Minie Ball, Act One, Scene Two

[armoredman]

So, we tried the paper cartridge route and found a few things. One, the paper cartridge LAGS made with the standard ball was easy to load and accurate. Pardon that the target pics look terrible - they were done with cell phone from the firing line at the steel 50 yards away, so the zoom makes things look terrible.

This rifle just looks good no matter which way you look at it.



Here is the 54 caliber ball with 60 grains of home made powder.



Then I went to paper cartridges with the Lee Minie ball. First, I had a selection made from various tubes. What I found was - everything was VERY tight, so the paper is far too thick. The thinnest brown paper was the easiest, but a lot of the wax lube broke loose. I still got some decent accuracy, but loading was REALLY hard, as in having to use the hammer on the ram rod all the way down.





I had to share bench time with my loving wife who really needed some stress relief and my own J-word rifle that was doing its own load development. But we did get a few rounds downrange.
What I think is that a thinner paper might be far better, but the whole concept of the paper cartridge was REALLY easy and fun. The Boy enjoyed the heck out it, to be honest, got more shots down range in a shorter time, as one would expect.
And the world turns still...

[LAGS]

How many wraps of paper did you do around the wood dowel to make your paper tubes ?
You might try one less wrap with the same kind of paper.
But maybe also,
Try some of those Hair Curler Papers.
You should be able to find them at a grocery store.

[Jackrabbit1957]

You really outta try the curler papers, they should be thin enough to load easy for you.

[armoredman]

It was more than 1 but less than 2. I will try finding the curling papers to try.

[GregLaROCHE]

If you just want to patch the boolit, try cigarette papers.

[Sasquatch-1]

Never done this myself, but how about the cheap wrapping paper they sell at dollar stores. I am talking about the really cheap stuff that wants to rip with the slightest handling. Maybe not quite that bad.

[Jackrabbit1957]

The curling papers are far better than cigarette papers, they are much tougher although thin and they burn completely. They also are more water resistant and less likely to tear at the slightest bit of handling. I roll cartridges for my revolvers with them and they work much better than cigarette papers.

[Hondolane]

Try subway wrappers, they worked for me.

[armoredman]

Hey, I love Subway, great sandwiches, and in my line of work, it is VERY important you can see your food put together from one end to the other...no want spit in burger.

BUT...a few people mentioned hair curling paper. Grab a cold beverage, I have a tale to tell...

I started with nothing more than those three words when I went shopping at Safeway this afternoon. I wandered up and down the beauty aisle, completely lost like a fish out of water. A store employee and a surprised female customer had no idea what I was speaking of, so I decided to bail out of the store before I became a random babbling idiot. Well, any more than I already am, shall we say...
Right around the corner from the supermarket is a beauty salon - hey, if anyone would know, they would! Off I trot, BTW, the smart people here have already seen my big mistake, so don't blow it and tell anyone.
I walk into the place and discovered - it's Saturday, everyone is getting a haircut. One stylist yells at me, "Did you sign in online?"
"No, I'm not here for a haircut."
Boom - every ear pricked up, every eye is on me, entertainment de jour.
"I need hair curling paper"
"Do you know what brand?"
"No."
"Do you know what kind, is it for doing perms?"
"I don't know."
By now you can see the expressions, oh, this poor man, his wife sent him out to get something he knows nothing about...and right about this time I think to myself, "SELF!", and I knew it was me because I recognized my mental voice and I was wearing this week's underwear...and I said, "Let's have some fun."
"No, it's for my buddy."
The eyes widened RIGHT the heck up, they did.
"Um, does your buddy do perms?"
"He said something about straightening curly hair, yeah."
By now, the clerk wants me gone, the customers want more, and I want to bust a gut. She grabs a lifeline, and blurts out, "I think I have something in the back."
She came out with two little boxes labeled End Papers, and says," Do these look right?"
"Uh...yeah'."
I am NOT making it easy now.
She hands them to me and proclaims, "Here you go."
"How much do I owe you?"
"Oh, we quit doing perms a while ago, so you can have these free of charge!"
And that, your honor, is exactly how I ended up with these.



Now, did you see where I screwed up slightly, but the story would have been MUCH more boring? Before I went shopping, I forgot to Google it - the literal very first result to "hair curling papers" was these True Wave thingies. How do I know? I finally thought of it in the parking lot after leaving some highly bemused folks behind...
Now to cut some and see what happens next. Thanks for following along!

