Enfield Paper Cartridges

Finally got a Pritchett bullet mould, some onion skin paper and made a former, made my first batch of 10 paper cartridges and will toddle of down to the rifle range this morning and see how they shoot. The instructions for construction of these little wonders is a bit ambiguous, it was written in the 1880's by Hans Busch who was involved in making the British army into a professional force, and little less a gentlmens hunt club !!Attachment 47804If anyone is interested in the results I will post them when I get back

Cheers:beer2:

Very interesting. I have an American friend of British heritage who is saving up to get an Enfield. Can't remember which model but I know it would be one that fires the cartridges of metal manufacture. Let us know how it goes.

Are those for the "53 Enfield? They look like the ones I use to make for American Civil War re-enacting, without the ball of course.

Ah yes. WA's firearm laws are still restrictive I see.:D


Mick

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Are those for the "53 Enfield? They look like the ones I use to make for American Civil War re-enacting, without the ball of course.

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Nun2sharp,
these are the pat '53 Enfield paper cartridge, but loaded for Pritchett ball, would make reeinacting pretty realistic iffen you used these !! I have just got back from the Wanneroo rifle range, I put ten down range at 50yds off the bench. Was pretty pleased, changed point of aim hence the two groups, and my eyes are not quite as good as they used to be. No plugs in the bullets base, and they seem to have expanded into the rifling fine. Normally I weigh my bullets after eyeballing for faults in casting. and I only threw the powder charges from a flask, and did not weigh them either. I would expect to keep them all in the 10/9 ring off the bench. I can achieve that regularly with the normal
Minne' ball .
With Bob Katter and co in we may see an improvement in the shooters' lot !!:beer2:

That aint too bad!

Thats pretty cool!

Good shooting too..!

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Originally Posted by heelerau

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With Bob Katter and co in we may see an improvement in the shooters' lot !!:beer2:

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If I were a god botherin' man I would be prayin for that day to come. Bloody Howard!


Mick

thats pretty cool. thanks for sharing.

I used to load paper cartidges with a Minie ball for my .58 cal Springfield
musket with 60 grains of FFG but first I soaked the onion skin paper
in salt petre solution and then dry it. That way it would all burn up

Tony,
did you bite the end off the cartridge first and pour down the powder or just ram the lot home powder end down and hope the cap did the rest ?

Cheers Heelerau:beer2:

Well
I had a mate knock up some proper diameter formers for these cartridges, only had enough onion skin paper to do one more cartridge, but looks like being a better result. I have ordered 500 sheets of onion skin paper from Buffalo Gun works in the states, hopefully should have it down under in the next few weeks, and ready to have another go. Will keep posted with a few more photos

Cheers

Heelerau:beer2:

For those interested, here is my first almost properly packaged 10 Pat 53 cartridges, will try and fiqure out the label program on he Mac and make up the proper labels on suitable paper. There is some interesting information on the net, but none gives the detail I have needed. Will post the next target I shoot with these paper cartridges

Cheers

Gordon:beer2:

I’ve done some black powder muzzle loader shootin in my time, but those look like Martian Cigarettes to me. Keep those away from the SRPers in Amsterdam they might try and fire up on one of those. End up looking like Wile E. Coyote after the Roadrunner got through with him. Kelly this means you.

Just kidding. Good job, onion skin cartridges. I had no idea. Nice grouping too. I would not stand in front of you to prove a point sir. I know back in the day they used paper from a hornets nest as wadding on the old muzzle loaders. We actually have sanctioned black powder hunts here in KC to thin the White tail herds. I have a 16 point buck that visits my backyard. We call him Big Poppa. He’ll tip the scale at 300 Lbs easy. We’ll hear him lock horns with the youngsters out back at dusk.
Our conservation program here in Missouri has done outstanding work bringing back wildlife populations. They have just released Elk down in the Ozarks. Bear and the big cats are making a comeback too. My hunting and fishing days are over. No time, with work and taking care of the farmski..
So you do have to watch out when you’re out in the toolies. Pack something with some horse power and I don’t mean a 9mm. Of course up in Glen’s neck of the woods they get some mighty big critters too. We were talking about the Prong Horn Antelopes the other day. That’s some long distance range shooting. You can thank the hunters and fishermen for the conservation dollars that make all this happen.

