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Paper cartridges for the 1859 breech loading percussion Sharps rifle, or in this particular case a reproduction carbine.






Phwoarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

How do you put them together. I've just started paper patching for my 45/70 and that took enough practice.

I roll up a tube to just under bullet diameter using ordinary photocopier paper using a dowel mandrel just a tad larger than the diameter of the ringtail.

I then put a base paper in from thin onion skin.

The papers are glued with Unibond PVA glue.

Charge with powder, in this case 50 gns of Swiss No3 FFG, seat an over powder wad and compress the powder slightly with the rolling mandrel, the wad is sealed in with a touch of shellac.

The ringtail bullet then has shellac applied to its ring and seated into the cartridge on top of the wad.

When dry the bullet up to the case is then dipped in lube made from beeswax and tallow.

Let it set and you are good to go.

The percussion cap flame passes through the base paper to ignite the cartridge but I usually pierce it with a pricker when loading just to help it along.

It is not really the traditional method but is relatively quick and works for me.

I find paper patching easy enough if you have a good board with the lines and groove square.

I use my paper patching board for rolling the tubes for these cartridges.

Nice

How long do they take to make? and in the old days would they be mass produced in a factory?.

Rolling the tubes takes the longest time, then you have to give time for the glue to dry so say 1 1/2 hours to do those 30 without dipping in the lube. Commercial tubes are now available so using them would cut the time considerably say 50 in an hour easy.

This cartridges went through various versions with the first one just having a folded tail which was cut when the block closed exposing the powder. The final version was a shellac coated linen tube with a flat base like I do, the cases originally were choked onto the ringtail with thread as well as heeled versions seated in, they could also be glued rather than choked in place.

They were hand made but there were tools like chokers, mandrels and the like to aid the process.

Military arsenals as well as private contractors like Sharps made ammunition so each would no doubt have their own manufacturing foibles, the bullets were cast and "swedged" swaging was an easier process to mechanise.

The cost of manufacturing 1000 linen case cartridges with caps was $24.95US, $11.20US of this was the lead for the bullets, the next highest cost was the linen @ $4.40US followed by the powder @$3.20US and then the labour @$2.50US.

I can heartily recommend the three volumes "Round ball to Rimfire" by Dean S Thomas for students interested in the development of cartridges up to the first metallic ones.

Do you make your own shellac glue? I would be tempted to do it just for the smell :)

I have dissolved the flakes to make the glue but currently I have a "source".