.69 Bore Paper Cartridges

Enfield1 said:

I think that it is very worth it. I have cartridges for my Bess and 42 Springfield smooth bores made up and stored in Tupperware containers and ready to go to the range. I have had them stored for two and three years at a time in the past and have had no issues with them. I take them out and load them into the cartridge boxes. They fire well and seem just as good as one's made fresh.

Click to expand...

The old armies thought it was a good idea, too! Can't do much fightin' using loose powder 'n ball!

Yes the fixed 100 grain Treso measure is to pour into from the flask. Then from the measure into the bore.
This is part of my night, watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while I fill up 29 cartridges.

Unless you really buckle down and roll them like you're an arsenal worker with a quota , it takes hours.

I still get sloppy with cutting the papers, some of them aren't 100% "round" on the bottom but that's more cosmetic.

I may try that "French method" of pasting and folding instead of choking with twine, although I find the tan paper with red twine kinda aesthetically pleasing ......I mean if you don't think this stuff is cool it might not be the right hobby for ya

A finished cartridge , ball end lubed with pure Lanolin, my favorite lube for these so far.

The fruits of my labor......halfway through filling my cartridge box, the satisfaction of arriving at the range with a box full of cartridges is pretty deep inside the flap is a small flask full of 2f for priming and a wallet with 3 flints and a "tool ring".

It's honestly nice not having to worry about having enough caps.

Stan! You the man!
Very, very nice.

Allow me to state that the French method is pretty cool. One pushes the front down against the former rod/dowell, adds a dab of glue or paste (I'm using a glue stick, the bottle of Elmer's is over by the Sharp's paper cartridge area), then push down another third atop the first, another dab, and then the final third. But after it is glued, and before it dries, crimp it all together with your thumb so the front looks a bit like a modern shotgun shell. then, after it all dries, the ball goes in, followed by the powder.

Incidentally, one can fold the end that gets bitten off by folding the two sides into the middle to create a sort of "box top" to keep the charge compressed, and then fold "the tail" over, or you can fold it into a 90 degree turn relative to the cartridge body, and then another 90 degrees so the tail is alongside the body of the cartridge and the end is closed by a silly Napoleon-looking paper hat, or one can simply twist and twist and twist until it all looks a bit like a pig tail.

Making buck and ball cartridges is a time consumer for sure!

DaveC said:

Stan! You the man!
Very, very nice.

Allow me to state that the French method is pretty cool. One pushes the front down against the former rod/dowell, adds a dab of glue or paste (I'm using a glue stick, the bottle of Elmer's is over by the Sharp's paper cartridge area), then push down another third atop the first, another dab, and then the final third. But after it is glued, and before it dries, crimp it all together with your thumb so the front looks a bit like a modern shotgun shell. then, after it all dries, the ball goes in, followed by the powder.

Incidentally, one can fold the end that gets bitten off by folding the two sides into the middle to create a sort of "box top" to keep the charge compressed, and then fold "the tail" over, or you can fold it into a 90 degree turn relative to the cartridge body, and then another 90 degrees so the tail is alongside the body of the cartridge and the end is closed by a silly Napoleon-looking paper hat, or one can simply twist and twist and twist until it all looks a bit like a pig tail.

Making buck and ball cartridges is a time consumer for sure!

Click to expand...

You’ll find that when it comes to rolling paper cartridges that many folks do it based on personal preference.

I’ve seen some use the French method with the ball end greased, usually because the ball is not .65 but rather .67 for a tighter round.

When I make my own I use cooking parchment, with 70 grains and a .66 ball with the end greased.

You can also do a tube within a tube, the first tube for the ball and then the second tube for the powder, this eliminates the need to choke off the ball.

I shoot the P53 Enfield with the Pritchett bullet so rolling the paper cartridge is the only option. It's a rather complicated cartridge compared to one for a smooth-bore but the performance is worth the effort. I can shoot all day with consistency and no fouling issues. Definitely the high-water mark in muzzle-loading cartridge development.

I dip the ball end in beeswax and it is as tight in my smoothbore (0.648" ball in 0.662" bore) as a patch.

Those are some very aesthetically pleasing cartridges

The "tails" on mine were longer than needed since the holes in my cartridge box keep them "tucked" but I fired all 29 with no issues . Occasionally a too long piece of the tail would bind up and I'd have to Jab it down with the rod. Otherwise they glide right down, I love the Lanolin as lube.



I tried using a Primer flask with 4f but this 1795 Pedersoli Springfield like a pan full of 2f better.

Also did 21 shots with the loose powder, bare ball and wadding method. Results were the same as cartridges just obviously slower and less convenient.

My bess was very accurate with paper carts, 90gr. 2f, 735 ball paper lubed with beeswax and oliveoil.

It's a process, this is my 4th time really making a bigger batch of .69 cartridges and I'm still refining the process, I think the "thickness " of the wrap is perfect but could probably go shorter. If they were loose in tins like a Civil War style box I'd probably need them longer to keep them from leaking.

I'd like to give the French style cartridges a shot at some point.

After 29 rounds it would have been pretty much time to wipe the bore "in the period" anyway so after I emptied my box I cleaned the bore. I have fired 50 of these through my 1816 without cleaning, could probably have done it with this 1795 too.

