Why does the Plymouth Naval rifle have sights that go to 1000 yards?

[Cannonman1]

This is a bit of a rhetorical question in that my theory is the reason Dahlgren would have had that big sight base put on a rifle rather than a more modest 500 yard rifle sight is that if used as a ship to ship suppressing fire at a ship firing cannon at you at 800 to 1000 yards, you would need to have a sight to launch that big .69 cal minie at least close to target.

OK.. that is my theory.. Any other thoughts?

[John Holland]

That is part of it, but they ended up copying the French Short Rifle which had nearly the exact same 1,000 yard sight. The difference between the two rifles is mostly in the lock.

[Cannonman1]

Good point. Its interesting when using the full 1000 yard setting, how much rise is in the muzzle.. Looks more like a mortar. LOL. The Marines never really adopted it.. It was the Sailors that found it to their liking.. especially with buckshot for boarding, repelling boarders and landing parties. Intercepting blockade runners and boarding them would have been a huge part of their use.