planing to get a pietta cap and ball

[Desertbuck]

So my father in law wants to get a cap and ball. So we go over to cabelas to look at some of the models to pick from. He picked the colt 1860 and I am going after the remington 1858. Im planing on making paper cartridges for them out of cigarette paper. What are some tips that I need to know for the making of the pc's and the use of them?

[docone31]

On line, there are some good tutorials. There are some good videos on paper cartridges also, both useing ball, and conical. I once found a book where they showed making nitrated cartridges for the revolvers. It used a tapered dowel to form the paper, and with nitrated paper, it was wraped into a cone. They used stick glue for paper. The cartridge broke open on loading. It showed two ways. One with the ball glued on the cone. One where the ball was loaded after the cartridge.
I just pour, ram, grease and fire.
I love it all. Almost as slow as I am in the later years.

[NickSS]

I have made paper cartridges of two types. Combustible and non- combustible. The combustible ones were made from cigarette paper and formed on a tapered dowel stick. One turn and glue the overlap. Fold the base over and glue to hold it that way. When the glue is dry, load powder,lubed felt wad and ball I ran a bit of glue from a glue stick around the ball before I seated it in the paper. These cartridges were very fragile and you had to be careful not to break them. I made a wood block cartridge holder like they used to package these cartridges in in the old days. All I did was get two 1/4 inch thick boards and clamped them together in a drill press vise and drilled six holes large enough to just fit the cartridge. I laid six rounds bullets down, put the other half over the loaded rounds and then I taped the blocks together and put a strip of tape over the open ends. I ran a piece of string under all the tape so to open for loading just grab the string and rip it open. separate the blocks and insert the cartridges into the chambers and ram away. I also made non-combustible cartridges by rolling a piece of copy paper on a dowel tow turns and glue the seam and fold the end over the end of the dowel stick and glue it closed. Drop a ball in followed by a greased felt wad and powder. Pinch and twost the end closed. To use tear the twisted end off pour powder,rip the extra paper off the ball and wad and seat the wad and ball in the chamber. The first cartridges are fast to use. The second type are slower but still faster to reload than using a flask, powder measure and loose components to load with.

[Gibson]

I have made paper cartridges of two types. Combustible and non- combustible. The combustible ones were made from cigarette paper and formed on a tapered dowel stick. One turn and glue the overlap. Fold the base over and glue to hold it that way. When the glue is dry, load powder,lubed felt wad and ball I ran a bit of glue from a glue stick around the ball before I seated it in the paper. These cartridges were very fragile and you had to be careful not to break them. I made a wood block cartridge holder like they used to package these cartridges in in the old days. All I did was get two 1/4 inch thick boards and clamped them together in a drill press vise and drilled six holes large enough to just fit the cartridge. I laid six rounds bullets down, put the other half over the loaded rounds and then I taped the blocks together and put a strip of tape over the open ends. I ran a piece of string under all the tape so to open for loading just grab the string and rip it open. separate the blocks and insert the cartridges into the chambers and ram away. I also made non-combustible cartridges by rolling a piece of copy paper on a dowel tow turns and glue the seam and fold the end over the end of the dowel stick and glue it closed. Drop a ball in followed by a greased felt wad and powder. Pinch and twost the end closed. To use tear the twisted end off pour powder,rip the extra paper off the ball and wad and seat the wad and ball in the chamber. The first cartridges are fast to use. The second type are slower but still faster to reload than using a flask, powder measure and loose components to load with.

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

Dropped you a pm.

[freedom475]

I loaded a lot of them with cigarette papers and was not really impressed. I sure didn't feel like it was easier.

I did several with the ball as part of the cartrdge...this was real handy but hard to load. I know it sounds silly, but the paper was super hard to cut at the cylinder face. I really had to apply a lot of force to the rammer in order to get the ball to start, that paper just wouldn't cut to allow the lead ring to shave.

I then did it with just the paper cartridge and it just seemed like a hassel the tear off the little tail and get all the powder in the cylinder.

I loaded a few by just ramming the tapered paper cartdge into the cylinder. Most broke on loading and worked fine....But many of them gave me a hangfire and 2 of them just refused to fire...I had to go find a nipple pick and shoot many caps before they went off.

The Rem 58 is one of my favorites and I have been shooting them for 26 years. I would have to go to the safe and count them in order to tell you how many that I own.....But the BEST advise I could give is buy a few extra cylinders. This makes shooting them fun and easy.

