Carrying C&B Supplies Historically?

Back in the day, as they say, how did people carry the supplies required to reload a cap and ball revolver? Powder flasks were the norm, were they just carried in a pocket or were shot pouches still around? Were cappers used or were caps just picked from the tin? I have seen the fur lines cap pouch common on ACW belts, were similar pouches made to hold the ball? Was chamber grease used, or is that a modern thing? Same with the ball itself were they just carried in a small cloth or leather bag or just loose in a pocket? I’m also assuming the pre-lubed felt over powder wad is a modern invention in loading too, or is that wrong?

The cap pouch worn on the belt was for musket caps only. The weren't fur lined but had a strip of lamb's wool attached to the to the back side near the top to keep the caps from falling out. As far as the military goes cappers were not used. Cartridges were issued in packets of six, sometimes with 6 or 7 caps and sometimes not. These were carried in a pistol cartridge box worn on the belt.

One of the great misunderstandings of percussion revolvers is this issue. Civilians and those on the frontier might have carried a flask, balls, wads, etc. However this is usually not the situation.
I have tried to locate army issued flasks, etc. for reloading percussion revolvers and have found nothing. For the military it appears that the only way these pistols were reloaded was with combustible cartridges. These same cartridges were also used on the frontier. I think Wild Bill Hickok turned in a bill for shooting up 6,000 of these rounds for a season's target practice.
During the Civil War the army bought millions and millions of these combustible cartridges for the revolvers. As I said, from what I have determined, nothing else was used.
Now a days you can't buy these cartridges so we reload from a flask and use loose balls. You can make them however that is a different issue.
These combustibles were sold in small wood boxes that were called "packets" and were the size of a deck of cards. Some included the caps and had a pull string. You yanked on the string and the cartridges and caps fell out and you loaded up.
There are many books written on this subject some of the better by Terry White of Gettysburg. The originals are also bought by collectors.

see: https://www.bidsquare.com/online-a...ck-johnston-dow-combustible-cartridges-274595
http://www.gunshowbooks.com/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_prod.html?p_prodid=GS37843&sid=6J7890s

You can buy the cartridges. They aren't cheap.

Dixie Gun Works sells them, apparently...
https://www.dixiegunworks.com/inde...duct_name/XA2610+.44+CALIBER+PAPER+CARTRIDGES

And this place carries them..
https://www.shop.ammo-one1.com/cat...CC201415707D1D.p3plqscsfapp003?categoryId=542

That's just a quick internet search.

Not a big pistol guy so I’ve never been researching it, but cased sets I’ve seen mostly came with flask mold and a pack of loose caps, that would make me think civilians at least were loading sans cartridges :idunno:

Thanks I knew there was some kind of hide in them, but I’m so violently allergic to wool that even a casual handling of one would raise blisters on my hands so I’ve always just look at them from afar and assumed the whole body was lined.

Thank you!! Awesome information!!

Somewhere I read a reprint of a Colt instruction sheet that gave directions for loose powder loading, foil cartridge loading and paper cartridge loading. Those instructions do mention pointed balls which lead me to believe bore sized conical bullets rather than round balls were what they were referring to. Maybe they meant the sprue point should be up? It is interesting that most modern replicas will need some metal relieved to allow paper cartridge loading. If I become enamored with C&B revolvers I may start rolling my own paper cartridges but for now I’m going to be a loose powder and ball loader.

For the most part the combustionable cartridges used conical bullets. Eras Gone makes a couple of reproduction molds for these bullets.

to all:

the nitrated paper necessary to make combustible envelope cartridges is now called cigarette rolling papers.

any will work but the best i've found are Joker Light papers as they're thinner.

a stick of craft glue is handy and can be had @ any major retailer for +/- 4 for $1.

the best instructions i've found for making the mandrel and making the cartridges is @ The 1858 Remington Forum......this subject is discussed obsessively over there.

Since you were talking about "the people", I'll take it you are asking about the common civilian?

IMO, the common man on the street that was carrying a revolver around 1855 left his supplies in his house or room or perhaps in his suitcase if he was traveling.

He didn't need to carry things to reload his gun because he already had 5 or 6 shots available whenever he might need them.
Besides that, reloading took so long, carrying extra things with him to reload the gun wasn't worth the trouble.

As for loading it up at home or on the road, he probably used factory made cartridges like the others have mentioned or he used his powder flask, a lead roundball and he capped the nipples using his fingers just like many of us do today.

If he followed Colts recommendations, he did not use fillers or wads between the powder and ball and he did not use any grease over the loaded chamber.

I wonder just how many citizens carried at all on a regular basis. Movies would have us believe every third person was a lawman, gun hand, bounty hunter, gambler, or general desperado of some type. There had to be a lot more butchers, bakers and candlestick maker types who would have had little reason to be armed. The average farmer, shop keeper, ranch hand, trades man etc I’d assume would more likely have had scattergun or rifle around rather than a revolver on their hip 24/7.

