Cartridge box

Status
Not open for further replies.

Steel Hayes

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2018
Messages
517
Location
Michigan
4B3D3EBA-7F49-4734-B606-69311B9E147E.png 4A33D8A4-626C-42BD-A07C-9B4353CF02E4.png 7732C5BE-F866-4B83-8E22-CE909AEFB7F0.png
I happened to stumble upon these while looking for my wife’s Bday present on Etsy.
Not being very handy with wood tools, I was happy to give up the $12 per box.
I got a couple of each of the .44 and .36 Colt and a 5 shot Manhattan box for the pocket navy.
 
Are you looking to be historically accurate? If not it’s rather simple and enjoyable. I made mine with cigarette papers.
No, for right now I just want to learn to make them safely that will work. Then, maybe later I'll try making them more historically accurate.
 
maint1517,
There are a lot of good You Tube reference videos out there on making paper cartridges.
Once you get the hang of a few, it’s a piece of cake.
 
Cutting two blocks of wood to size is no problem. Nor should drilling them for the cartridges. You may want to make a jig to make sure your holes are drilled in the same place.
 
Q: Did the Civil War soldier put those wood cartridge boxes into that little cartridge box pouch they wore on their belt?
 
Q: Did the Civil War soldier put those wood cartridge boxes into that little cartridge box pouch they wore on their belt?

No, they just put the non-combustible paper cartridges in it when they were issued. Those boxes were only for combustible cartridges for the pistols,
 
Q: Did the Civil War soldier put those wood cartridge boxes into that little cartridge box pouch they wore on their belt?
It looks like they would fit in the standard leather pistol cartridge box (carried by cavalry and officers). You would have to remove the top of the wooden box to have the rounds accessible when raising the flap of the leather box.

Civil War cavalrymen were burdened with a lot of weight carried on their belt. There was the pistol, the saber, pistol cartridge box, carbine cartridge box, and cap box(es). Then add to that the carbine carried on a shoulder sling, plus the weight of the ammo. And if the soldier was armed with a Spencer carbine, he probably had a Blakeslee box with multiple loading tubes. No wonder these guys had endemic back problems.
 
I'd use pine. Light weight and inexpensive. You can generally find scraps free.
 
IMG_3048.JPG IMG_3047.JPG
I spent the weekend trying to perfect the paper cartridges(looks good in the new boxes).
I've nitrated the paper, with a .375 round ball and 20grn 3f Goex.
Shot pretty good, even with the nitrate I was still getting small amounts of unburned paper, I'll try conical's next.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top