Paper Cartridges, step by step photos..

[Ed Gallop]

I folded, instead of twisting, as pascalp sugested and it helped a lot as far as not clogging nipples and less paper in the cylinder. Still looking for paper not designed to burn slowly, as is cigarette paper. I'm sure that the problem of paper left in the cylinder would be solved.

I carved and sanded a wooden dowel to fit all calibers and it is very easy to handle. Ed.

 

[DrLaw]

Results

Took my 1860 Uberti with the cartridges I loaded to the range this evening for our club's .22 Rotten Egg Shoot (eggs hung from a string at 25 and 50 yards).

The cartridges worked well without a misfire for any of them. I did have some problem getting all the powder into the chamber when some of the paper bunched up at the lip of the chamber when loading. I figure the answer for that is to shape the powder section into a smaller than the ball cone.

I did have some paper left in the chamber on several of the shots, but none of it was burning by the time I was reloading, and I was able to blow or pick out the remnants. I figure the problem here was from using a paper size that was bigger than what was used at the start of this thread. I used a 1.5 size paper since I got two sizes of paper having never made these paper cartridges before until I saw this thread a week or so back.

So all in all, I would call this a success.

The Doc is out now.

PS. I did nail one of the eggs from the 25 yard line. Those little suckers were blowing pretty good in the wind we had there tonight!

 

[Yankee John]

Just wondering why this thread isn't a sticky any more? Invaluable information here moderators!

John

 

[Steve499]

It is, John, under Black Powder Essentials. Gary combined all the stickies under that heading but they are all still there.

Steve

 

[DoDo]

Hi all. This is my first post in this forum, my english is not very good so be patient with my misspelling.

I just wat to show how i made the paper cartridges, hope the photos do the work cause the text must be escarce.

Used materials:

The wood dovel is 10 mm diam. and has a film rolled to fix the paper in the proper point .
I use rice paper, fine and stronger than cellulose paper.

First roll the paper in the dovel and gum only half lenght cause we need to work on the free end.

I use to let about 6.5 mm of free paper, enough to close the cartridge without letting too much paper that may produce misfires.

To close the cartridge we must fold the paper in three steps.

The gumed side must be the last and rest in top. Finally gum this end and the full lengh in the side, the cartridge is almost done.

Now we can fill with powder and semoline:

The cartridge is strong enough to compress the carge shaking it , and dont need special care in its manipulation (but remenber is only paper).

Some finised cartridges in a 9 mm Para box, used for storage and transport.

And a shooting test at 25 m (better shooter, better results, but is fine for me):

The last step could be to treat with the acetone-nitropowder i have read in this thread, a teammate did it and shoot till the revolver is completely fouled with no misfires (Just tell what he said to me).

This is all i can contribute to this interesting thread, hope it can help someone. Cya guys.

 

[Yankee John]

Excellent pictorial- and WELCOME!!

John

 

[E-4forever]

What about doing some sort of of buckshot or buck and ball load like this. I know that civil war loads such as that existed. Any idea's?

 

[Duncaninfrance]

Very good post DoDo and good photos. Thanks and enjoy your stay.

 

[Boom-stick]

I made some of these last night for my ROA, the first 7 went wrong, when I tried to load them the paper bunched up and split, I had made them too short and fat.

For the next batch I tapered them using my Mil-Tac TD pen as a former for the paper cones and it worked a treat.

They are a bit long but compress nicely under the rammer.

40gns of 777 and no filler.

 

[CLB]

Ok BoomSticker

What's an ROA ? hmmmm? You guys need to post a "sticky" for all the abbrev. you use. KWIM? It's ok if you can't spell real gud!

 

[Steve499]

What's an ROA ?

Ruger Old Army.

KWIM? Beats me.

 

[KevininPa]

Absolutely, Freakin', Amazin!

There actually is a reason for me to need ZigZags again! After all these years of abstaining from rolling my own j.....er........um......cigs; yea...cigarettes! That's what I mean!
BTW, wouldn't the paper tear when you ram it anyway? Thus not needing any special paper for ignition? Just a thought.


