Quote Originally Posted by Mike_G View Post
It’s not an acceptable risk for reenactors in the present day.

And Sharpe is the first time I heard of spit loading. Tap loading maybe. But until I see a better source, I just don’t believe it. Especially for the Rifles, who should have been more concerned with accuracy than rate of fire, and should have demonstrated better weapon handling

“Don’t point it at your face” is pretty much rule one, not some overly cautious nagging
Yeah, the manuals of the day had the soldiers return the ramrod with your pinky finger, to prevent putting your hand over the muzzle of a loaded musket.

And rifles need a tight fitting ball -- I can't imagine that it would be possible to spit load (or tap load) one. Maybe if they carried undersized balls for rapid fire? But I haven't heard of that in the Napoleonic period.

However, poor training among soldiers was also all too common. In the early 1850s when a group of US regulars had their old weapons replaced with new ones, some inspectors-general happened to be on hand to inspect the old weapons before they were cleaned. Something like half of the weapons they inspected had been loaded incorrectly, with the ball placed down the muzzle first, and the powder poured on top!