Daniel,
In 1861-2 the Deutscher Schützenbund [the German Shooting Union] was discussing the adoption of a "standard" rifle for the shooting and military training societies across the Germanies. As part of the discussions an anonymous author wrote Das deutsche Wehr- und Schützenwesen [German Shooting for War and Sport]. Darmstadt and Leipzig: Eduard Zernin, 1862. The book is available on-line and discusses the South German Caliber Convention and the experience the militaries of the south German states with the Austrian caliber adopted under the Convention. It doesn't say that the Bavarians were using Austrian System Lorenz ammunition, just that the 13.9 mm ammunition used by any of the signatories could be used effectively in the rifle muskets of all of the other signatories. From our posts, I suspect that you may have at least some German.
Having shot pistol with the U.S. team in MLAIC competition, I'm somewhat confused by the discussion in your foreign shooting forum [I would appreciate the identification of the forum]. Compression bullet technology, as represented by Lorenz's compression bullet design is indisputably legal in MLAIC competition in that it was commonly used technology from the period. The Swiss Army was one of several other armies that used compression bullets – in the Muster 1851 Federal rifle in their case. (Please see Schneider, Hugo; and Am Rhyn, Michael. Bewaffnung und Ausrüstung der SchweizerArmee seit 1817: Eidgenossische Handfeuerwaffen [Weapons and Equipment of the Swiss Army Since 1817: Federal Small Arms]. Zurich, Switzerland: Verlag Stock-Schmid, 1979.)
Modern “Minie” bullet moulds are, at best, inspired by Colonel Claude-Etienne Minie's designs, rather than copies of them, but one can use the bullets cast from them in MLAIC competition. Carried to its logical conclusion, the forum discussion you have mentioned would require that only paper patched Pritchett bullets be used in Enfields, only Burton balls be used in Springfields, only Podewils bullets be used in Bavarian rifle muskets, etc., in MLAIC competition. When one moves to the rarer rifle muskets and more obscure official bullet designs, I have no idea where one would/could obtain suitable reproduction moulds. Further, the argument would preclude one from using anything but System Lorenz bullets and Podewils design "Minie" bullets in System Lorenz weapons, since the k.k. Army adopted partial use of Podewils bullets in 1863.
For my N-SSA friends, I would refer to our prohibitions against our use of historically accurate cartridges in our weapons in our own competitive shooting rules, even when we talk about our respect for historical accuracy.
Regards,
Don Dixon
2881V
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