Oh, and they kill deer real well too.[smilie=s::Fire:
55474

[BCRider]

Using a couple of my own C&B Uberti Remingtons for cowboy action I've gotten pretty quick at reloading. Given the things mentioned by the guys above I'd suggest you just get a flask which is set to drop 30 gns and load the cylinder directly. It really won't save you a whole lot of time on the line for reloading if the PC's come with the issues mentioned.

My method is to drop the measure of powder, slip in a ball and ram. Repeat until done. Then I seal the chambers and provide for bore lubrication with a single drop of Canola oil applied to the joint of each ball. The oil wicks around the V groove nicely. The oil also does a fantastic job of keeping the fouling liquid'y and easy to clean away at the end of the day. I also found that if/when the cylinder gets a touch stiff on the pin that a drop of Canola oil loosens it up nicely. I've shot 30 rounds out of each pistol and at the end the cylinder is a free turning as when I started thanks to the Canola oil trick.

A modified version that would be even a little quicker is to use a loading stand. With the extra stability you can powder up 5 or 6 of the chambers in one go. THEN put the flask down and place and ram the balls all in one go. Then oil or grease the balls and you're ready for capping.

Compared to the issues inherent with handling rather delicate cigarette paper cartridges and the time it takes to make them up ahead of time I'd say that simple and direct is better in this case.

[David LaPell]

I did an article a couple years back for Backwoodsman on the 1860 Colt with paper cartridges. I did them using ZigZags if I recall and triple 7 powder. I tried it a couple of ways, even using a pick to help open the cartridges up a little better. I found that the most reliable way to shoot my Pietta 1860 was to simply load the powder, a wonderwad and then the roundball. I used to compete with my revolver and I could shoot it three or four cylinders worth before I had any issues with the triple 7. It might not smoke as much as with pure black powder but it smoked plenty and was a lot of fun.

[Flinchrock]

Using a couple of my own C&B Uberti Remingtons for cowboy action I've gotten pretty quick at reloading. Given the things mentioned by the guys above I'd suggest you just get a flask which is set to drop 30 gns and load the cylinder directly. It really won't save you a whole lot of time on the line for reloading if the PC's come with the issues mentioned.

My method is to drop the measure of powder, slip in a ball and ram. Repeat until done. Then I seal the chambers and provide for bore lubrication with a single drop of Canola oil applied to the joint of each ball. The oil wicks around the V groove nicely. The oil also does a fantastic job of keeping the fouling liquid'y and easy to clean away at the end of the day. I also found that if/when the cylinder gets a touch stiff on the pin that a drop of Canola oil loosens it up nicely. I've shot 30 rounds out of each pistol and at the end the cylinder is a free turning as when I started thanks to the Canola oil trick.

A modified version that would be even a little quicker is to use a loading stand. With the extra stability you can powder up 5 or 6 of the chambers in one go. THEN put the flask down and place and ram the balls all in one go. Then oil or grease the balls and you're ready for capping.

Compared to the issues inherent with handling rather delicate cigarette paper cartridges and the time it takes to make them up ahead of time I'd say that simple and direct is better in this case.

I fully agree!!! Paper cartridges are FAR more hassle than they are worth!

[glenkans]

I too have a pietta rem. model except mine is in .36 cal.. Accuracy was never much to brag about.I didn't try too hard though.I did try some conicals and they were worse than round balls which I found inexplicable. I'm wondering what kind of accuracy you guys get and how did you get it.Interesting thread.Thanks ,Glen

[Desertbuck]

Got my 1858 on Friday rolled 18 PC's on Saturday. Shot it. Loved it. Should have rolled some more. Cleaned it Saturday night. Rolled more PC's before bedtime. Fogged up the shooting range on Sunday. It is fast becoming my favorite pistol. And so far I am having REALLY good luck with PC's. Had two failure-to-fires but with a second cap the chambers went off. I attribute it to not trimming off enough of the tail after twisting the PC's closed. If anybody is curious I was using bugler cigarette papers, they seem to work well for the application and so long as you do the final trimmings, they seem to fire fine and with good accuracy. I've never been a very intense pistol shooter, but this one really worked for me. Good accuracy for little effort. Thanks for all the responses guys! I've learned a lot from your wisdom! Appreciate it.