Many smoothbore U.S. muskets one sees today have some of the barrel cut back at the muzzle. Those thin tubes must have often suffered damage there. Which raised a question in my mind: if a musket, especially before interchangeable parts, suffered such damage in the field that, say, a fraction of an inch had to be sawn off (not enough to affect fixing the bayonet), what was the protocol? Was the weapon sold out of service? Racked as substitute standard? Returned to the troops?
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