My shooting friends who don't do a lot with muzzleloaders outside hunting season are like "you go to the range with only 50 rounds???" I'm like, with a 10 pound .69 musket , using 100 grain charges , 50 rounds is an afternoon of shooting after you go through that you've pretty much had enough , especially when it's hot out.

Every now and then when I lube the exterior of the cartridge it just is too big to go down the bore without some serious pressure on the ramrod! At other times it gets hung up on the muzzle, and I just don't want to risk it getting stuck. I did get a .680 Civil War era North Carolina "Nessler ball" mould, which appears to have been put in the muzzle a bit like the Enfield/Pritchett cartridge, but the brown grocery bag type paper was just too thick with the lube applied. I may try a batch using the same paper I make Pritchett/Enfield cartridges with, which is thinner, and also use the tallow on its own or with minimal bees wax and/or olive oil so it is not as thick.

Reminds me I've got to cast more bullets!

Masking paper and pure Lanolin are what got me back into muzzleloading, honestly. Along with a batch of Pritchett bullets from Paper Cartridges, and a pair of Parker-Hale Musketoons......

Last summer I bought some used T/C's and messing with tight fitting patched balls and having a contaminated charge requiring me to "bloop " it out....struggling with patched balls.....I was about to give up.....then getting a Minie stuck in a Zoli Buffalo Hunter, I was like, screw it , I'm just going to continue to shoot my regular firearms as I had been for 20+ years.

I got a good deal on a pair of P-H Musketoons and decided to get a Pedersoli 1816 Springfield percussion conversion just because I figured the P-H's might be fun and at the very least will hold their value..... and I thought maybe a smoothbore would be my "last shot" at staying involved with muzzleloaders otherwise I was just gonna sell them all off.

So......loading up paper cartridges for the 1816 and taking them out to shoot , was a blast.....like "wow this can actually be fun" then I bought a big batch of Pritchett cartridges for the P-H's and it was like a revelation. I decided to really get back into it, making and shooting those. 69 round ball cartridges was too much fun to give up on, and the Lanolin keeps the fouling soft so I can just load them and shoot them, one after the other. If those cartridges didn't fit, or were a pain to load, I'd have just mothballed the whole setup.

I brought 5 of the Nessler balls from Eras Gone with me today but I didn't want to mess with them.

.680 is a weird size for them, like, I kinda want to lube them and shoot them like a Minie but they seem just a bit too small
.......... but .680 seems too big to paper patch. I'm afraid of it either creeping up the bore when loaded "bare" or getting stuck halfway down with paper on it.

One time I made some charleville cartridges with the following.

First tube ball end greased, second tube 2f powder, smaller tube on the end about 1/8 of an inch long for the 4f prime powder.

I’ve been trying to search out the Prussian and Hessian method for making paper cartridges, supposedly they were very keen on having the ‘perfect’ cartridge.

I've noticed that no one has mentioned using a period-correct type of paper. Modern wood pulp paper didn't exist at that time. Linen paper is what was used. It's more expensive but gives better results. I use a 13.5# linen for both my combustible revolver rounds and my Pritchett cartridges. Using wood pulp paper for the Pritchett doesn't work too well because when it is dipped in beeswax the wax will soak through and cause the paper to stick to the bullet as it leaves the muzzle. This will cause flyers. The linen paper if much more resistant to this(providing the wax is heated to the correct temp). This seems to be less important with smooth-bores because the smooth-bore was never considered to be a precision device by the doctrine of the day. But having the paper sticking to the ball as it heads down range certainly can't be helping it.

I found that "100% cotton" paper but I use the Masking Paper because it is strong but thin, lube doesn't migrate and it's easy to work with.

The linen paper made for Resume , etc seems too thick and heavy.

Any pre 1850 paper will be rag paper as there was no wood pulp paper about so unsaleable old books give a fine supply of suitable paper.

I'd be fascinated to see how the Hessians rolled paper cartridges , or how anyone else did, really. It's almost as if finding material and learning techniques for cartridges is a hobby in itself.

I have a ream of the 18# 100% cotton paper, I may roll one up with it , using my .69 cartridge pattern and see if it fits.

My main gripe with Masking Paper is that it's not "stiff" and it sometimes folds up on itself during loading. If the linen paper is too thick I guess I can play with the width of the cartridge paper.

I make mine out of an old sheaf of "onionskin" typing paper. It's cotton based but brittle, so it tears well. It's like the stuff we used to make kites out of. Don't know what I'll do when this runs out.

I have been told Presbyterian Hymnals work and are somewhat authentic - rumor (and a book on Military Chaplains) has it a pastor handed out pages from the Watts Hymnal of the time for the local militia in the ARW who were low on cartridge (or wadding?) paper.

Heh, been on the look out for an old library dictionary for years!

Well darn. Now yall got me thinking about paper patching .58 minies again.

I've heard that story , I think they used the Hymnals as wadding.

There's paper still known as "cartridge paper" but you pretty much only find it at print shops or maybe places like Staples.

I've been using brown "butcher paper" and finding it a bit on the thick side. Thus far, I've been buying packing paper, which is a nice thin sheet of un-printed newspaper. That stuff works pretty good.