Aloha! Just found this forum and this thread and thought I'd share a few things, if y'all don't mind.
I've been making paper cartridges for years, but it's the tear n pour type. I use bugler rolling papers for the tube and use white glue to glue the 454 round ball in. Sorry no pics, but here's what I do.
For 44 cal. I use a 3/8 wood dowel wrapped a couple of times with 2" masking tape. It's about the right diameter for a 454 round ball to slide in. I wrap a paper around the dowel with the adhesive strip opposite the end of the dowel and on the inside of the tube. White glue the edge and seal to make a tube. Slide the tube up about 3/8", glue the inside edge and slide a ball in till it's half way. Remove the tube and let dry for about 5 minutes. Charge the tube with powder, dampen the adhesive strip and press to seal.
For 36 cal., it's the same procedure except you use just a plain 3/8" dowel. No tape.
To load, I tear the end off with my teeth, pour the powder into the chamber, bunch up the paper tube under the ball and seat the whole thang. The paper does not act as a wad. Here's the reason.
No wad or lube is used. If you have a cylinder with out of round chambers, you could get chainfires from the front. Happened to me with 2 different guns. Both shaved nice round rings of lead, but when I tested them with a mag light, they showed large gaps between the seated ball and the chamber walls. Large gaps. Plenty enough to allow sparks to set off the charge. Rolling paper being nitrated is lousy for stopping sparks.
I load these guns with loose powder and wads. No chainfire problems.
Here's some tips. Check out online stores like esmokes for rolling papers. They sell them by the carton and you pretty much get a lifetime's supply in one carton. My buglers come 100 leaves per pack, 24 packs per carton. Buglers are about the least expensive and found them to be a little more sturdy for all the handling it goes through. ZZ being the most fragile. No more "yeah, right." looks at the convenience store.
Elmer's while glue works plenty good enough for glueing the ball into the tube. I "cut" mine with a few drops of water and use a toothpick to spread it. I've had to soak ruined cartridges to salvage the ball. It stuck that good.
If you're not going to use a wad or over powder lube, please check your chambers to make sure they're true. Just remove the nipples, seat the balls to the desired depth, hold the chamber up to a small flashlight and look through the nipple hole. If there're gaps, you'll see a lighted crescent, or two, to the side of the chamber. That would be a gap between the ball the chamber wall. Larger balls will not work as the chamber mouth will shave it the same as it would a slightly smaller ball, ie, 454 vs. 457. True chambers will allow no light. Just because a chamber mouth shaves a nice ring off the ball does not always mean a good seal in the chamber. There are the few cylinders out there with bad chambers. Not many, but enough that I would advise checking them first.
These "bad" cylinders are still very shootable. Just use dry or lubed wads under the ball. With tear n pour cartridges, you can still use wads. Just not in the cartridge.
The reason I use this type of cartridge is I don't have to lug around a flask, loose balls and wads. My hands travel up to the gun only once with paper cartridges. Also makes loading between stages just a little quicker at CAS matches.
Thanks for listening, y'all. Now I'm going to study the other type of cartridges that this thread is about and try making those. They do seem easier to make and I do have several match guns with true chambers.