Baker Rifle
- Category
- Rifle
- Barrel
- 762 mm
- Weight, empty
- 4.08 kg
- Introduced
- 1800
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Baker Rifle is a .625 caliber flintlock muzzleloading rifle and the first standard-issue rifled long arm of the British Army. Designed by London gunmaker Ezekiel Baker and adopted in 1800, it featured a 30-inch barrel rifled with seven angular grooves making a quarter turn over its length, a folding-leaf rear sight, a brass patch box, and a raised cheek rest. Unlike the smoothbore muskets it supplemented, the rifling gave the Baker exceptional accuracy for its day, allowing trained riflemen of the 95th and 60th Regiments to engage individual targets at ranges well beyond those of line infantry.
Immortalised in the Sharpe novels and television series, the Baker Rifle armed the green-jacketed riflemen of the 95th Rifles. Rifleman Thomas Plunket of the 95th famously used his Baker to kill the French General Colbert at long range during the retreat to Corunna in 1809, a feat held up as proof of the rifle's accuracy.
Specifications are approximate and vary across the four service patterns. The standard infantry rifle was .625 caliber; a heavier .75 caliber pattern was also produced. The tight patched ball gave accuracy but a slow loading cycle of roughly two rounds per minute.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Ezekiel Baker
- Category
- Rifle
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Out of production
- Produced
- 1800 to 1838
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 762 mm
- Overall length
- 1162 mm
- Weight, empty
- 4.08 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Muzzleloader
- Firing mechanism
- Flintlock
- Trigger
- Single stage
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Browned
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 305 m/s
- Effective range
- 180 m
- Maximum range
- 270 m
- Rate of fire
- 2 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Rifled barrel
Muzzle loaded
Patch box
Folding leaf rear sight
Cheek rest
Sword bayonet lug
Ramrod
Brass furniture
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 1,612 rifles | 4.08 kg | 3.50 kg | Heavier than about 70% |
| Overall lengthAmong 1,557 rifles | 1162 mm | 1080 mm | Longer than about 70% |
| Barrel lengthAmong 1,659 rifles | 762 mm | 584 mm | Longer than about 80% |
Answers
Questions about the Baker Rifle
How much does the Baker Rifle weigh?
The Baker Rifle weighs 4.08 kg (8.99 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Baker Rifle?
The Baker Rifle is chambered in .625 Caliber Rifle Ball.
How long is the Baker Rifle?
The Baker Rifle is 1162 mm (45.7 in) long overall, with a 762 mm (30.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Baker Rifle?
The Baker Rifle is made by Ezekiel Baker (United Kingdom). It was designed by Ezekiel Baker.
When was the Baker Rifle introduced?
The Baker Rifle was introduced in 1800 and discontinued in 1838.
How does the Baker Rifle operate?
The Baker Rifle uses a muzzleloader action, and its firing mechanism is flintlock.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- British Army (95th Rifles)
- 1800
- King's German Legion
- United Kingdom
- East India Company
- United Kingdom
Provenance
Confidence in this record
74%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/baker-rifle' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "baker-rifle", "name": "Baker Rifle", "manufacturer": { "id": "ezekiel-baker", "name": "Ezekiel Baker", "countryCode": "GB", "foundedYear": null, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "updatedAt": "2026-06-21 23:00:46", "version": "2507edd9a5bf1e1f096c1194bf44b2b9446d2da2bc3d218b3bfbb26e3093a316" }, "category": { "id": "rifle", "name": "Rifle", "description": "Long-barreled firearms designed for accurate shooting" }, "country_of_origin": "GB", "year_introduced": 1800, "barrel_length_mm": 762, "weight_empty_g": 4080, "action_type": "muzzleloader"}