspec equipment goes – at that time it was a smooth bore musket accurate to 100 yards in well trained hands. Our side had Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles. These had rifled barrels with a much longer range. Their tactics were to line up in a field and shoot at each other until one side was victorious. Our tactics were to use cover and concealment and rifle companies would pick off the officers, leaving the other side confused and with lowered moral.
Oh……..horseshit! Try reading a little bit of actual, you know, history instead of watching TV shows and Hollywood movies. A Mel Gibson movie isn’t a documentry, really, it’s not.
Okay, mostly not for. The non-line-of-battle Indian-war rifle-leveraging tactics at Kings Mountain re pretty much in line with this, and Cowpens really did take advantage of the British cavalry’s expectation that the colonials would always run. And throughout the war those rifles regularly killed British officers, as per their own complaints in their letters home.
But in the end the American victory was via the Yorktown siege, with the alliance with the French serving to close that siege through the blockade by the French navy. The political ramifications of that surrender empowered the “negotiate” faction in the British Parliament with clear evidence that the British Army’s annual protests that they could “win” if just given more money and time. Once that faction gained the upper hand in Parliament, negotiations proceeded to the Treaty of Paris.
The “Brown Bess” musket issued to the British army, and also used by the Colonial forces, was the fastest-reloading (albeit at the cost of accuracy, but that was no handicap in the infantry tactics of the time) and most-reliable military longarm in the world at the time. It was legal for private individuals to own, and a lot of militia used them as well. Multi-shot firearms had been in use for a couple of centuries (there was a maker in Boston who was advertising 9-shot repeaters of the Cookson pattern in 1756), but were generally considered too delicate or too complicated for general military issue. The famed Pennsylvania Rifles were not military arms, but hunting tools, and they were generally more delicate and slower to load than the British Army’s muskets. In other words, the “Brown Besses” were milspec, for how war was fought at the time, and the Pennsylvania Rifles were not. So the Colonials changed the tactics. The British did not consider this sporting…
You keep using the term “better” as though it is an absolute. Properly used it should be “better for _____.” For example, the mail spec for 5.56 chambers is much looser than many accuracy-minded people would want. For accuracy purposes, a tighter tolerance and fit is “better” but at the expense of feeding and extraction issues.
In the end, MilSpec is just what it says, a specification for the military that takes into account their needs (mission, cost, logistics, reliability, etc.). Your “spec” may be better for your needs, but we cannot say it is universally better.
Saba?
I don’t savvy.
All I could come up with is “paper boat,” but I don’t see how the new avatar of one of the most popular English-language vtubers is relevant.