On the combustible cartridges. They weren't all that great and the Western lawmen would fill up with powder and a ball. The western lawmen carried the combustible/packets as emergency, back up ammunition.
You are correct on the loading problem. The cut in the area is too small on a Navy Colt to permit anything but a cartridge with a small powder charge. The conicals also had a short base and when being rammed into the chambers the bullets would twist out of line resulting in poor accuracy.
Today's cigarette paper doesn't completely burn up like the original and a LIVE EMBER could be in the chamber- big trouble if you put in another round, so some caution is needed.
If you are just getting started and want back up ammunition afield, make some little paper tubes to hold individual powder charges and keep them in a small Altoids tin along with a few balls and caps. More accurate than the combustibles and safer to use.
I was recently in Sonoma, California, they have a Spanish Barracks museum and there is a holster for a single shot horse pistol but on the outside of the holster are belt loops that each holds a tin tube. You could get an acid brush at the hardware store and cut it into short lengths and it would be very similar. In any event these tube- speed loaders- are PC so using such on the revolver is PC IMHO.

According to two Civil War veterans,(Major RE Stratton CS cavalry and Samuel H Fletcher US cavalry) the round ball in a fully loaded cylinder was preferred over the issued conical. Fletcher claimed the round ball dropped the enemy cavalry man and much better took all the fight out of them.

When Elmer Keith was 13 years old he knew these to gentlemen and told this story many times.

Yes, as I understand it, that's why the western lawmen loaded with powder and a ball, you could cram in a lot more powder and make a more effective load. Some of the old balls had a little nib at the sprue and when loaded front it's flat surface was about the same as a SWC but probably better as it was pure lead.
The combustible stuff had small powder charges, that is, on a Navy you might get 22 gr. of fffg loading from a flask while the combustible had around 17 gr.
And just one more thing......
If you look at the old time photos it seems in the percussion era a lot of folks carried a pair of revolvers while once the 1873 Peacemaker came about the practice was to carry just one revolver, so maybe the thought was you had 12 shots with 2 percussion revolvers and you didn't even carry any back up ammunition.

Making paper cartridges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2HUcfAyaaQ


Making cartridge box:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chai_DxkEpk


enjoy :thumbsup:



crockett, if there was a discernible trend from carrying two revolvers to just the one then I would speculate that its cause is based more upon advances in rifle technology and less the handgun.

I agree with the above, in a town I doubt reloads were carried. I remember reading about a few cap and ball fights in Los Angeles in "Reminiscences of a Ranger; Early Times in Southern California" by H. Bell. I seem to recall these fights were described as pretty quick; no reloading was mentioned (or possible, I suspect).

While traveling, such as on the Oregon Trail in the 1850s, I could see some sort of revolver or pistol reloading paraphernalia being carried on one's person (if one had a revolver or pistol on them); a little bit of powder, ball and caps or some paper rolled conicals, out of fear of the unknown.

The best thing about the combustible cartridges was their handiness.
The thing people didn't like about them was that they were typically under-charged with powder, which explains Elmer Keith's anecdotal remarks about the superior effectiveness of a ball loaded with a heavier charge of loose powder. The ball took up less space in the chamber than a bullet ( allowing room for more powder ), and the blunter profile of the ball made a better permanent wound cavity in flesh and bone than the pointy bullet which tended to push tissue in it's path aside rather than mash it.

During the Civil War, there were repeated complaints from the field ( Union ) about dishonest munitions contractors cutting down already meager powder charges in the paper revolver cartridges even more to cut costs on contracts they had with the War Department and various State Militias.

I am not convinced the average man anywhere in America carried a pistol, if he even owned one, on his person unless he felt a really pressing need to do so on that particular day. An all-steel gun is sometimes a nuisance, and always a burden to carry, as one goes about their daily routine.

Many didn't even own a gun other than a shotgun, and a surprising number had no gun at all. Even on the American frontier, as it moved from the Eastern seaboard west to the Pacific, one does not have to dig very deep to find accounts of whites killed by Indians or others of their kind where the victims were totally unarmed, even when living in or traveling through known dangerous areas.

One must also keep in mind that many of the guns seen in old photographs were studio props.

The subject (s) being photographed often would choose extra guns, knives, clothing, etc, that were available at the studio to present a more war-like or tougher image.

Was it to present a tougher image or was it more to present a higher status? Firearms were expensive which is why I believe the surprising amount of people who didn't own any you mentioned didn't have any? Many people were unskilled and dirt poor and completely desperate to find a better life for themselves and getting attacked by people was very low on the list of things that would kill you.

Also, it is my understanding that in cities and towns a smaller handgun worn in concealment was exponentially more common than the brace of revolvers you see in movies nowadays?

Status would certainly be a factor.