Many military experts believed that the rifle musket would havea major effect on the US Civil War. One outstanding feature of thisweapon was its increase in range in comparison to the smoothboremusket. In actuality, official reports on US Civil War battlesindicated that the expectations, for example, of being able to hitlong range targets would cause more casualties. Actual combatsituations however continued to be short range battles between theopposing forces. The 500 yard range of a rifle musket, with nomodern day scopes, made it difficult to make accurate hits onfaraway enemy targets. Also, the arc of the minie ball when firedat long range targets made it extremely difficult to gauge and aimthe rifle effectively.