Loading and Firing
The 18th century musket, as typified by the Brown Bess, was loaded and fired in the following way:
The soldier would draw a cartridge (which consisted of a spherical lead bullet wrapped in a paper cartridge which also held the gunpowder propellant. The bullet was separated from the powder charge by a twist in the paper.)
The soldier then bit off the top of the cartridge, with the bullet, and held the bullet in his teeth/mouth.
The soldier then pulls the dogshead back to half-****, flips the frizzen up, and pours a small pinch of the powder from the cartridge into the priming pan. He then closes the frizzen so that the priming powder is trapped.
The butt of the musket is dropped to the ground and the soldier then pours the rest of the powder into the barrel. Once all of the powder is poured into the barrel, the soldier stuffs the paper into the barrel to serve as wadding to keep the gunpowder in the barrel and to pack it down.
The soldier finally spits the bullet into the barrel and draws his ramrod from below the barrel. He then uses the ramrod to firmly ram the bullet, wadding, and powder down three times. Then the ramrod is returned to it's hoops under the barrel.
Finally, the butt is brought back up and the soldier will pull the dogshead back to full **** and the musket is ready to fire.
This process was drilled into troops until they could do it by instinct and feel. The main advantage of the British Redcoat was that he trained at this procedure almost every day. A good unit of musketeers was able to fire 3 rounds a mintute. In rare cases, people have been able to fire as many as 4 rounds a minute.
