View attachment 10238
Test fitting .648 round balls in masking paper cartridge. In a completely clean bore the paper wrapped ball goes in with just a light finger pressure.
I see some videos online like Murphey's Muskets where he seems to almost be dropping them in.
With a fouled bore after 10 or so shots I don't want to be fighting them down the bore, but I'm newer to making smoothbore cartridges so I don't know what "ideal" fit is like.
This seems great but I know a heavily fouled bore is the big game changer here. I've seen pics of cartridges with the paper around the ball lubed with tallow, or something else.
In the book "Colonial Frontier Guns" by T.M. Hamilton, there is an amazing amount of information on actual bore sizes and ball sizes of both British and French Muskets in the 17th through the early 19th century. I have to generalize/paraphrase from that information as it is way too much to read and type.
In the period, French Muskets of "18 calibre" actually measured between .690" and .711" on the modern decimal inch measuring system. So a ball of .643" or .648" wrapped in cartridge paper would have fit looser in their bores than in modern .69 caliber bores that are within a few thousandths of an inch of .690".
The British Ordnance Department began using and issuing special "Cartridge Paper" to their forces around 1740 according to Bailey. This was special linen paper that was strong enough and thick enough, but not too thick to make wrapped paper cartridges that would fit any British Musket in the World. British Muskets ranged from .76 to .78 caliber in the period and though the official size ball they used was ".69 caliber," Hamilton's research from unfired/excavated British Balls throughout North America actually more commonly measure .700" and .710", with the last the most common size found.
The French also began issuing special linen cartridge paper to their troops around this same period, though I don't personally have books that date the start date as close as Bailey does for the British.
So far I have not yet been able to find any source that states the general thickness of either the British or French Special Linen Cartridge Papers. Further, though it seems both British and French Ordnance Departments actually gauged the cartridges to ensure they would fit their respective muskets, we don’t have dimensions on those gauges.
Bottom line is the cartridges you are making that take slight pressure to load are more than likely within period specs or possibly a tiny bit tight, though we can’t know for sure.
Oh, slightly changing tack to how many cartridges were actually used in a battle, it all depended on whether both sides had a large number of cartridges available and if both sides stood their ground to keep on shooting.
Very early in the UnCivil War, General Thomas Johnathan Jackson, CSA made the statement that any soldier in his command who fired more than 28 rounds in as battle, would be Court Martialed for wasting government property. However from the Seven Days Battles onward, he never stuck to his order.
In their Heroic Charges during the Second Day at the Battle of Gettysburg, some of Barksdale’s Mississippians reloaded their 40 round cartridge boxes at least once and twice if cartridges were available. Even so, they were mostly out of cartridges before they had to stop fighting. That meant Barksdale’s Boys fired at least 80 cartridges that day and many likely fired more than 100.
Gus
