Mechstra said:
Balor, buckshot as you call it was very rarely used in the entire gunpowder period. Bullets (usually made of lead) were almost universal.
Musket balls actually, bullet was not a term used in that era.
The rifles did not have to be accurate, large lines of men walked towards each other in close formation and fired at eachother, it would be hard to miss

And they rarely one hit killed

Disease was the biggest killer.
The caliber of the British Brown Bess was .75 not a lot in modern standards, the average reloading times during the napoleonic era for a french soldier was about 2 shots a minute(imperial guard 3/4) it was also not the French battle tactic to stay and fire volley after volley, it was march close enough, fire and engage with bayonets... Anyway, for a trained British soldier, the most professional army around in that era next to the french, it was 3 shots a minute. There were differant variations of rifles of course, those that were designed to be more accurate, hunting rifles for example, but no army could afford to buy 75,000 rifles, War was expensive enough.
Russians involvement with Napoleon from my readings were slim, the majority of the 'action' so to speak happened in Spain, France and Portugal, the only thing that stopped Buonaparte from being that major military power and controling much of Europe was the equally powerful British Empire, who dominated the seas and the worlds economy for the previous 100 years and the 150 years to come.
I dont remember ever reading about Napoleon marching half a million soldiers across half of europe to go to Russia, he did go there, and sacked and burned Moscow, and Russia granted did play a role in his first defeat, but his final defeat, where he was most dangerous and threatend europe the most with the prospect of having a total of 1 million soldiers! there was little to no involvement on the military side from Russia. The fighting took place in Spain, Portugal and France where he battled to defend occupied Spain and France from English invasion, He failed.
After all, Napoleon DID defeat everyne in Western Europe, before he made the ultimate mistake.
Britain never lost a war against him

Both times he lost, it was at British hands.