Combustible Paper Cartridges

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in another thread that was briefly hijacked with some quality conversation regarding civil war reenacting and the guns used, it was requested that I expand on my reference to using combustible paper cartridges for reloading during the battle reenactments.

the quick answer is we bought cigarette rolling papers and used a appropriate sized wooden dowel for either our sharps or handguns. whichever we were making the cartridges for. These of course were blanks, no actual bullet and we needed the paper to burn up for safety. not just in terms of the humans around us, but to reduce the risk of grass fires and such.

Dixie Gun works as a kit for sharps that comes with 3 dowels for 45, 50 and 54 calibers. And a quick google shows that people are making their own nitrated paper vs buying cigarette paper. a popular paper choice is the papers used by hair dressers to do perms. I personally have not gone this rout.

The fireing line, the highroad and shiloh sharps forums are proably your best bet for highly experienced black powder shooters actually putting lead down the barrels.

If I was to get back into shooting the 1859/1863 type sharps, I would look into this more. But I haven't shot black powder in sometime now.

For just shooting black powder handguns on the range...my opinion, not worth the effort. A powder measure gives more flexibility to trying different charges on the fly. But that is just my personal opinion. from an educational, learn more about the guns, how they were used etc...absolutely worth it if that kind of thing is of interest to you.

Re: Combustible Paper Cartridges

3
rolling your own (black powder blank cartridges.
http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/phpBB3 ... 32&t=27166

more on the sharps paper cartridge replica.
http://www.theliberalgunclub.com/phpBB3 ... 32&t=29584

i tried making combustible cartridges by nitrating paper. internet lore has it that potassium nitrate used to make flash paper can be had in the lawn and garden section as stump remover. read the label they'll tell you what's in it. mix up a saturated solution of stump remover in water until it won't dissolve any more, decant the liquid, immerse and soak your paper in the solution, then let it air dry and roll as normal. i've not had good results, mostly hangfires as the spark burns through the paper. likely a flaw in technique, or using the wrong paper.
i've since come across a reference to the sharps giving accuracy issues during the war because of inconsistencies in the way in which cartridges were loaded and cut. thus producing varying powder charges. sharps addressed this by making shorter cartridges which fit entirely within the chamber, hence not cut by the breech closing. i've considered changing the rolling technique to inserting a bit of nitrated cigarette paper in the back end of the tube, but haven't tried it yet. i've not been out in the field since early last year, so there's not been much need for cartridges.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?

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