Combustible Cartridges .36 Navy

[Heelerau]

Gents was given a heritage mould, conicals for the Navy Colt. I notice up towards the ogive a groove which is for lube? then the rebate at the base where it attaches to the paper cartridge. I noticed when Capand Ball makes his there is no lube, or even a lubed wad. I have made mine with a lubed felt wad and will try them out on Sunday, I don't expect them to perform as well as my normal greased felt wad and ball. I would have expected the conicals to be lubricated. Any comments please. I have used Rizla large cigarette papers cut in half for the cartridge.

Cheers

Heelerau

 

[USMA65]

Google "Era's Gone Bullet Molds", and look at their method of lubing a combustible cartridge conical.

 

[Heelerau]

Thanks will do now !

 

[nkbj]

Did the original cartridges have a dipped coating on the business end?
Not the metal foil ones but the paper ones.

Heh, just thinking out loud, reckon really that some did and some didn't.

What grade of powder are you going to be shooting?

 

[Heelerau]

I will use my usual load of 15 grains of Goex FFFg, with a waxed felt wad, I normally use ball. I had wondered about dipping the bullet into some minnie lube after the cartridge was made, but not necessary if I can get it loaded into the chamber with a lubed wad. I see on tube some interesting results, will be interesting to see if they perform as well in competition as the ball does. I had better ad that the bullet mould is from Era's Gone.

 

[hawkeye2]

Google "Era's Gone Bullet Molds", and look at their method of lubing a combustible cartridge conical.

All I could find was a Facebook page, do they have a website?

 

[Wes/Tex]

This is the one for making combustible paper cartridges...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW9IoAxnPP4

This is a shooting Era's Gone conicals...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAEOc6c__dM&feature=youtu.be

I have seen guys make them in both the tapered and cylinderical versions...the latter being easier to start in the chamber. For shooting their fine but remember they were simply a military expedient for quicker reloading cavalry troopers when the issue was one M.1851 per trooper. During the Great Unpleasantness, both sides relieved the problem by carrying anywhere from 2 to 6 revolvers...southern cavalry and guerrilla groups could be dragging around a whole arsenal.

For performance, the conical was definitely second place...to quote Elmer Keith who'd known several of these troopers from both sides, "Major Stratton said that for a man stopper he preferred the round ball and a chamber full of F.F.G. to the pointed conical bullet. Sam Fletcher also told me he preferred a pure lead round ball in his navy Colts with a chamber full of black powder to the issued conical ball loads that came in little wooden boxes of six each." In fact, the only thing those old gentlemen preferred the conical bullet for was body shots on cattle when out foraging, but that the ball worked on frontal shots to the brain on cattle..."even old bulls"!

Paper cartridges were interesting to play with, but I personally lost interest with their lack of performance when hunting with a cap & ball revolver.

 

[nkbj]

There's been much to do over the decision that the US military made about wanting a weight of lead heavier than a round ball and a contacting front end of reduced area to assist penetration. That style of military ball became known as conicals.

They wanted to poke a hole in whatever was between muzzle and meat. Round ball wasn't cutting it when the powder charge and weight of lead were the limiting factors in a revolver. So they put a point on it. It is what it is.