And I thought I'd document some of the process. It's a bit more involved than this, mostly just different shortcuts the cartridge maker could work out for himself, but this is my workflow, more or less. As soon as I get the time and someone to do the camera work, I'll be doing a series of videos of the process.
After charging I just fold over the ends and seal the last fold with a bit of glue stick. When I chamber the rounds, just the folded part of the cartridge gets cut off by the rising block, usually with zero loss of powder. All it takes is a pinhole in the rear of the round to admit the flame from the cap.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
SS, I use the Lee Minie style bullet for most of my loads. I cast it of pure lead, lubricate it, then wrap waxed paper over the base to separate the powder charge from the lube in the cavity. After that it's the same paper cartridge procedure as with the buffalo bullet shown in the photos. I think the Lee weighs in at 415 grains, and it shoots very well.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
The mould I was considering was the Lee 540-415-M. If I read correctly, you lube the hollow cavity as well as the grooves. Do you find the extra lube to be beneficial?
SharpsShooter wrote:The mould I was considering was the Lee 540-415-M. If I read correctly, you lube the hollow cavity as well as the grooves. Do you find the extra lube to be beneficial?
SS
That's the mold I use. It's a bargain price for a good mold.
Back when I got into muzzle loading somewhat, lubing the cavity was recommended by various writers, but I do it now as an effect of how I lube the grooves. I set bullets in a metal baking pan and melt lubricant until it covers the top groove. Then I just let the lube harden, usually with a trip into the freezer to harden the lube even more. After that, let the whole pan fall out onto a piece of waxed paper and push the bullets through the hardened block. In the process of heating, air is pushed out of the cavity, leaving a partial vacuum, and lube is sucked in.
My intuition tells me that the extra lube helps keep fouling soft, but whether it's beneficial or not, my intuition also tells me that the extra lube doesn't hurt anything, either.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Here are some of the Lee Minie bullets in cartridges.
On the right is the Lee mold you're looking at, and on the left is a "wadcutter" or "Buffalo" mold marketed originally by Shiloh and made by Rapine. This bullet is accurate and the bullet would be devastating in flesh. It penetrates better than the Minie.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Thanks for the additional information. Your pan lube method mirrors mine. What sort of accuracy is typical of these guns? I have read here of a gent seeing under 4" at 200 yards. That is very respectable.
I think in the right hands the 63 could shoot that well on a regular basis, if not even better. In the historical sense, the Sharps was not the most accurate production rifle used during The Recent Unpleasantness--that distinction belonged to the Whitworth as carried by some Confederate snipers. The Sharps, however, were just so numerous as to make a huge impact.
Berdan's men were not "snipers" in the way we think of them, as they were not usually independent but fought as skirmishers who could make a good account of themselves with high rates of sustained fire at ranges greater than what was the norm for men in their position. The Confederates were free agents, able to go at will to where their accurate fire could do the most good by remotely disabling artillery pieces or killing officers. But on the second day at Gettysburg, 100 of Berdan's men armed with the Sharps fired some 9,500 rounds in TEN MINUTES against a Confederate attack. The Rebs later claimed they had been attacking a whole regiment, based on the amount of accurate fire directed at them. A like number of men armed with Springfield rifle muskets would have been hard pressed to fire 3,000 rounds in the same amount of time.
But the Sharps was not just a fast shooter, it was accurate, and some of Berdan's men became legendary for their prowess as snipers. In some situations, they would fire with confidence on targets as much as 1,000 yards away, not normally at individuals, but at groups, and they did score a lot of hits.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
I was hoping someone would ask. Last spring I bought a Farmingdale 63 carbine off Gunbroker and got a great deal on it. Included in the package was a box containing over 1,000 RWS musket caps, several original boxes of bullets originally marketed by Shiloh, the Rapine/Shiloh bullet mold, and about 700 of these nitrated cartridge papers. All this stuff was sold by Shiloh in the early days. One of the boxes I got originally contained pre-loaded paper cartridges using the Lee 540-415 bullet. Some of the boxed bulets were the "buffalo" bullets like the ones from the Rapine mold, as well as a few with hollow bases. I got a great deal.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Nice haul of goodies along with the rifle itself. You mention RWS caps, are they reliable and hot enough for the task? Which are good and what to avoid if you will.
Someone else will have to answer your caps question. I know that the RWS are well thought of, but I believe there has been a change in the composition of the CCI caps, making them less powerful. But again, this is not a subject with which I am terribly familiar. If you'll scroll through older posts here, however, I believe there was a discussion of this sometime back, and you should be able to glean the information you need.
As to the cartridge paper, it's not necessary to use the nitrated variety, though I've found it to work very well. I have used the curling papers from the beauty supply place, and it works very well, though a bit flimsy to work with. I've also used tracing paper from the art supply places like Michael's, and it works very well. It's easier to work with than the curling paper, though it sometimes leaves small bits of paper in chamber or bore, which could be a potential danger when loading another round, particularly if there is a live spark on the paper. I've had no problems with it to date, but then I do like to give a quick visual inspection of the bore before I load another round. A quick puff of breath usually clears any fragments of paper.
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.
Well, it arrived yesterday with a box of goodies. Farmingdale 54 caliber. Came with 400 of Mr. Hagns Tubes,, some loaded cartridges, bullets and a few caps.
If I can get some weather, it's gonna have to go bang soon.
