Hi Gus,
What does battlesight zero mean? This is a new term to me and I would like to understand it.
Thank you,
dave
Dave,
Today a battlesight zero means the sight settings from the 300 yard prone, slow fire position and you set your sights to that combination of windage and elevation adjustments and LEAVE the sights on that setting for most combat firing. If the enemy is real close, you aim LOW on his torso or body. If the enemy looks further away than 300 yards, you aim at his head or even above his head. If the enemy is between those ranges, you aim at the center of his torso. ( BTW, the 300 yard Battlesight Zero or “BZO” was begun during the UnCivil War with rifled muskets.) The front sights were so short compared to where the bullet hit high above it at short ranges, that those period soldiers had to aim at the knees to the thighs of an enemy at under 100 yards. While BZO does have the sight setting for “windage,” this does not mean BZO has anything to do with figuring in the effects of the wind. It simply means where the bullet is centered “left to right” on the aiming point.
A take off on this used by some hunters today is what is sometimes called “Maximum Point Blank Range.” MPBR is the range at which the bullet drops x inches below line of sight after having risen no more than that same x inches above the line of sight – from the same sight setting and point of aim. For deer, it's fairly well accepted that the vital area is actually an oval about 6" in height. You sight in your rifle to never be more than 3" high than the center of this oval and the 'maximum point blank range' of the round will be the spot at which the round dips 3" below the center of the oval. This allows you to hold dead on the center of the vital area of the deer and not worry about having to hold over or under at different ranges. What this also means is you don’t have to try to do mental calculations while trying to shoot at a target. As long as the deer is not beyond your MPBR, you just aim center of the vital area you want to hit and shoot.
I would not be surprised at all that this is basically how hunters and other Longrifle shooters used their sights during the Flintlock Rifle period as well, for most of their shooting. They would have perhaps set their sights for it or at least known how far they could shoot before they had to raise their sights to account for bullet drop. Yes, they could have loaded lighter for short ranges and perhaps loaded a little more powder at long range, IF that did not cause the groups to enlarge too much.
It has been over 30 years since I frequently fired patched .735” round balls in my Flintlock Brown Bess Carbine and I don’t remember how much drop there is at 100 yards. I THINK it was something like 4 or 5 inches, but memory fails me. I never fired the “period” paper cartridges with the “period correct” .69 caliber balls they used in the Brown Bess. I am not sure, but I would think the drop would be more?
There are numerous accounts about the effective range of Military Muskets was between 60 to 80 yards, depending on the account and figuring effective range was not concerned if you hit the soldier you aimed at or the soldier next to him or even perhaps two soldiers down the line on either side. I don’t know at what point soldiers were taught to aim at on the body of an enemy soldier WHEN they finally actually were taught to aim and in the British Army that was in the 1750’s/during the French and Indian War. Then there is the problem that many accounts during the Revolutionary War state that opposing forces lined up about 100 yards between the lines of opposing soldiers. If the effective range was ONLY 60 to 80 yards, was this done deliberately OUTSIDE the enemy’s effective range and firepower was more for psychological effect? Finally, there is a last thing to consider and that was the fact they LOVED firing by Volley. Well, when you do that and to have a good/crisp volley, everyone has to JERK the trigger so most of the muskets go off at the same time. When you jerk a trigger, you normally shoot above where you mean to shoot and often they shot right over the heads of opposing forces as was so often noted during the UnCivil War. (This is also why Southern Forces fired more “Fire by File” that allowed for more accurate aim.)
I would love to get my hands on some truly exact and new made replication of period powder, though that is pretty much out of the question. With that, I would make paper cartridges out of the closest paper I could find to 18th century paper and .69 caliber balls. Then actually shoot at some man sized targets from 30 yards out to 100 yards to see what kind of drop there was with a center of the torso point of aim. Maybe their point of aim at 100 was the head and at closer range the point of aim was the center of the torso? I don’t know and would love to see it written down in a period piece of writing.
Gus
