I've frequently heard of period arquebus shooting a lead ball of half an ounce and
musket a ball of 2~2.5 ounces, but rarely heard about the amount of gunpowder
used for each shot. Can anyone inform me about this?

Actually 8 gauge ( 8 to the pound) was the standard calibre of the 'full' musket in the 16th Century as well as in the early 17th Century. The caliver & arquebus were generaly bored to fire 20 or 24 to the pound.
Looking at period documents and texts powder was initialy issue at a 1:1 ratio, i.e a pound of powder was expended to fire a pound of lead. However this began to be reduced during the later part of the TYW Montecuccoli recomended using a charge of 1/2 the bullets weight if the powder was good and 3/4 of the bullets weight in the powder was otherwise.

Hello

I have a copy of a Swedish General Issue Match lock musket from 1620. The caliber is 20mm ( .79) . If I remember it correctly the instructions to the soldiers was to use 19grams (294grains) of black powder. The soldiers was also instructed to fire the musket from the breast plate and not from the shoulder. I fully understand that, after 13 shots in a competition my shoulder have a greenish hue and I have a black eye. And thats when I use 75grains and not 294.

I hope this was helpful

Best regards

Par-Erik

Hi Folks,

Sir Henry Lee, Master of the Armoury 1578-1611, tested some steel plates in a demonstration in1590,and in his own words: "I chose a good and stronge pystolle, I took a very good powder and weighed it, so I did the bullettes and wythe equall charge I tryed fyrste the one and then the othere."

I have also read somewhere that a rule of thumb measure was just enough powder to cover the ball when it sat in the palm of the hand.

Regards,

Russ