Have a great weekend!

Kevin in Pa

 

[Aries-]

would these be good to use with a rifle ? (70 grains of 2 or 3f). wouldent need a wad as its a flat bottomed bullet.

would make it faster and easyer to reload while hunting. have a few of them packed up in little plastic tubes so i could just drop them down the barrel. and will musket caps perforate the paper on the end ? (also would it work on a flintlock)

 

[TnRebel]

what kind of semoline do you use DoDo and where do you get it ?

 

[barman]

It looks like normal medium grain semoline you can find in any grocery store.

 

[DoDo]

Barman is correct. Is normal semoline bought in a supermarket near my house. The cashier must think that I am a great fan of the soup of semoline.

Best regards.

 

[DoDo]

Aries, the musket caps sure will perforate the paper (Though it can cause delays in the shot, I have not tried it). There are other things that you have to consider.

First, has your rifle the same inside diameter in the whole barrel? Or it is narrower in the botton. In the last case the paper cartridge was leaving an empty space that can originate overpressure , very dangerous.

Second, if the paper is not trated to be self-combustible, remains will stay in the interior that they can prevent the ignition in the following shot, in addition they are more complicated to extract in a long barrel.

Hope yu can understan me, this online translator is terrible.

Best regards.

 

[Aries-]

barrel is the same size all the way down.

with the ammount of powder used in a rifle it should burn up the thin rollies fairly easy.


your easy enough to understand. (other than rifle coming off as cannon )

 

[Pulp]

Hello to all. I just joined the forum, primarily because of this thread. It has been very informative. I've tried a few paper cartridges, haven't had much luck, but I may try again. Dixie Gun Works used to sell a little book about making paper cartridges, don't know if they still do.

I think my biggest problem was fat cartridges, like others have posted. In the Dixie book, they said to turn a dowel rod down on one end so it is tapered. I didn't do that, I reckon I ought to follow instructions.

 

[CLB]

KWIM means...

KWIM = "Know what I mean?"

 

[chad1043]

OK, I'm just learning and this might sound like a stupid question, but do you still use the plunger on the round to seat everything when you use paper wraps?

Chad

 

[dstorm1911]

yep as ya still have to press that ball in tight ovr the powder..... your simply wrappin everything up in paper to make loading faster and simpler as well as safer...... Myself I make my own felt wads from heavy felt I simmer lube into em then drop em in straight parafin real fast just to get a light coating I then load em under the ball with a card stock wad between the lubed wad and the powder the wax coating keeps the lube from soakin into the paper or the powder makes for real fast reloads and still have my lubed wad in the mix.....

can't use lube pills or grease out here in the AZ heat it just melts. However the wads squish out the lube when fired as they are compressed between the card stock and the ball....... some people say they can't load paper cartridges in colts very well but I have no problem with any of my Remmies or Colts loading these at 35 grns 3F +card stock wad + 1/8" thick felt wad + .454 round ball all twisted tight at each end then excess paper trimmed off, I spin the bottom open as I drop em into the chambers to insure fast ignition everytime with Remington #11 caps , twisting the ends makes assembly much faster and it only takes a flick of finger/thumb to open the end as ya drop em in

 

[4v50 Gary]

DoDo - your photo essay is outstanding. The cornmeal filler is a trick that some modern rifle users also use. It keeps the blackpowder up around the nipple and from spilling around in an otherwise void in the cylinder. This means more consistent burning and more consistent internal ballistics.

 

[szabotom]

Hi DoDo! I see your excelent pictures. You allow it that let me steal them for a Hungarian black powder e-magazine?

Best regards.

Tamás Szabó

Budapest Hungary

 

[TheGunslinger]

I rolled a bunch today with 30 grains of BP using a sharpie and Zig Zags that just happened to be around

They worked GREAT in my 1860 Army model, no problems of any kind, and no left over paper in the cylinder. I fired 24 of them. I would say that reload time is cut almost in half. Thanks for the informative post!!!