I found it easier to use cigarette paper that comes on a 2.5" x 15 foot roll. I bought it at a normal tobacconist shop but you may need to look where hippies buy papers for their more 'herbal' smokes.
My experiences were varied. I made up ball and charge cartridges and experienced the same problems with compacted deposits in the nipples that were almost impossible to poke clean. One way around this was to pierce the base of the cartridge before loading but sometimes the cartridge fell apart while doing it. An alternative is to prick them through the nipple but that is a bit fiddly.
Also, my early cartridges were rather 'sausage-shaped' and difficult to load so I shaped a wooden former with a more pronounced taper and these worked fine but with a smaller powder charge.
I also found that not all of the paper was being consumed. Quite often large pieces of unburnt paper remained in the chambers and had to be removed before reloading. Perhaps cigarette paper isn't sufficiently nitrated for this purpose?
Next I came across an article about Colt's patented tinfoil cartridges.
The following extract from ”˜United States’ magazine Vol. IV No 3 of March 1857 explains how these cartridges were made:
“Another of the numerous inventions of Colonel Colt is the Metallic Foil Cartridge, a contrivance that always insures "dry powder' to the possessor. Tin foil, cut in the required shape, is formed in an inverted cone, which is charged with gunpowder; the ball is oval, with a flat end; a circle is pierced near the edge, on this flat end, to receive the edge of the foil; on the cone and ball being brought together, the joint is closed by pressure; they are then inclosed (sic) in paper wrappers, so arranged that this covering can be instantly removed when the cartridge is about to be used. The whole operation is completed so perfectly that the cartridge is entirely impervious to water, as by experiment they have repeatedly been fired after having been immersed for hours. Owing to the peculiar shape of the bore of the nipple in Colt's firearms, the fire from the percussion caps readily penetrated the foil, without pricking.”
I got hold of a copy of "Self-consuming Paper Cartridges for the Percussion Revolver" by W.J. Kirst (1985), Pioneer Press, Union City, Tennessee (which gives clear instructions how to cut and form the cartridges) and instead of paper used ordinary kitchen aluminium foil.
These 'tinfoil' cartridges worked best of all, provided they were pricked before loading, leaving no residues in the chambers. At the time I had a Ruger Old Army so wasn't able to test the 'peculiar' nipples on the Colt.
One other thing, gluing the balls into the cartridges is messy and would be much easier if you were using conical bullets (which the article above refers to as 'balls'). I used a glue stick marketed in the UK as 'Pritt'. This was ideal for the job.
Best of luck! Let us know how you get on.
