Here is an idea for those that like paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers. I may be the last person on earth to figure this out, but I saw one included with a cartridge making kit. Paper cartridge making moves at the speed of a glacier, so anything that speeds it up is good. I used a small piece of hickory wood, and a toggle clamp. Made the template also from hickory, by gluing a paper drawing onto the small piece of wood and sanding to match. Now I can cut 5 layers of nitrated coffee filters in seconds with the Xacto knife, no more tracing and cutting. It helps to staple the layers of filters together
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Cap & Ball Paper Cartridges
- Thread starter Deltadart
- Start date
armoredman
New member
Nifty idea! I just got into the paper cartridges, haven't even had a chance to try them out.
Paper cartridges do speed things up some at the shooting table. However, you do spend a fair amount of time making the cartridges. I load .38s and 45s on a Dillion 550 so the time difference in producing 100 loaded rounds is amazing. I have tried the cigarette paper, hair curling paper, and coffee filters. The coffee filters are the only ones I have added KNO3 to aid combustion. That does pretty well, but still I have found paper residue in the chambers after shooting. I suggest you have brush or patch worm with you and run that thru each chamber after firing to ensure there is no residue left in the chambers that would cause a miss fire on the next round. Only takes a few seconds to do. If you have a revolver loading stand and use loose ball and powder you may find that nearly as fast as the cartridges, certainly when you consider the time spent preparing cartridges.
I make .44, .36 and .31 using curling paper. I trace the tube pattern on one sheet then staple a stack of 10-15 together then cut with scissors holding each bunch with a little squeeze paper clip.
The balance of the stapled pack gets punched for bottoms.
When I first started paper cartridges I used treated coffee filters but now use un-treated curling papers.
The balance of the stapled pack gets punched for bottoms.
When I first started paper cartridges I used treated coffee filters but now use un-treated curling papers.
Dave, I too use the perm papers. They speed the operation up as no KNO3 is required and they seem to burn up pretty well, although I do find some residue in the chambers from time to time. With this hold down clamp I take 5 sheets, fold them over, clamp and cut with the xacto knife. This is easy to do and I have 10 ready to go in a few seconds. Xacto needs to be razor sharp. Did not take long to cut up a pile tonight in short order. The perm paper does not seem to be as durable as the coffee filter paper, but I am not subjecting them to much rough handling. I was using filer paper due having a large surplus of them (long story).