Musket Cartridge

[RSMorris]

Been working on making musket cartridges. Do these look like they are suppossed to, anything I should change? They contain a .69 lead roundball and inert powder.

 

[Tom Hughes]

Been working on making musket cartridges. Do these look like they are suppossed to, anything I should change? They contain a .69 lead roundball and inert powder.

View attachment 429828

That looks great!! The .69 calibre ball was usually topped with 3 buck-n-balls.

 

[RSMorris]

That looks great!! The .69 calibre ball was usually topped with 3 buck-n-balls.

I will work on the Buck/Ball cartridges. Wanted to make sure these were right first. Thanks!

 

[Tom Hughes]

I will work on the Buck/Ball cartridges. Wanted to make sure these were right first. Thanks!

They look Fantastic! Nice job.

 

[FedericoFCavada]

The cartridge on the right is perfect. The others look pretty good, particularly for practice.
Neat cartridges are necessary so they hold together in the cartridge box while "on the march." The shaking motion in the cartridge box can cause a lot of wear on 'em. Make sure you never confuse 'em with real ones if you fire authentic cartridges!

I used to use black sand for dummies, but then I thought that it would be even harder to keep 'em apart, so I started using farina/cream of wheat for the dummy cartridges.

 

[FedericoFCavada]

That looks great!! The .69 calibre ball was usually topped with 3 buck-n-balls.

The buck and ball cartridge was topped by 3-buckshot, but about half the ammunition allotment for the smoothbore was single-ball cartridges.

 

[PapaReb]

Cartridges look good! But what grain charge are you using? The charge looks a little light to me.

 

[RSMorris]

Cartridges look good! But what grain charge are you using? The charge looks a little light to me.

I am just using black sand in two and black condiment powder in the others. I was more concerned with the way it was tied and the shape of it. I am incorporating these in a demonstration in old folks homes I do on Civil war gravesites and musket use.

 

[FedericoFCavada]

Cartridges look good! But what grain charge are you using? The charge looks a little light to me.

For the flintlocks in .69 cal., the service charge was 120-grains of very coarse Fg powder. Fully ten to fifteen grains of that was intended to prime the pan of the musket.

It was shortly discovered that simply changing from flint to percussion ignition improved muzzle velocity, and the charge was thus reduced to 110gr. to 100gr. I don't think that whether or not the cartridge was made single-ball or buck-and-ball made a whit of difference in the powder charge, but I'd defer to people far more conversant than I about the paper ammunition.

@RSMorris: Are you going to do some Minie/Burton ball cartridges too, or just the .69 smooth-bore?

At some point I should try to post some of my own efforts in making cartridges. I've tried to make French-style and also some British-style Brown Bess cartridges for the Texas Revolution, but those latter ones fell apart relatively quickly. The former are pasted/glued and crimped, while the British-style is just twisted closed, not carefully folded like the U.S. cartridges... Makes a real difference!

The three-piece paper cartridges of early Minie/Burton, British Pritchett-Enfield, and Norwegian kammerlader take a bit more practice, but they are super-nice cartridges. Most Minie/Burton cartridges I make are a bit slapdash, based on two identical sized pieces of paper.... I intend to make some templates out of an old plastic cutting board I no longer use, since the cardboard ones I made before are getting worn. I know that sheet metal templates are also available, such as those from Eras Gone and possibly some other similar sites.

 

[RSMorris]

For the flintlocks in .69 cal., the service charge was 120-grains of very coarse Fg powder. Fully ten to fifteen grains of that was intended to prime the pan of the musket.

It was shortly discovered that simply changing from flint to percussion ignition improved muzzle velocity, and the charge was thus reduced to 110gr. to 100gr. I don't think that whether or not the cartridge was made single-ball or buck-and-ball made a whit of difference in the powder charge, but I'd defer to people far more conversant than I about the paper ammunition.

@RSMorris: Are you going to do some Minie/Burton ball cartridges too, or just the .69 smooth-bore?

At some point I should try to post some of my own efforts in making cartridges. I've tried to make French-style and also some British-style Brown Bess cartridges for the Texas Revolution, but those latter ones fell apart relatively quickly. The former are pasted/glued and crimped, while the British-style is just twisted closed, not carefully folded like the U.S. cartridges... Makes a real difference!

The three-piece paper cartridges of early Minie/Burton, British Pritchett-Enfield, and Norwegian kammerlader take a bit more practice, but they are super-nice cartridges. Most Minie/Burton cartridges I make are a bit slapdash, based on two identical sized pieces of paper.... I intend to make some templates out of an old plastic cutting board I no longer use, since the cardboard ones I made before are getting worn. I know that sheet metal templates are also available, such as those from Eras Gone and possibly some other similar sites.

I didn't do any gluing with these. Just cut the pattern, rolled and tied. I may try to also make the some for the Minie Ball but none of my muskets use that one. They are all smoothbore except for the Bridesburg Needham conversion. I would like to see yours sometime if you would like to post them.

 

[RSMorris]

Made this little workstation to make these things....

 

[FedericoFCavada]

I didn't do any gluing with these. Just cut the pattern, rolled and tied. I may try to also make the some for the Minie Ball but none of my muskets use that one. They are all smoothbore except for the Bridesburg Needham conversion. I would like to see yours sometime if you would like to post them.

This is the way.

 

[rebracer]

I know you are not firing these but one comment I would make is the twine is too thick on the cartridge all the way to left. If you did try to shoot it depending on what size the ball is, it would probably be too tight for the barrel with that thick twine. Everything else looks good.

 

[RSMorris]

I know you are not firing these but one comment I would make is the twine is too thick on the cartridge all the way to left. If you did try to shoot it depending on what size the ball is, it would probably be too tight for the barrel with that thick twine. Everything else looks good.

I made these from the left to the right. As you can see, I started using smaller diameter cord.

 

[14NYSM]

I took this pic about ten years ago and it shows the .69 round ball cartridges I made even earlier. I actually made 40 rounds and two 10-round bundles and keep them in my M1855 cartridge box so spectators can get an idea of the heft of a full box and the load a soldier carried.

 

[Trooper "D"]

The cartridge on the right is perfect. The others look pretty good, particularly for practice.
Neat cartridges are necessary so they hold together in the cartridge box while "on the march." The shaking motion in the cartridge box can cause a lot of wear on 'em. Make sure you never confuse 'em with real ones if you fire authentic cartridges!

I used to use black sand for dummies, but then I thought that it would be even harder to keep 'em apart, so I started using farina/cream of wheat for the dummy cartridges.

Quick Grits if you're Southern.