Paper powder & shot carriers

[roundball]

Stiff sore muscles in hands & fingers...but I built 500 rolled/folded paper tube carriers, and loaded them up with powder & shot.

.54cal smoothbore...early season doves:
100 @ 70grns Goex 3F
100 @ 80grns #7.5s

.62cal smoothbore...crows + late season doves:
100 @ 80grns Goex 3F
100 @ 90grns #6s
100 @ 90grns #7.5s

I have a 25lb bag of Copper Plated #4s and no use for them...so I think I'll experiment with them in the .54cal and see if I can build a tight pattern for squirrels...something like a moderate 50-60grn powder charge with a large shot load to get the #4 pellet count up...playing with smoothbores is fun !
:thumbsup:

 

Hey, Bill. Why didn't ya just go to the bank, and get a bunch of dime paper rolls. They're free, and save a lotta time. Course that probably keeps you out of the spouses hair. :rotf: Being married 40 years or so.

Bill-Today was my 40th.

On the other hand, you have different fingers!

 

[roundball]

Hey, Bill. Why didn't ya just go to the bank, and get a bunch of dime paper rolls. They're free, and save a lotta time. Course that probably keeps you out of the spouses hair. :rotf: Being married 40 years or so.

Bill-Today was my 40th.

On the other hand, you have different fingers!

Well, I tried coin wrappers before and didn't like tham for a few reasons:

Coin wrappers are shorter than I like to deal with in my paul bunyon fingers;

Coin wrapper paper is not as strong as what I end up with after rolling up 3-4 rolls of typing paper;

I can lay a dowel on a piece of paper and have a tube rolled in the time it takes me to pry open a coin wrapper, and my dowel is already inside my tube to fold/crease the end with, whereas I'd have to insert a dowel into a coin wrapper to do that;

Both ends of a coin wrapper have to be folded just like my paper tubes;

So I didn't find any difference in my build time between the two options...

40 years is huge...a significant milestone...I think we're in a small minority of folks who make it together that long...congratulations !!
:hatsoff:

 

[trent/OH]

Hey RB, I don't know how you make your tubes, but can you roll up a long tube on a long mandrel, and then cut to length later? Like using legal size or larger paper to make a 14" tube, then snip to length.

 

[Bubba45]

In use,after dumping the powder in the barrel do you stuff the remainder down the bore and use for wadding?
I'm curious as I've never used them. :hmm:

 

[roundball]

Hey RB, I don't know how you make your tubes, but can you roll up a long tube on a long mandrel, and then cut to length later? Like using legal size or larger paper to make a 14" tube, then snip to length.

You could, but IMO it wouldn't save any time...might add time...as soon soon as you slid the mandrel out and cut the tubes into various sections they'd unroll.

I cut a sheets of typing paper in half twice so I get a stack of 4 quarter sections...roll one up on the dowel with 1/2" sticking off one end, fold it into 3 flaps and with the dowel, press it down on a hard surface to crease[url] them...slide[/url] it off the dowel...roll the next one...a 10 second operation

 

[roundball]

In use,after dumping the powder in the barrel do you stuff the remainder down the bore and use for wadding?
I'm curious as I've never used them. :hmm:

I've never done that for fear of starting a fire with burning paper...just stuff the torn paper into my pocket

 

[Britsmoothy]

Thats a good point about starting a fire! I have used paper cart,s too and have stuffed them down the tube before my card wads only to find out that it messed up my patten, but a paper cart of shot ramed on top of the shot as a O/S card seemed not to effect the patten as much so RB if you do any testing see how this checks out for your self :thumbsup:
In the end I stopped making cart,s in favour of the loose stuff cos well it,s allready there in the flasks ain,t it :wink:
Good luck though, I respect each their choices :hatsoff: As long as you are making smoke it fine with me :grin:

 

[roundball]

I already have plenty of modern ways to carry powder and shot charges...wanted to do something different that 'could' have been done in the old days...but did not want to go spending a bunch of money on things like shot snakes and/or flasks no more than I'll use them in the field...decided on these paper tubes as a take-off from the 'paper wrapped cartridge' idea of the past.

Things that appeal to me about paper carriers in the field:
I won't be using anything modern to carry powder & shot;
I won't have a resuable carrier to worry about losing after using it...just stuff the torn paper in a pocket, throw it away later;
Somebody back in the day could and may well have used this paper carrier approach at some point or another;
:wink:

 

[krasnayaznamya]

Our 1st Virginia Regiment uses reproduction period newspapers to roll our cartridges, both blanks (for reenactments) and ball (for live fire on the range). The shape is an elongated triangle with a square base, rolls up perfectly with a dowel (one end of the dowel being convex to allow for the base twist to the paper. The powder goes in, the ball on top, three folds on the "lip" of the paper, and we're ready to go.

For reenactments, we don't normally stuff paper in when shooting blanks, as we don't want anything but blank powder coming out of the barrel. Now, if we're not opposing anyone and just doing a demo fire or individual demo, we'll occasionally "ram paper" as it gives a much more satisfying "pop" when fired. We're not usually in a heavy dry brush when this occurs, so no incidents of fire hazard that I've seen (yet).

On the range, the paper serves as the wadding, of course this is solid roundball, not shot.

The style we use has been found in old cartridge boxes (nice one found with a complete paper cartridge still intact can be found in Troiani's "Soldiers in America" book.

 

[Leatherbark]

Seems like if you make a hollow base to your dowell it will make the fold sort of Concave and maybe hold better........I sneak some glue in there sometimes on the folded end..........Bob

 

[Bubba45]

Is there a tutorial for making them ?

 

[trent/OH]

Is there a tutorial for making them ?

I know there are some on the internet, but I am keeping an eye open for a copy of American Rifleman, February 1984, which covers rolling paper cartridges.

 

[roundball]

Google turns up a lot of references...here's one:

http://www.hmsrichmond.org/blankcart.htm

 

[sidelock]

Roundball that #4 shot is perfect for spring turkeys. My favorite load. :thumbsup:

 

[Bubba45]

Thanks :hatsoff: I'll give it a try.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Try http://members.shaw.ca/bobschewe/.

that is a pretty good article on making paper patches.

 

[roundball]

Roundball that #4 shot is perfect for spring turkeys. My favorite load. :thumbsup:

Interesting...I stayed away from my copper plated 4s because I thought the pellet count would be too low and the pattern too thin at distance...I used #6s to ensure a killing pattern on a turkey head at 40yds...dropped one in his tracks at that distance.

But I'll try a few shots of the copper plated 4s just to see first hand what they'll do at 40yds

 

[sidelock]

You can't argue with sucess, and your #6 load sounds deadly, but I have had better luck with#4 than #6 out to 45 yd. Good luck. :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

You can't argue with sucess, and your #6 load sounds deadly, but I have had better luck with#4 than #6 out to 45 yd. Good luck. :hatsoff:

My #6's average 16 pellets in a 3.5" circle at 40 yards to ensure a clean kill on a small turkey head size target at that distance.

What was your load for #4s, gun, gauge, choke, etc to keep a consistently high pellet count in such a small target at 45 yards?