Paper cartridges for New Model Army

[pinguisgod]

Morning Gents,

Having heard it mentioned before and after watch the video yesterday I started thinking, once the alternator is replaced it will be practiced, but I wanted to ask a few questions first.

When using round ball do you still glue the cartridge to the ball?
I would imagine that a 10mm dowel leaves a little clearance for loading into the cylinder, or is 11mm the way to go?
What thickness paper's do you use?

Thanks,

Ben

[airgunnut]

yes glue the ball to the cart, thinner paper as possible (i found that it will burn away completely except there the paper overlaps ) i would leave a bit of room (the dowel i use is 11mm) once its in the cylinder it can split as its done its job
at first the glue will sick to every thing but then you will find what works for you
king size papers (not the slim line) are best

[airgunnut]

http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9c30961e.jpg
you will find that you well need a bit more filler for the ball
this is what i made to help reloading
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...mporary-52.jpg
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...mporary-53.jpg

[airgunnut]

just incase you missed the bullets in slow motion thread
A few pics of my .44 black powder revolver going off
(the pics are from a old camcorder, the fitting cycle happens so fast I had to replay the vid in slow motion while recording it to my computer then had to replay that frame by frame to get 3 pics which are from 2 different shots, also it's not me shooting)
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...ps74851314.jpg
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...psac574f70.jpg
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9a1134f4.jpg
(not only was I behind the camcorder I was behind the shooting line)

[pinguisgod]

Thanks for the pictures, especially the one with the ball cartridge. That's very informative,

[airgunnut]

There are those who analyse and (to be very blunt) get very anal about the lube, which powder, which mold, the composition of the lead and even how much powder down to umpteen decimal places! I'm not one of them, I just want to hit the target and leave the range with a big grin

[enfield2band]

That is interesting how you have done the cartridges. It must be a bit complicated though. No doubt making them comes easier with practice?

A friend of mine used to do pre-made charges. Instead of gluing the bullet to the paper he just made up the cartridges in a paper tube and loaded the ball on top of them, and they worked ok.
He used paper that was soaked in saltpetre and left to dry. When the cartridge was fired the paper was consumed and did not leave any bits behind to block the nipple.
He used a piece of dowel like you do but made tubes with one end glued closed first of all. Then when the glue had dried he poured in the charge and glued the other end shut.

[airgunnut]

not really, it does get easier with time but its one of those things that can be done when you have a few mins to kill

[pinguisgod]

Having made a few of these now I'm just waiting for the chance to try them out.
Depending on how much residual material is left in the chamber I may look into the saltpeter idea.

Thanks for the help guys.

[airgunnut]

Having made a few of these now I'm just waiting for the chance to try them out.
Depending on how much residual material is left in the chamber I may look into the saltpeter idea.

Thanks for the help guys.

I found that the only residue is from where the paper overlaps, I was thinking of the saltpetre idea to insure positive ignition but as I was using the "magnum caps" there was no problem

[tim56]

Nice pics. Really shows why you should never hold a revolver on the cylinder when firing.!!! Never tried pre making paper
parcels but looks easy enough. Tim

[pinguisgod]

It's where the twisted tail is that I can imagine it leaving un-burnt. I will see how much material it leaves, how difficult it is to remove and take it from there.

[airgunnut]

I found that the twist burnt away compleatly, as for the unburnt overlap of paper, a pair of needle nose tweezers work wonders