Sorry I do not have a digital camera for pics.
Mike:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MODINE

I’ve done some black powder muzzle loader shootin in my time, but those look like Martian Cigarettes to me. Keep those away from the SRPers in Amsterdam they might try and fire up on one of those. End up looking like Wile E. Coyote after the Roadrunner got through with him. Kelly this means you.

Just kidding. Good job, onion skin cartridges. I had no idea. Nice grouping too. I would not stand in front of you to prove a point sir. I know back in the day they used paper from a hornets nest as wadding on the old muzzle loaders. We actually have sanctioned black powder hunts here in KC to thin the White tail herds. I have a 16 point buck that visits my backyard. We call him Big Poppa. He’ll tip the scale at 300 Lbs easy. We’ll hear him lock horns with the youngsters out back at dusk.
Our conservation program here in Missouri has done outstanding work bringing back wildlife populations. They have just released Elk down in the Ozarks. Bear and the big cats are making a comeback too. My hunting and fishing days are over. No time, with work and taking care of the farmski..
So you do have to watch out when you’re out in the toolies. Pack something with some horse power and I don’t mean a 9mm. Of course up in Glen’s neck of the woods they get some mighty big critters too. We were talking about the Prong Horn Antelopes the other day. That’s some long distance range shooting. You can thank the hunters and fishermen for the conservation dollars that make all this happen.

Sorry I do not have a digital camera for pics.
Mike:)

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Funny you are not the first to say that, about funny cigarettes !!

Cheers:beer2:

Attachment 118426 shot a scaled down 19th century British Military target today, apon invitation, I have been working on my enfield paper cartridges steadily since the last post on this thread. It was a howling gale coming from behind the lines, cartridges loaded with 2 1/2 drachms of 2f Goex black, and pritchet ball of .553/4 siam using Bienfang 350 paper as the outer wrapper. I also had a few shots off the bench at a 50 yd pistol target and shot a 4 shot group that is 10 ring. My off hand target as shown is not all that impressive, other than it totals at 26 points, the shot to the bull not to count as I found I had shot 21 instead of 20 rounds, still all bit the paper and only 1 keyhole !!

Cheers

Heelerau

Gordan, You're having way too much fun over there. So much fun in fact, I see you missed a bit when you were shaving! :)


Mick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by heelerau

Attachment 118426 shot a scaled down 19th century British Military target today, apon invitation, I have been working on my enfield paper cartridges steadily since the last post on this thread. It was a howling gale coming from behind the lines, cartridges loaded with 2 1/2 drachms of 2f Goex black, and pritchet ball of .553/4 siam using Bienfang 350 paper as the outer wrapper. I also had a few shots off the bench at a 50 yd pistol target and shot a 4 shot group that is 10 ring. My off hand target as shown is not all that impressive, other than it totals at 26 points, the shot to the bull not to count as I found I had shot 21 instead of 20 rounds, still all bit the paper and only 1 keyhole !!

Cheers

Heelerau

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boy you really are a big rough and tough aussie glad im not infront of you when your in a bad mood with that cannon in your hands, nice shooting, would love to get more time to shoot my 50 cal flinter, love the paper cartridges.

Last Thursday toddled off to the range and tried two packets of ten cartridge, one lot made with Bienfang 360 linen rag paper, the other with ordinary printer paper. Shot off the bench at 50 yes, the linen paper which was not such a tight fit in the bore, shot a score of 86, the printer paper which produced a round that was tighter in the barrel, only shot a score of 74, and was a much wider group. I used a standard 50 m pistol target with a black center of 8 inches. 2 1/2 drachms of Goex FFg.Attachment 121143Attachment 121144

looks like a good way to spend some free time to me.:gwh:

Got to the range last Sunday, shot this target at 50 yds off the bench, score of 88, pretty close to what I can do with the Burton bullet in my two band Parker Hale navy rifle. I tied the cartridges off with cotton string instead of cotton and lubed them with 11 parts beeswax to 1 part paraffin oil, as instructed by the book, Hand Book for Hythe. 73 grains of FFg Goex, and b oth bullets and charges all weighed. Very please with the result, the last 5 shots all 9 10 ring. I am now using Beinfang 360 linen rag vellum as the outer envelope, a bit heavier than the paper from Buffaloe Arms. http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/...rt.%20.554.jpg

Tatiana, my home email is heelerau@gmail.com

The last activity on this thread is 5 years ago.

Ya think they still be around here these parts?

I've watched a few videos on You Tube where they used coffee filters for the paper when making cartridges for black powder revolvers.