My Printer has paper jams but my pistol?

[fishmusic]

Celebrated Labor Day by taking my Pietta 1851 Colt Navy to a nearby range. I was using paper cartridges with 15 gr. fffg powder, a wonder wad and .375 swaged balls. The first shot and I couldn't advance the cylinder. Not a cap jam, I could still see the cap but extrude out from the space between the barrel and cylinder was shreds of paper. These are the same papers that came with the cartridge kit. I disassembled the barrel and removed a tube of paper that was going into the barrel. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, my old technology pistol suffered from a high tech problem, a paper jam! I see the need to experiment more with the cartridges to reduce the amount of paper. I've seen some of y'all using curler paper. Nitriding comes to mind also. I had several of these jams in the 15 rounds that I shot off today. Got home and found unburned paper in the cylinders.

In addition to that was one genuine cap jam. I am using Slix Shot nipples and Remington #11 caps (being very conservative with the caps I have remaining). So I guess I will have to work on that to get a more seamless experience with cap and ball pistols.

 

[ord sgt]

I have not used paper cartridges in my revolver. I only pour from a flask into a powder measure, push in a wonder wad and place the .451 roundball on the edge of the chamber, then seat the combination with the rammer, cap and fire it.
But it sounds like the paper should be eliminated. If still smoldering, the left over paper could cause a premature explosion when you try to reload.

 

[LST-1185]

I been using paper cartridges for about thirty years now and while I do sometimes have cap jams I have never had a paper jam. I think this is the first time I ever heard of one. I have never used one of these cartridges kits that are being sold but I have read from several people who do use them saying they had good results with them. All I have ever used, for my 44 caliber's, is a 7/16" wooden dowel rod and slim king size rolling papers made from rice. They are very thin and for the most part leave no residue in the chambers after firing. I blow the chambers out using a can of air before reloading. I'll shoot about 150 rounds in a day of shooting.

 

[Treestalker]

If you're not expecting battle, throw the paper away and load loose powder. saves money and aggravation. And if you must use paper, make sure it's Nitrated.

 

[TFoley]

Re Post #3 - Over here in Eastern England, where many of you gentlemen think we know SFA, those few of us who bother to make cartridges for our C&B revolvers use simple cigarette papers - exactly like Mr LST- 1185.

I've been making and shooting such items since 1986, and have never encountered a paper jam - it ALL seems to disappear in the boom, but then, what do WE know, eh?

 

[Rfp10000]

I’ve used a lot of paper cartridges made with curler paper with no problem. I don’t nitrate the paper. After a while I can find some remnants of paper in the chambers but they never jam or have ignition problems. I’ve never used that small a load but I use a 44 with .454 balls.

 

[Eras Gone]

What paper were you using? For combustable cartridges I suggest either curling paper or coffee filter paper. Nitrated coffee filter is what I normally use. Although they will sometimes leave some paper in the chamber, most either burns up or is blown out of the gun on discharge. I've never had a paper jam in thousands of rounds.

 

[FishDFly]

Celebrated Labor Day by taking my Pietta 1851 Colt Navy to a nearby range. I was using paper cartridges with 15 gr. fffg powder, a wonder wad and .375 swaged balls. The first shot and I couldn't advance the cylinder. Not a cap jam, I could still see the cap but extrude out from the space between the barrel and cylinder was shreds of paper. These are the same papers that came with the cartridge kit. I disassembled the barrel and removed a tube of paper that was going into the barrel. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, my old technology pistol suffered from a high tech problem, a paper jam! I see the need to experiment more with the cartridges to reduce the amount of paper. I've seen some of y'all using curler paper. Nitriding comes to mind also. I had several of these jams in the 15 rounds that I shot off today. Got home and found unburned paper in the cylinders.

In addition to that was one genuine cap jam. I am using Slix Shot nipples and Remington #11 caps (being very conservative with the caps I have remaining). So I guess I will have to work on that to get a more seamless experience with cap and ball pistols.

Why do folks think profanity is needed when making a post?

Profanity here seems never to end. How come?

 

[Grenadier1758]

What's That Foolishness is profanity?

 

[toot]

I have not used paper cartridges in my revolver. I only pour from a flask into a powder measure, push in a wonder wad and place the .451 roundball on the edge of the chamber, then seat the combination with the rammer, cap and fire it.
But it sounds like the paper should be eliminated. If still smoldering, the left over paper could cause a premature explosion when you try to reload.

have you ever shot .454, DIA, RB'S in it? just courious. I shoot both in mine with a dry unlubed felt wad.

 

[fishmusic]

Why do folks think profanity is needed when making a post?

Profanity here seems never to end. How come?

FishDFly,

If you look at my other posts you don't see profanity being used (at least I hope so, I haven't gone back to read them all). I thought this was a humorous way to present the dichotomy of old tech and new tech together. I'm sorry that you were offended.

