<P> Although rifling as a practice preceded the musket, it was primarily secluded to specialist weapons and limited in number . The disadvantage of the early rifle for military use was its long reloading time and the tendency for powder fouling to accumulate in the rifling, making the piece more difficult to load with each shot . Eventually, the weapon could not be loaded until the bore was wiped clean . For this reason, smoothbore muskets remained the primary firearm of most armies until the mid-19th century . However, as early as 1611, rifles were already seeing limited usage in some parts of Europe such as Denmark . </P> <P> The invention of the Minié ball in 1849 solved both major problems of muzzle - loading rifles . The Crimean War (1853--1856) saw the first widespread use of the rifled musket for the common infantryman and by the time of the American Civil War (1860s) most infantry were equipped with the rifled musket . These were far more accurate than smoothbore muskets and had a far longer range, while preserving the musket's comparatively faster reloading rate . Their use led to a decline in the use of massed attacking formations, as these formations were too vulnerable to the accurate, long - range fire a rifle could produce . In particular, attacking troops were within range of the defenders for a longer period of time, and the defenders could also fire at them more quickly than before . As a result, while 18th century attackers would only be within range of the defenders' weapons for the time it would take to fire a few shots, late 19th century attackers might suffer dozens of volleys before they drew close to the defenders, with correspondingly high casualty rates . However, the use of massed attacks on fortified positions did not vanish overnight, and as a result, major wars of the late 19th century and early 20th century tended to produce very high casualty figures . </P> <P> In the late 19th century, the rifle took another major step forward with the introduction of breech - loading rifles . These rifles also used brass cartridges . The brass cartridge had been introduced earlier; however, it was not widely adopted for various reasons . In the U.S. Army, generals thought their soldiers would waste ammunition, so they kept muzzle - loading black powder rifles until after the American Civil War . The introduction of breech loaders meant that the rifling of a weapon was no longer damaged when it was loaded, and reloading was a much faster process . Shortly afterwards, magazine loading rifles were introduced, which further increased the weapons' rate of fire . From this period (c. 1870) on, the musket was obsolete in modern warfare . </P> <P> During the Musket war period in New Zealand between 1805 and 1843, at least 500 conflicts took place between various Maori groups - often using trade muskets in addition to traditional Maori weapons . The muskets were initially cheap Birmingham muskets designed for the use of coarse grain black powder . Maori favoured the shorter barrel versions . Some Maori groups took advantage of runaway sailors and escaped convicts to expand their understanding of muskets . Early missionaries - one of whom was a trained gunsmith - refused to help Maori repair muskets . Later, common practice was to enlarge the percussion hole and to hold progressively smaller lead balls between the fingers so that muskets could fire several shots without having to remove fouling . Likewise, Maori resorted to thumping the butt of the musket on the ground to settle the ball instead of using a ramrod . Maori favoured the use of the double barrel shot gun (Tuparra - two barrel) during fighting often using women to reload the weapons when fighting from a Pā (fortified village or hillfort). They often resorted to using nails, stones or anything convenient as "shot". From the 1850s Maori were able to obtain superior military style muskets with greater range . One of the authors was a Pakeha (European) who lived amongst Maori, spoke the language fluently, had a Maori wife and took part in many intertribal conflicts as a warrior . </P>

When was the last time muskets were used
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