Linen Sharps cartridges

It's a rainy cold winter day so the perfect time for my newest experiment, making linen cartridges for my '63 Sharps rifle. I found some pure flax linen on Amazon, starched it real well, and am figuring out what the dimensions need to be to make the tubes. Once the glue dries I'll put the end caps on tomorrow. Anybody else try this? I have made paper cartridges for it for years but figured I'd try to make something more like the originals and see how those worked. Making ammo for this rifle is a lot of work but it's sure great fun to go shoot it.

interested in this as well.dimensions of the flaat piece of linen .2 wrsps or one.dimensions of the form.

The Black Powder Cartridge News magazine as well as the Sharps collectors association publications have had extensive articles by William Mapoles on shooting percussion Sharps as well as constructing paper and linen cartridges for them.

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Originally Posted by Gavetta

interested in this as well.dimensions of the flaat piece of linen .2 wrsps or one.dimensions of the form.

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My rifle needs a rectangle 1.4 inches long and 2 inches across. That makes a wrapped cylinder that fits the base of the bullet and inside the chamber. Dimensions would vary considerably depending on the type of bullet and the rifle's chamber. One wrap with enough overlap to glue it together. The former is just a delrin rod slightly larger in diameter than the bullet so that will slip into the cylinders. End caps are 1 inch diameter circles of hair curler end papers cut with a hole punch.

I got to go out and shoot the Sharps some today. My conclusion is the linen cartridges, while historically correct, are too much of a pain to deal with. They don't really work any better than the paper ones and are much more difficult to make.
It was rewarding, however, to be able to shoot good groups with everything homemade - powder, caps, bullet, lube, and cartridges. That rifle is certainly a joy to shoot, just kind of tedious to make ammo for but it's a hobby so that's just fine.

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Originally Posted by Nobade

I got to go out and shoot the Sharps some today. My conclusion is the linen cartridges, while historically correct, are too much of a pain to deal with. They don't really work any better than the paper ones and are much more difficult to make.
It was rewarding, however, to be able to shoot good groups with everything homemade - powder, caps, bullet, lube, and cartridges. That rifle is certainly a joy to shoot, just kind of tedious to make ammo for but it's a hobby so that's just fine.

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My understanding is that linen was desired because of standing up to being transported better than paper ones. But today it's unlikely said cartridge will be made, shipped by train 1000 miles, transferred to a horse or oxen powered wagon, hauled 250 down an unimproved road, transferred to a pack mule, hauled 100 miles, and then turned over to the final user.

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Originally Posted by perotter

My understanding is that linen was desired because of standing up to being transported better than paper ones. But today it's unlikely said cartridge will be made, shipped by train 1000 miles, transferred to a horse or oxen powered wagon, hauled 250 down an unimproved road, transferred to a pack mule, hauled 100 miles, and then turned over to the final user.

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You're right about that. Packed in a box, given a short ride in the car, and shot up is about all they have to endure now. I would like to make a cartridge box that fits on my belt, so that I could use this rifle for hunting. It should be pretty effective on a deer I'd think.

After I got my Sharps I looked into cartridges and most sources were fairly clear the linen cartridges were not worth the hassle.

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Originally Posted by Nobade

You're right about that. Packed in a box, given a short ride in the car, and shot up is about all they have to endure now. I would like to make a cartridge box that fits on my belt, so that I could use this rifle for hunting. It should be pretty effective on a deer I'd think.

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FWIW. I'm currently listening to a Civil War Calvery reenactor who stated that his paper pistol cartridges start breaking up in about 8 hours. He used a Smith as his carbine, so it isn't an issue with that.

I'd think if shooting a deer, the deer would just hit the ground kwik.

Last July I made up some Paper cartridges for my 1863 Sharps they seemed to absorb moisture and a cap alone would not fire them and the paper would not burn up in the chamber . A few grains of 4fg powder did fire them either in the nipple or at the base of the paper cartridge . The powder from one case burned slow when ignited in the open.