The Pattern 1861 or P61 Musketoon, is a short-barreled version of the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifled Musket (or Rifle-Musket), with better rifling, which in turn, made it more accurate that the 1853 model, as well as making it faster and easier to load, due to the shorter barrel. As a result, it was often issued to horseback units and artillery units, however, the p61 was not suitable for infantry units, due to their requirement to fight in line formations, often times being several ranks (rows) deep, due to the risk of rear rank soldiers, shooting front rank soldiers in the back of the head, or burning their faces and rupturing their ears with the muzzle blast. Therefore a longer barrel was more suitable for infantry, as it extended past the front rank soldiers, and was a better choice, despite its longer reload time, and decreased accuracy.