[armoredman]

So, being I have nowhere to be for many hours, I decided to try some of these out. I also followed some advice and diluted the was with some olive oil. I don't think I added enough - we'll see. Note, all of these are loaded with .530 ball, not the Minie - we'll walk before we run.
First, the hair curling papers are too short. I got them to work only as wrapped the long way, and they are frightfully thin. I might have to double up. However, they do seem stronger than they look. They also soak the glue allowing it to bleed outside, so a freshly done tube laid down will likely try to glue itself to the table. Suicide pact or something.
I also had a nitride soaked coffee filter to try. Weird working with it, with visible crystals, but I cut away. I cut some short and some long. I discovered the exact same thing - the short tubes do not have enough room for a full charge, in this case 80gr FFF Olde Eynsford. Neither the coffee filter or hair curler paper had the strength to hold the ball in place while being dunked unless it was wrapped tight around the end.
Enough talking, here's some pictures;



Oops.





The long ones were charged, after I figured it out, the short ones broken down.

BTW, I tried this - is this paper patching? Curler paper glued, wrapped and stuffed.



And we move on deeper into the darkness...

[missionary5155]

Always fun to get "off trail" and hunt interesting items that get re-purposed.
Looks good to these eyes.
Nice Savory Gravy Can !

[Jackrabbit1957]

End papers, that's the stuff I was trying to tell you! Use a glue stick to put them together with. Once it's charged with powder it should be pretty firm. They are a lot stronger than they seem. Good score on them for free, price was right! If they don't work for you on the rifle they will work for pistol cartridge making.

[LAGS]

With the curling papers , if they don't work for making up a paper cartridges with that powder , ball or Minnie.
You can make up tubes and make up pre weighed powder charges for your rifles.
It will save you time measuring powder and trying to pour it into the barrel.
Then if that paper patch on the Minnie works.
That can then be stuffed down the barrel over your powder charge.
I bet it can speed up your loading.
Or at least make it easier.

[LAGS]

Last night for dinner , I had Burritos from a local Mexican take out.
Those papers that they wrapped the burritos in look great for making those longer paper tubes.
The papers are the same style that sandwich shops wrap there subs in.
That might be something to check into.
Maybe you can talk them out of a couple new ones to give them a try.

[armoredman]

Last night for dinner , I had Burritos from a local Mexican take out.
Those papers that they wrapped the burritos in look great for making those longer paper tubes.
The papers are the same style that sandwich shops wrap there subs in.
That might be something to check into.
Maybe you can talk them out of a couple new ones to give them a try.

I would have to load them with a touch of cayenne powder, for authentic results. However,. that COULD be very interesting...

[armoredman]

Always fun to get "off trail" and hunt interesting items that get re-purposed.
Looks good to these eyes.
Nice Savory Gravy Can !

My son saved me that one and cleaned it out. Our two kitties are spoiled rotten, they are.

[armoredman]

With the curling papers , if they don't work for making up a paper cartridges with that powder , ball or Minnie.
You can make up tubes and make up pre weighed powder charges for your rifles.
It will save you time measuring powder and trying to pour it into the barrel.
Then if that paper patch on the Minnie works.
That can then be stuffed down the barrel over your powder charge.
I bet it can speed up your loading.
Or at least make it easier.

I am really interested in trying it that way, plus maybe doing some Bore Butter on the Minie balls before wrapping them, like we discussed, great idea.

[armoredman]

We tried a little today, mostly trying paper cartridges with round ball, to see how well the paper types worked. Da Boy and I took our smokepoles out to see what worked now.

A rare photo of two BP rifles on the line at the same time.



I got ready - the blue lid has curling paper cartridges and nitride coffee filter paper cartridges.



Round ball with nitrided coffee filter paper.



Good results were had with both paper types...but then was the big one - will this paper patching work? You may notice a LOT of shaved off wax around the muzzle - I haven't gotten the lube mix right yet.



The ball was WAY too wide with the patching, and I think I bent my ball starter hammering it in, and I know I scratched my buttplate doing it. Everything shot well, once it was actually hammered in. Ricky did try a few Minie balls, but he got rattled early and never really recovered, so he missed with both paper patched balls. For him I stripped off a few layers of paper, to see if that smoothed things out = it did. for him. Me, not so much. The steel was placed at 75 yards this time, because the idea is that I will be able to hit this size target from the standing position at 100 yards every time, eventually.
But, I am wondering if I should just stick with round ball...potato long distance picture from the cell phone. Doing something halfway right, I think.

[LAGS]

Look at the three hits on that target.
You are not Halfway Right.
You look like you are a little halfway Left.
LOL.

[armoredman]

...smartass...