A private soldier in the British army circa 1776 was not passed from recruit until he could load and fire five shots in 1 min. 45 sec. Muskets were smooth-bores and were fairly easy to load.
The difficult ones to load were the rifles. The bullet had to be forced down the barrel to grip the "rifling" or grooves in the barrel that imparted spin to the bullet and thus improved it's accuracy. Rifles saw limited use during the American Revolution contrary to popular belief.
Handguns were fairly common and tended to be of two types - saddle guns and belt guns. The saddle gun was fairly large and was carried in a holster attached to the saddle. They were used by both military and civilian horsemen.
The belt gun was primarily a military weapon. The British Army issued one in .69 cal. called a "Tower Pistol" and the Scottish regiments carried a pistol of purely Scottish design that was all metal unlike the Tower which had a wooden frame with the barrel, etc mounted in it.
Most families had a smooth-bore "fowling piece" used to take small game; basically a shotgun.

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