On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 12:36:23 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
...
Have you heard of incidents where cops discharge huge numbers of
rounds with only a small percentage of hits?

"Suppressive Fire".

This shows the caualty rate per whole day when lines of standing
soldiers blasted away at each other at close range:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/gabrmetz/table1.gif

In the American Civil War many of the weapons were as or more accurate
than modern pistols.

The American Civil War was the first war fought with rifled weapons
which were far more accurate then smooth bore weapons but more
importantly were accurate of a much longer distance.

Using smooth bore muskets you could probably assume that you would hit
the man you aimed at 50 yards but beyond that odds of a hit decreased
rapidly. The standard of accuracy of the Springfield Rifled Musket, on
the other hand was 10 out of 10 shots on a one foot square at 200
yards.

Which meant that while marching a body of troops toward an apposing
enemy armed with muskets was a relatively safe practice and the
standard tactic of marching a group straight toward the enemy until
you reached a distance of about 50 yards, firing a volley and then
charging with the bayonet was usually successful. On the other hand
faced with a weapon that was capable of hitting a man at 200 yards, or
more, meant that by the time you reached the 50 yard point a
substantial percentage of your troops were dead or wounded.

Cheers,
John B.