What stored in the patch box?

[ewmail15]

I have the 1859 Sharps carbine and diligently searching for an original stock with patch box. I have one rusted but soaking 1841/42 Springfield tool. Would this tool plus the brass cleaning brush be all that would be stored in the patch box? Anyone have a pic with contents?

I'm also hoping someone would have a pic of the bullets and primers, as far as the bag and compartments inside. Whether paper or nylon(?) cartridge, I gotta believe the need for dry storage would have necessitated a tin box for the bullets and primer pellet tubes.

 

[gary]

I remember the Mississippi rifle had a spare nipple in the box. There was a hole drilled for it. I would put the stuck ball remover and other cleaning stuff in there.

 

[D.H. Hill]

For the Mississippi rifle the patchbox was intended mainly to hold cloth patches, necessary when shooting round ball. It may have contained other small items as well, I don't know. The Sharps, being a breech-loader, would not be loaded with a patch unless you found a rammer somewhere. Maybe it held cleaning patches? I don't know.

The typical issue cleaning kit for most military small arms consisted of a combination tool, worm, and patches or tow. A cone pick was carried in the cap pouch. I don't know what tools were issued with the sharps in particular, but a wire brush is unnecessary for cleaning black powder firearms.

What is a primer pellet? Is this a Sharps-specific thing? I thought they mostly used musket caps but don't claim to know for certain.

 

[johan_steele]

The M1841 patch box was designed to hold a spare nipple, M1841 musket tool, worm and ball puller.

The Sharps patch box will hold a small oiler or the carbine brush which was a brush on a string. Designed to be used like a modern bore snake.

The M1841 tool will not fit in a Sharps patch box. The musket tool for the Sharps would be stored within the implement pouch of the carbine box worn on the troopers hip.

 

[johan_steele]

The cartridges used for the Sharps carbine were pre made at various arsenals. The were a disintegrating paper cartridge that encapsulated the back of the bullet.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

The paper cartridges required the back end, or tail, to be cut off by the sharpened upper edge of the gas plate. This exposed the powder for ignition purposes. This became problematic if the breech was opened without the arm having been fired. The reason is that the downward action of the breech block caused loose powder to be deposited into the tension spring recess inside the forearm. When enough powder was built up inside the forearm it could be ignited by leaking gases. It was not uncommon for the forearm to be either shattered or blown completely off the arm when this happened. This issue was corrected when Sharps changed to Linen wrapped cartridges with a thin paper at the ignition end of the cartridge. Not only did the forearms stop blowing up, the cartridge could actually be removed from the chamber with a push-rod inserted from the muzzle.
J.

 

[ewmail15]

All great info. Thanks all.

 

[mofederal]

This is very interesting to me. Thanks for posting this information, I did not know.

 

[ewmail15]

Searched on gunbroker for "civil war rifle", and the nipple pick came up. I thought the main spring tool was really neat.

 

[DixieRifles]

The M1841 patch box was designed to hold a spare nipple, M1841 musket tool, worm and ball puller.
. . . .
The M1841 tool will not fit in a Sharps patch box.

Im confused. Will it fit or not?

 

[johan_steele]

Im confused. Will it fit or not?

No, the M1841 tool will not fit in a Sharps patch box. The Patch box on the M1841 is considerably larger than that of the Sharps.

Note the difference in size of the patch boxes.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

As stated previously, the Sharps nipple wrench was meant to be carried else where, such as in the implement pouch of the cartridge box.
J.

 

[ewmail15]

I received my $20 tool (best deal so far), and could have provided a pic of it being too big for the Sharps, but I still don't have a stock. Dennis Brooks in WA said he'd send pics of the stock (plus other parts I need).

I did have to drop the block to use the tool to loosen the nipple.

 

[ewmail15]

With the pellet primer tubes being so tiny, I gotta believe they would have been best located in the patch box, over stored in some compartment in the implement pouch or cartridge box. Reminds me that I need to capture some pics of those two containers, preferably with the standard contents of the era.