On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:02:48 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Nope, I said that I thought it would sound funny to say "cleaning the
muskets and casting balls". Casting BALLS? Who's balls? Casting where?
Does it hurt?

I attributed the use of bullet, to the fact that ball doesn't parse
right.

I Just thought it wouldn't hurt to offer a few facts, Lots of history
been made with muskets. The Mexicans at the Alamo had muskets.
The US Civil war was the first major use of rifles, I believe. Until
the invention of the Minie ball [so called, it was really a bullet]
rifles were too slow loading to be popular with the military.

Casady