Rifled muskets ... interesting. That must have been a brief technological development between patched rifles/smoothbore muskets and breech loading repeater rifles. A lot happened in just a few decades ... but nothing compared to armaments advancements at the turn of 20th century.
Depends on one's definition of Brief. A perverbial keeping up with the Jones', the Smith's, and the Here hold my beer folks.
Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. It wasn't "....just a few decades.", but nearly, if not over, a century before a lot of the "technologies" that were adapted to and used during the American Civil War actually date back to the early and mid 1700's, to and through the American Revolutionary War.
The first rifled barrel of the 1700's had 2 grooves. The competition was wild. The second rifled barrel, is debateable, was 3 and 4 not sure which was actually second. If I'm not mistaken the most grooves ended with 9 or 11. With 7 grooves as being the best and most accurate for the firearms (or rather more so for the powders) of the era.
With the new rifled barrel came the no more need ideology bigger is needed and longer is better. The need for bigger diameter balls to kill and the need for the longer barrels to be more accurate.
Practicality often out weighed advanced technology. ie. Cap guns were not a practical choice for the Longhunters and trappers venturing into the wilderness past the Appalachian Mountains. As trading post or forts were first non existent only later becoming few and far between, and even later came the establishment of settlements.
Developing a timeline chart will show, relatively speaking, many firearm advancements were being made. Inevitably these advancements were either slow to be accepted or totally rejected because these advancements just didn't seem to be worth the purchasing of a new firearm when one already had a perfectly good firearm.
Just a brief list of these advancements:
Evolution and production of black powder and smokeless black powder
Entering the era of mass producing firearms.
Miscellaneous accounterment inventions and improvements
Rifling, and rifling twist.
From round ball to conical and early metallurgy
The invention and production of the cap and debate Flintlock vs Caplock.
Development of ballistics
The Ferguson Rifle, the first repeating rifle.
If the focus on firearm advancement during this era is solely concentrated here in the colonies, now the United States of America, we miss the advances in firearm development by other countries like France and England.
To put things in perspective during these earlier years, America is rural and for the most part communal, with few cities, money is in short supply, the barter system is the norm for obtaining sustainable needs: food not grown or raised, powder, lead, seed, tools, etc.. Communication is mainly by word of mouth, church is the local gossip center, perhaps recieving a letter from friends or family members living in another community dated a week or longer old, and a shared city newspaper just posted today outside the local general store, dated 2 weeks or more old. Travel is done by horse drawn carriage or wagon, but mostly by walking. Work starts at sunrise and ends at sundown. Education is minimal at best (as to today's 7th grade level standards).
For those that have trades, ie. store owner, silversmith, gunsmith, etc. are generally better educated, wear better daily clothing, often held in higher regard because of their financial status and skills.
