British Pattern 1842 Musket, East India Company variation

(Note: I have changed this post slightly by moving the bayonet for this weapon to a post of it's own.)

The Brown Bess series of flintlock muskets had been the iconic shoulder arm of British military power for over 100 years when the development of the percussion lock made them obsolete. As early as 1834, the Ordinance Board began looking for a percussion musket to replace the old flintlocks, and in 1839 the Tower of London Armory began converting the existing flintlocks to the new percussion system. In October 1841, a fire swept through the Tower, destroying thousands of muskets there for conversion. This caused a shortage of shoulder arms, and the Pattern 1842 Musket was rushed into production.

The Pattern 1842 was modeled on the Brown Bess, and like the Brown Bess, my musket is a .75 caliber smooth bore, the ramrod is held in place by three brass pipes, and the sling swivel is pinned through the stock. It weighs a bit over 10 pounds (4.5 Kg) and is a bit over 54 inches (138 cm) long. I wouldn’t envy someone lugging this around all day. Instead of the British Crown, my musket bears the rampant lion of the British East India Company. My variation has the unique “Lovell catch” (named after the inventor) projecting from the nose cap that secures an especially adapted pattern 1839 bayonet, which I’ve presented in another post.

Being a smooth bore with rudimentary sights, lobbing a nearly ¾ inch ball, this weapon isn’t particularly accurate. It was intended to be fired en mass by soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder at another mass of soldiers across a relatively small field. In one test of the new firearm, a squad of 20 soldiers fired these muskets at a 6 foot by 20 foot screen 100 yards away. They only hit the screen with about 75% of the shots.

I confess I cannot resist trying out my old guns when I get them. I fired this one from a rest and had to bring in the target to 50 yards before I could hit paper on a standard 100 yard target (a 21”x 21”, or 53 cm, sheet of paper). Blunder may be interested in knowing I used 40 grains of Goex FFg using 545gr .715” patched musket balls.

This particular musket came from a huge cache of arms that were stored away in a palace armory in Kathmandu Nepal until a few years ago when some entrepreneurs bought the whole lot and shipped them to the states for sale. It was covered with a century of grime and filth when I got it and I spent a weekend getting it to the condition shown. The sling was purchased separately, but is also from Nepal. Unfortunately it’s an 1888 Pattern and not the correct sling for the musket. I purchased the bayonet online from another source after a long search.

WARNING: Load data is provided for information only. Many vintage firearms are unsafe to shoot and I do not advise use of this load data for other firearms since I do not know the specific firearm that may be involved or its condition.