Units and their Weapons

[Kitbuqa]

Okay I am not certain what unts use what weapons. The expensive british guys with brown hats seem to fire extraordinarily quickly. They aren't using a breech loading weapon are they? I am pretty sure breech loaders were not stadard until the same time they were basically being replaced by repeaters and bolt action rifles.

[Lord Senne]

The Enfield Rifle-Musket was a contributing cause to the Indian rebellion of 1857. Sepoys in the British East India Company's armies in India were issued with the new rifle in 1857, and rumours began to spread that the cartridges (referring here to paper wrapped powder and projectile, not metallic cartridges) were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow - an abhorrent concept to Muslim and Hindu soldiers, respectively, for religious reasons. British military drills of the time required soldiers to bite open the cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, then ram the cartridge, which included the bullet, down the barrel, remove the ram-rod, bring the rifle to the ready, set the sights, add a percussion cap, present rifle, and fire. The musketry books also recommended that “Whenever the grease around the bullet appears to be melted away, or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel; the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being.[2]"
The idea of having anything which might be tainted with pig or beef fat in their mouths was totally unacceptable to the sepoys, and when they objected it was suggested that they were more than welcome to make up their own batches of cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as ghee, or vegetable oil. But this, of course, seemed to be "proof" that the issued cartridges were, in fact, greased with pig and/or beef fat. A further suggestion that the sepoys tear the cartridges open with their hands (instead of biting them open) was rejected as impractical - many of the sepoys had been undertaking musket drill daily for years, and the practice of biting the cartridge open was second nature to them. Incidentally, after the Mutiny, manuals changed the method of opening the cartridge to “Bring the cartridge to the forefinger and thumb of the left hand, and with the arm close to the body, carefully tear off the end without spilling the powder.”[3] The indifference of many British commanding officers only added more fuel to the already volatile situation, and helped spark the Mutiny in 1857.

[Lord Senne]

Specifications Weight 9.5 pounds (4.3 kg) unloaded Length 55 inches (1,400 mm) Cartridge .577 ball Calibre .58 inches (15 mm) Action Percussion lock Rate of fire User dependent, Usually 3+ rounds a minute Muzzle velocity 900 ft/s (270 m/s) Maximum range 2,000 yards (1,800 m) Feed system Muzzle-loading Sights adjustable ramp rear sights,

[Kitbuqa]

So they are rifled muskets and not breech loaders. Then how can these guys fire so quickly?

[Primergy]

How often do they shoot? A trained Infantry Man was able to fire 2- 3 rounds per minute.

[kahnage]

How often do they shoot? A trained Infantry Man was able to fire 2- 3 rounds per minute.

and elite troops could fire 5-6+ rounds per minute.

Grenadiers, Guards, Skirmishers (Rifles) and veteran regular infantry could all fire at least 4-6 rounds per minute as there was a lot of unofficial modification of equipment and short cuts the troops used to develop to quicken the reload process (like cutting out having to use the ram-rod by banging the butt of the weapon on the ground hard).

By the sounds of it, these guys are elite so dont be surprised that they fire so quickly.

A more modern example:
British Royal Marines, using a standard issure Lee Enfield No 1 rifle in WW2 (and WW1 previously) could fire upto and above 30 rounds per minute, which would include two full reloads and all the bolt pulling.

The standard round-per-minute with the Lee Enflied was about 10 (usually under).

The Germans thought they were been shot at with automatic rifles as the fire was so fast and so accurate.