Use of paper cartridges back in the day

[AlexanderA]

Driftwood Johnson wrote:

We have lots of Minuteman re-enactors in this neck of the woods. They use the same 14 step Manual of Arms that the British developed in 1764. They bite off the tip of the cartridge, prime the pan, pour the rest of the charge down the muzzle, then fold up the paper for wadding which they ram on top of the powder. They are of course shooting blanks for parades and such.

When I was doing RevWar and Civil War reenacting, the use of ramrods on the field was strictly taboo. (I'm sure that's still true today.) Most events even banned them entirely. Ramming blank charges is a safety concern. People have been known to get carried away in the confusion, and actually shoot their ramrods. At the 125th anniversary reenactment of Second Manassas, some idiot rammed a blank charge. Unbeknownst to him, the tip of his ramrod broke off in the bore, and he ended up firing it at the "enemy." Fortunately all it did was shoot a hole in a drummer boy's drum. The culprit was expelled from the event immediately.

Ramming a charge might be acceptable at a historical demonstration, as long as there are no people anywhere near the field of fire. But normally, reenactors just pour the powder loose down the bore. Maybe tap the butt on the ground to settle the charge.

 

[monk d]

I watched a demonstration at Colonial Williamsburg this past Friday where the "soldier" showed the Revolutionary War action of loading and firing a .75 caliber flintlock smoothbore. He removed a paper cartridge, bit the top off, poured a little in the frizzen, poured the rest of the powder down the barrel, then stuffed the paper down the bore, rammed it (very gently to a predetermined point), and then fired. He did not have a ball in the cartridge for the demo, but stated that paper and ball were stuffed down the bore. It was a very cool demo by the numbers as the Virginia militia was taught

 

[damoc]

getting to be an older thread and someone has probably already said this

ive used the paper cartridges they worked fine i never needed to spike the nipple on first loading of a paper cartridge they always seemed to work

I was using cig papers not sure if they were treated they used to be i think

second shot with paper however the nipple was nearly always blocked i got the impression that the pressure of fireing blew some of the paper back into the nipples but this was not a problem on first paper cartridge.

so back in the day

maybee it was a very fast 1st reload or required a nipple pick after.I think most of us at least inspect the nipples for blockage even now.