 

[FishDFly]

What's That Foolishness is profanity?

After spending time in the service , courtesy of the U.S. draft, the letters WTF did not stand for what you describe nor does it in the majority of manufacturing industry. If "What's That Foolishness", why not just not type it out?

 

[nhmoose]

LUF

 

[ord sgt]

No .454. For my limited amount of shooting, the .451 roundball is accurate enough. The chamber mouth cuts a nice lead ring during loading.

 

[FishDFly]

LUF

Must be a northern thing!

 

[fishmusic]

I have seen several suggestions. The most common seemed to be not to use paper cartridges. I also saw a lot of posts about having no issues with unburnt paper. For the range I guess I can go without paper but this was an experiment at seeing how they work. I intend to use paper cartridges again in the future to work out the bugs; here is a list of some of the variables:

The amount of paper used
The type of paper used
The amount of glues used
The age of the cartridge
exposed ball vs. enclosed ball

A lot of work here but a lot of fun, too.

 

[Texas Gil]

What paper were you using? For combustable cartridges I suggest either curling paper or coffee filter paper. Nitrated coffee filter is what I normally use. Although they will sometimes leave some paper in the chamber, most either burns up or is blown out of the gun on discharge. I've never had a paper jam in thousands of rounds.

I am using cigarette paper and get some left over paper. Not excessive and usually just falls out when I tip the barrel down. Do you recommend nitrating cigarette paper or just deal with a small amount of residue?
BTW Really enjoy your channel.

 

[ZUG]

I use to use nitrated coffee filters and NEVER had the issue you are having. I now use hair curling paper NOT nitrated and also do not have the problems you are having. The pictures below are round ball loads with hair curling paper NOT nitrated and the other two pictures are of nitrated coffee filter paper ignited by a match -- it is very obvious that all the coffee filter is consumed and only ash is left. This ash is hardly something that will prevent the cylinder of a revolver to jam

 

[Brokenbear]

I'm new to the revolvers ...Colt open tops 1849, 60 and 62 models ...paper ctg's intrigued me and I have been working on them ..if you insist or wish to stay the course with paper ctg's ..then I will share my SHORT learning curve with you as follows ..and this is for 44 and 36 cal ..amount of powder seems to make little difference in the results ..listing is from worst combinations to best ...

Brown coffee filter..no nitrate..Elmers glue stick..95% main body gone.. leaves paper ring chamber in bottom
Brown coffee filter..no nitrate..cellulose glue ..95% main body gone and 3 in 6 paper chamber rings
Brown coffee filter..nitrated .. Elmers glue stick ..99% main body gone ..paper chamber rings about 30%
Brown coffee filter..nitrated ..cellulose glue ..99% main body gone ..paper chamber ring 15%
Waveform curler paper ..No nitrate..Elmers glue stick..main body gone ..paper chamber ring 10%
Waveform curler paper.. nitrate ..cellulose glue.. main body gone ..paper chamber ring less than 5%

Keep in mind that is with just ONE particular package of brown coffer filter paper
And the Waveform curler paper is just ONE brand of curler paper

Think toilet paper.. some is like a corn cob and some is so delicate and fluffy that it could be considered worse than using a page out of the Monkey Ward Catalog

For sure ..Cellulose glue (a flammable) is superior to Elmers glue stick but I warn you cellulose glue is a pain to use as it dries very fast

Also ..there may very well be a glue stick that is more flammable than Elmers as it would make sense the Elmers folks would work hard at making sure it would NOT burn (as in children's use)

The rings residue in the bottom of the chambers are the juncture point of a 3/4" round disc, the glue and the bottom of the rolled tube body ..It may very well be that a folded tail on the bottom where just one thickness of the tube body is folded (exposed to ignition) over and glue tacked to seal the bottom is the best but I have not tested that method YET ..the bottom of the chamber (my guess with no foundation but logic based) may be the coolest spot in the chamber with the sides like where the tale is tacked to are much hotter and being able to better incinerate multi layers of paper ..

The Utopia is of course a non nitrated all self consuming paper along with an all consuming glue stick

So we have a LOT of different coffee filters, curler papers, cigarette papers and glue sticks to test to get to 100% idiot proof with regards to paper cartridges for front suffers for sure not harming the uninformed

In the meantime we will just have to pace our reloading cycle appropriate to our amounts of debris home rolled cartridges leave behind until someone hits exact glue and paper combo

Safe and happy shooting to all

 

[Bad Karma]

If you're not expecting battle, throw the paper away and load loose powder. saves money and aggravation. And if you must use paper, make sure it's Nitrated.

If you are expecting battle, buy another pistol. I imagine it would be a little hectic trying to clear a paper jam while under fire...