The rifle used a conical-cylindrical soft lead bullet, slightly smaller than the barrel bore, with three exterior grease-filled grooves and a conical hollow in its base. When fired, the expanding gas forcibly pushed on the base of the bullet, deforming it to engage the rifling. This provided spin for accuracy, a better seal for consistent velocity and longer range, and cleaning of barrel detritus. Before this innovation, the smoothbore musket commonly using the buck and ball was the only practical field weapon. Rifled muskets had been in use since the Renaissance, but they required hammering projectiles with a ramrod and mallet into the bore of the barrel, and also created considerable cleaning problems. The short-lived "carabine à tige" system used a pin at the bottom of the barrel which deformed the bullet against the wall of the barrel when the bullet was pushed to the bottom. This system was very problematic for cleaning, especially with the black powders of the period. The Minié rifle used a percussion lock and weighed 10 lb 9 oz. Having a reasonable accuracy up to 600 yards, it was equipped with sights for effective aiming. The hollow-based bullet was of.702 inch calibre, and weighed 500 grains. It could penetrate 4 inches of soft pine at 1,000 yards. A test in Vincennes in 1849 demonstrated that at 15 yards the bullet was able to penetrate two boards of poplar wood, each two-thirds of an inch thick and separated by 20 inches. Soldiers of the time spread rumors that at 1,200 yards the bullet could penetrate a soldier and his knapsack and still kill anyone standing behind him, even killing every person in a line of 15. The Minié rifle saw limited distribution in the Crimean War and similar rifles using Minié bullets were the dominant infantry weapons in the American Civil War. The large-caliber, easily deformed conical lead bullets, ranging in diameter from.54 to.58 inches, combined with the high-speed spin from the rifling, created terrible wounds.
Use
The Pattern 1851 Minié rifle was in use by the British Army from 1851 to 1855. The Minié system was also used extensively by various manufacturers, such as Springfield and Enfield. Minié rifles were also used extensively in the Boshin War in Japan, where they had an important role in tipping the balance against the Tokugawa forces in encounters such as the Battle of Toba–Fushimi.
Obsolescence
The muzzle-loading Minié rifle became obsolete in 1866 following the defeat of the Austrians, equipped with this type of rifle, against the Prussians, who had the innovative bolt-action Dreyse rifles. In France, the existing Minié rifles were then retooled to accommodate a breech-loading mechanism reminiscent of a snuff box, and became known as Tabatière rifles. Soon after, the breech-loading Chassepot system was adopted by the French army.
