musket ball costs? - Page 2

hal · 08-18-2018, 10:32 AM

If you do a search on powder shot for user hal - you will come across an entry containing historical costs for shot (projectile) and powder.

Further research on the net will give you general ball weights based on caliber - which isn't really hard to determine, as muzzleloading weapons used spherical shaped bullets. Known volume and density of bullets can then be calculated. Volume of a sphere is 4/3 * Pi* R^3. Weight would be density of material (Lead) times volume. Listed source of density for lead is about 11.34 grams per cubic centimeter. Yes, it is pain converting between all sorts of units of measure, so I tend to use the following website for my conversions:

http://www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertI.../Converter.ASP

For a .54 caliber round, weight is approximately 230 grains. Powder charge weight could be between 1/3rd the weight of the ball to 1/2 the weight of the ball.

Putting this into perspective for you? There are 7,000 grains per pound in weight. So if you pay 15 pence for 1 lb of powder (1810's or so historical cost for powder purchased in bulk) - that averages out to about 466 grains of powder per silver penny in 1810 ish time period. If using an 80 grain load for a .54 shot, that's about 5 shots (gotta factor in wasted or spilled powder etc). Cost for a single pound (weight) of cannon shot was about 1.125 pence per pound of CAST shot (ie - already pre-formed or cast). Let's just go with this cost for purposes of this discussion.... ;)

1.125 pence per pound, where a .54 caliber shot was measured at about 230 grains in weight. That makes it about 30 rounds of shot per lb of lead.

So, doing the math in terms of Historical costs, we're seeing a calculated cost of about 5 shots powder wise per pence, and about 1/30th of a pence (a touch over) per bullet. So, that works out to 1/6th of a pence for 5 bullets, and about 5 shots per pence in cost. Call it about 1.16 pence per five shots total.

Putting this in perspective for that time period? If an average laborer earned approximately 12 pounds (unit of money) per year, that works out to 1 pound or 240 pence per month. For five shots of muzzle loading ammo and powder, this was equal to about 1/240th of a month's income.

Mind you, that I'm using actual historical information from a NAVAL source (the cost of shot and powder from the HMS VICTORY). I quoted that source from an email exchange between myself and a curator aboard the HMS VICTORY in this post on the Forums.

Note: I left out the costs for wadding and the like - but it gives you a decent enough ball park figure. I also suspect a common laborer in GURPS terms counts as a Struggling wealth level of income

Hope this helps a little.

Pursuivant · 08-22-2018, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hal

Putting this in perspective for that time period? If an average laborer earned approximately 12 pounds (unit of money) per year, that works out to 1 pound or 240 pence per month.

The sources I looked at had wages for a general laborer bouncing around from ~20-25 Pounds from ~1700 to 1750.

It's obvious that the really expensive bit in a musket cartridge is the gunpowder, which makes sense given the time and trouble required to collect the ingredients and make the powder, plus the difficulty of storing it.

08-18-2018, 10:32 AM	#1
hal Join Date: Aug 2004	Re: musket ball costs? If you do a search on powder shot for user hal - you will come across an entry containing historical costs for shot (projectile) and powder. Further research on the net will give you general ball weights based on caliber - which isn't really hard to determine, as muzzleloading weapons used spherical shaped bullets. Known volume and density of bullets can then be calculated. Volume of a sphere is 4/3 * Pi* R^3. Weight would be density of material (Lead) times volume. Listed source of density for lead is about 11.34 grams per cubic centimeter. Yes, it is pain converting between all sorts of units of measure, so I tend to use the following website for my conversions: http://www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertI.../Converter.ASP For a .54 caliber round, weight is approximately 230 grains. Powder charge weight could be between 1/3rd the weight of the ball to 1/2 the weight of the ball. Putting this into perspective for you? There are 7,000 grains per pound in weight. So if you pay 15 pence for 1 lb of powder (1810's or so historical cost for powder purchased in bulk) - that averages out to about 466 grains of powder per silver penny in 1810 ish time period. If using an 80 grain load for a .54 shot, that's about 5 shots (gotta factor in wasted or spilled powder etc). Cost for a single pound (weight) of cannon shot was about 1.125 pence per pound of CAST shot (ie - already pre-formed or cast). Let's just go with this cost for purposes of this discussion.... ;) 1.125 pence per pound, where a .54 caliber shot was measured at about 230 grains in weight. That makes it about 30 rounds of shot per lb of lead. So, doing the math in terms of Historical costs, we're seeing a calculated cost of about 5 shots powder wise per pence, and about 1/30th of a pence (a touch over) per bullet. So, that works out to 1/6th of a pence for 5 bullets, and about 5 shots per pence in cost. Call it about 1.16 pence per five shots total. Putting this in perspective for that time period? If an average laborer earned approximately 12 pounds (unit of money) per year, that works out to 1 pound or 240 pence per month. For five shots of muzzle loading ammo and powder, this was equal to about 1/240th of a month's income. Mind you, that I'm using actual historical information from a NAVAL source (the cost of shot and powder from the HMS VICTORY). I quoted that source from an email exchange between myself and a curator aboard the HMS VICTORY in this post on the Forums. Note: I left out the costs for wadding and the like - but it gives you a decent enough ball park figure. I also suspect a common laborer in GURPS terms counts as a Struggling wealth level of income Hope this helps a little.