1861 Navy paper cartridges

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Thanks for your reply. I'll try nitrating my curler papers. I haven't before, but I guess I didn't notice it fouling. I guess I took it for granted that they shot as clean as without cartridges. I'll give it a shot, thanks again for your time
These cigarette papers left nothing noticeable for me.
 
Very little if any residue.
I’m going to amend what I said. There IS paper residue left in there and I manage to pull some obvious stuff out with a toothpick between cylinder reloads (stuff near mouth of chamber) but when I deep clean after there is paper residue deeper down that is not interfering with reliability after 3-5 cylinders. No hangfires so far with ~66 rounds down range.
 
How do you get them so smooth and tight? P
@BlazingIron I just realized I never answered this question so my apologies. The cartridge former, being tapered makes it easy to roll the paper on and get it to the correct size. Because the paper itself is oversized (half a rolling paper) it allows you to slide the paper up to the wider section to make it tighter. I hope this makes sense but if a knucklehead like me can do it anyone can. 😃
 
I’m going to amend what I said. There IS paper residue left in there and I manage to pull some obvious stuff out with a toothpick between cylinder reloads (stuff near mouth of chamber) but when I deep clean after there is paper residue deeper down that is not interfering with reliability after 3-5 cylinders. No hangfires so far with ~66 rounds down range.
I also noticed little shards of paper in the chambers and would remove them but then decided to leave them and see if they caused an issue. I only had 3 more cylinders worth of loads, but not a hiccup. It might not be an issue. I use flax seed papers from American Spirits.

I tried nitrating several papers after that but found it so tedious I never tried them. I’m not sold it’s needed, especially not for that work and mess. It was fun for a moment though.
 
@BlazingIron I just realized I never answered this question so my apologies. The cartridge former, being tapered makes it easy to roll the paper on and get it to the correct size. Because the paper itself is oversized (half a rolling paper) it allows you to slide the paper up to the wider section to make it tighter. I hope this makes sense but if a knucklehead like me can do it anyone can. 😃
Yes. Thanks for your reply. I’ll try that.
 
My alternative - another 3-d printed miracle )) Ships from Polland. Ebay. There is video on youtube. It’s originally intended for cig paper, but works well with coffee filter and glue stick. You can roll the bottom, or use circles. I know about scrapbooking punches, but a coin and multiple layers of paper and scissors gave me a ton of circles )))

One con - the bottom is flat, no hole - one can easily drill it, as well as widen the base for 380 ball (375 goes in, 380 doesn’t), or shorten the base height. Anyway it’s a great tool ))

 

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Made my first cartridges last night with a block I drilled out and a dowel rod I found in the garage and sanded a slight taper onto. Thinking about trying to make some beef tallow/bees wax lube. Excited to not have to measure powder at the bench!
View attachment 336502
I like a 50/50 mix of lambs tallow and beeswax. The lambs tallow won't go rancid.
 
Made my first cartridges last night with a block I drilled out and a dowel rod I found in the garage and sanded a slight taper onto. Thinking about trying to make some beef tallow/bees wax lube. Excited to not have to measure powder at the bench!
View attachment 336502
I found that if I shoot a lot of paper cartridges I will get a bit of fowling in the cylinders. I throw a can of compressed air in my bag, when I remove the cylinder to regrease the arbor, I give each cylinder a quick shot of air and carry on.

Only downside of paper cartridges for me is I can shoot them way faster than make them. Worse problems in life to have though.😉
 
Nice, but I think you might find your bases are too large. I find that perhaps a third don't get blow out or burned up and though one isn't going to foul the chamber, repeated shooting eventually will. And I'm using a base made from a 5/8 inch punch, about as small as you get to punch those circles and still have enough paper to glue around the casing edge.

These are some I made recently to test different fabrication techniques, and I'm really liking the ones with the bare ball glued on top of a closed cartridge casing. I use a paper card (cut using the same 5/8 in punch and sized with the dowel) on top of the powder to support and then close the top of the case by gluing down the excess casing paper over the card, then after that dries I glue the ball on top of that with super glue.

I don't really see much advantage to lubing the balls. The downside it does make those cartridges a bit messier to handle and load.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...did-you-do-today.134755/page-762#post-2662956
 
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I found that if I shoot a lot of paper cartridges I will get a bit of fowling in the cylinders. I throw a can of compressed air in my bag, when I remove the cylinder to regrease the arbor, I give each cylinder a quick shot of air and carry on.

Only downside of paper cartridges for me is I can shoot them way faster than make them. Worse problems in life to have though.😉
lol agreed. And again thanks for the tip!
 
I use the Rio's kit when I use paper cartridges with RAW original rolling papers, this is by far the best all-in-one easiest kit I've used

https://riosinnovations.com/paper-cartridge-former-kit/
I bought a Guns of The West 2 caliber kit. I stumbled onto one of his videos and ordered one. I wasn't really in the market for one. Glad I got it, it's a good kit. I'm sticking with the RAW rolling papers as well. They seem to work fine for me.
 
I bought Guns Of The West paper cartridge fixtures for .36 and .44 Walker. I made some .36 loads with .375 ball, 17 grains 3F Goex and rolling paper from Guns Of The West. Elmer’s stick glue for paper and ball. I tried to add 15 grains but the paper wasn’t filled enough and it buckled a bit under the looseness. I could add 2 grains corn meal I suppose or stick with 17 grains. I loaded 24 cartridges but destroyed 7 in a typical boneheaded move. (Dropped the lid of my shooting box onto the tray holding the cartridges) Still, with 17 shots it fired perfectly and I’m EXTREMELY happy! I also ordered the capper 3 pack and it’s excellent. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to loading loose if I can help it.
very nice work

LD
 
I bought a Guns of The West 2 caliber kit. I stumbled onto one of his videos and ordered one. I wasn't really in the market for one. Glad I got it, it's a good kit. I'm sticking with the RAW rolling papers as well. They seem to work fine for me.


It's definitely a cool little compact device to say the least.
 

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