Tapered Paper Cartridges
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Some thoughts on barrel
design.
Slow twist. ¼ turn in
length.
Narrow lands, wide groves
Shallow, square rifling,
.005-.006 deep.
One target shot with paper,
one with cloth patches.
I have templates made up for
different size and number of wraps.
It depends on the size ball and thickness of paper, to get a snug
fit.
I thin wood glue with water
to seal along the edge.
.73 cal. First shot on a
clean barrel.
.717 diameter hard lead
I lubed the barrel after
loading.
w/w ~ wet wipe, lube ~ then lube the bore after loading
Another load, using a wad
over the powder, made from heavy card stock.
I also use ‘Cream of Wheat’
as a filler over the powder.
It keeps the gasses from escaping around the patch
on deep grooved barrels.
Note: Tapered wooden mandrel
used to form cartridges. I made mine from a broomstick.
Paper cartridges and pouch used by Daryl Sapergia.
This explains it
all!
A note from Daryl:
Paper
Ctg’s
If
you have normal shallow rifling around .012" or shallower, you must try
paper
ctgs.
My .69's 66" twist shot them well. I-too would have preferred 100 to
120"
with
.005" deep rifling, but such a barrel wasn't possible back in 1986.
: I roll my ctgs. using a pine dowel with a
3/4" diameter. I tapered it over a 4"
length
to an 1/8" point on one end. Laying the dowel on the 1/4 sheet of normal
20
to 24 lb. printer paper, roll the dowel and paper to make a tapered tube. I dip
my
finger in wood glue, and run a strip of glue down the edge and finish rolling
it.
They
stay just fine, and dry quickly. A wet towel on the side is handy for wiping
off
your
finger of glue. A glue stick for office work may work or may not be strong
enough.
Once I've made 15 or 20, I fold the bottom over for about a 1/4" to
3/8"
wide
base on each one & a drop of glue holds it well. I drop in the requisite
powder
charge, then a round ball on top, sprue up if it has one. Jeff Tanners
moulds
cast balls perfectly for this. They have no sprue, as a swipe with a rasp
removes
the cuttoff sprue made by the wire cutters, the ones with little holes for
different
sized wire.
:
A ball around .005" under bore size is a good size and gave me identical
grouping
(same POI as well) as patched balls, same load. .010" may be the largest
that
will shoot as well as patched RB's. The paper is then folded over the ball's
upper
surface and either tied, merely folded or use another drop of glue to hold it.
All
methods work. I have carried such paper ctgs. with glued tops in my parka
pocket
all fall without any damage.
: To load, the ctg. is removed from pocket or pouch
by the big end, the other end
is
ripped off with the teeth, then stuffed into the bore. It will stop at the
ball's
waist.
By the time you have the rod out of the ferrules, the powder has drained to
the
breech. The rod is choked up on, and the tip is used as a starter and the ctg.
started
into the bore. Mine were snug, but then, that's probably why they shot so
well.
(1-1/2" at 100 yards) The ctg is then pushed down onto the powder, paper
and
all. I've never had the ctg. paper ignite coming out the muzzle as it blows out
as
confetti. Cap or prime and shoot. With these paper ctgs., I was able to shoot
up
to 10 rounds with no loss in accuracy. I would then load a normal 3 dram load
(82gr.)
with a spit patched ball and .018" denim patch which effectively cleaned
the
bore, ready for another 10 ctgs. to be fired. My buddies .75 cal rifle, with
it's
deep
20 or even deeper rifling, fouled after only 3 such ctgs. and had to be wiped
before
loading any other load, but they still would gave very fast second through
4th
shots which were never needed - Hehheh! I was able to load my .69 complete
with
aiming & ready to fire in 8 seconds with these ctgs. They are fast indeed.
The
reason
for tapering them, is the ease of handling, very much superior to straight
sided
ctgs. As well, very little if any powder is lost when tearing off the end of a
small
diameter paper tube. With a flinter, as in military style, the small end would
allow
easy priming before ramming home the charge. Today, this is deemed
dangerous,
priming before loading, but that was the military way. They would
raise
the cock to 1/2 position, hammer open, tear off ctg. base, prime and close
hammer,
then load was the system, full cock, point and shoot - very fast and
faster
maybe than a cap gun - maybe. The ctg. box in the picture is a commercial
one
that held a full 20 rounds of ammo up to maybe 30/06 size. I merely made a
wooden
block to fit inside with holes to hold my ctgs. It is an easy method of
transport.
TRACK has good-sized pouches of original pattern for sale, or you could
make
one as Taylor did for his Bess.
Daryl
Sapergia
My latest small
bore testing.
1st. shot from a
clean bore with a cloth patched ball.
2nd. shot is a
fast follow-up loading with a Tapered Paper Cartridge.
A link to
my latest article about:
Tapered Paper Cartridges
Can be read
on the Blog at:
http://underhammers.blogspot.com/
I describe how to make a tapered mandrel and how
to roll and fit the paper.
My latest adventure: 10-31-2009
Tapered Paper Cartridges and Bullets
I used a countersink to cut a small bevel on one cavity of the Lee
C501-440-RF mold. This will keep the cone from sliding off.
I used cotton thread and two half hitches to tied the cone tight. I may try
a dab of fly tying head cement on the thread.
The .501 diameter bullet is ready to Lube or Paper Patch.
This cone is ready to size and load.
This 50 cal. cone is made with two wraps of printer paper.
90 grains of fff will be funneled thru the small end. Then glued and folded.
I used some thread to help hold the paper on.
Updated 10-31-2009