In your answer to my question of August 16th about the Baker Rifle you asked me for the name of the article: The Article was “Britain’s Brunswick Rifle,” by Garry James in the September 2006 edition of Guns and Ammo magazine. I quote Re: The Baker Rifle ” With its slow twist (one quarter turn in 30 inches) and rather shallow rifling, the short Germanic-looking Baker had been designed with as much concern for ease of loading as for accuracy. It was at least a better group-getter than the smoothbore Brown Bess out to 100 yards, but anything past that was pretty much touch and go. Also as designer Ezekiel Baker was a buddy of the Prince of Wales, he had something of an inside track on getting his arm tested and adopted. By the mid-1830’s , however, stores of Bakers were running low, and the 40 year old flintlock was beginning to show its age. Officers of the rifle regiments to whom they were issued complained that a new gun was sorely needed. Rifles on the Continent were outstripping the Baker in long-range accuracy, and the emergence of the percussion system had rendered the flintlock obsolete.
Bob Long